Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 I FINALLY completed Alien: Isolation a couple of months ago and while I do think it "overstayed" its welcome ever so slightly, that certainly doesn't detract from it being one of the most immersive gaming experiences I've had in a helluva long time. The making of horror masterpiece Alien: Isolation: 'It was a giddy, exhausting, intense time' | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM The story behind Creative Assembly's modern classic. Quote In 2010, a group of hardcore Alien fans at Creative Assembly were given the opportunity of a lifetime: making a game set in that iconic sci-fi universe, with the full blessing of 20th Century Fox. This wasn’t some non-canon spin-off, but a legitimate part of the Alien series. And the result is one of the best horror games, and one the most faithful film adaptations, ever made. Uhhhhh...it wasn't an "adaptation" of the film, PC Gamer. Great start to the article there! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjomesphat Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 Not getting a sequel is one of gaming's biggest tragedies. One of the best games of the modern era. The attention to detail basically pulled from the first movie is astounding. Hearing the menu theme always gives me chills with the haunting flutes and that reverbed wind sound. The atmosphere in this game is amazing. I totally get the length complaints, but personally I still didn't want it to end. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nokt Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 6 hours ago, Bjomesphat said: Not getting a sequel is one of gaming's biggest tragedies. One of the best games of the modern era. The attention to detail basically pulled from the first movie is astounding. Hearing the menu theme always gives me chills with the haunting flutes and that reverbed wind sound. The atmosphere in this game is amazing. I totally get the length complaints, but personally I still didn't want it to end. There was an article in April saying a sequel was in development, but I can’t find a reliable source and what I found to be the originating site is not a good website. Would be nice though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 I need to play this. I thought it got negative reactions on this forum? Edit: metacritic 78 but I'm stunned it's from 2014. Did it age well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 This game was fucking stellar until the actual alien Hide & Seek gameplay started. Never done such a 180 from utterly loving a game to dropping it within only a few more hours. The atmosphere, world building, graphics, everything are impeccable though so they definitely nailed that part. I still had a solid amazing 5 or 6 hours with it though so it's a 6/10 or something for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 10, 2021 Author Share Posted August 10, 2021 8 minutes ago, best3444 said: I need to play this. I thought it got negative reactions on this forum? Edit: metacritic 78 but I'm stunned it's from 2014. Did it age well? You must have this forum confused with somewhere else because Alien: Isolation is VERY well-regarded here. And the game has aged beautifully largely because of its fantastic art design. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 4 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: You must have this forum confused with somewhere else because Alien: Isolation is VERY well-regarded here. And the game has aged beautifully largely because of its fantastic art design. This is true. I played it...last year or maybe the year prior but there are some super easy ini file (or something similar) setup changes that enable more reflections, higher resolution and so on. It's an incredibly atmospheric and detailed looking game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 29 minutes ago, best3444 said: I need to play this. I thought it got negative reactions on this forum? Edit: metacritic 78 but I'm stunned it's from 2014. Did it age well? I think initial word of mouth was negative but after people realized what it was people came back around on it. Ii already mentioned on discord a while ago but Max gave this game his belated GOTY award last year because he was someone who didn't enjoy it at first but totally came back around on it years later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 49 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said: I think initial word of mouth was negative but after people realized what it was people came back around on it. Ii already mentioned on discord a while ago but Max gave this game his belated GOTY award last year because he was someone who didn't enjoy it at first but totally came back around on it years later. I'm gunna put this on my playlist then. I love the concept so it could be really cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjomesphat Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 25 minutes ago, best3444 said: I'm gunna put this on my playlist then. I love the concept so it could be really cool. What initially sold me on it (aside from the Alien IP) is that it's basically a 3D Metroidvania. It's a huge map that you progressively get access to as you find more upgrades/tools. There's backtracking, upgrades, and the typical character progression of starting off weak and ending as a one man army. Throw in stealth, horror, great world building/lore, and it's a brilliant game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 1 hour ago, Bjomesphat said: What initially sold me on it (aside from the Alien IP) is that it's basically a 3D Metroidvania. It's a huge map that you progressively get access to as you find more upgrades/tools. There's backtracking, upgrades, and the typical character progression of starting off weak and ending as a one man army. Throw in stealth, horror, great world building/lore, and it's a brilliant game. Sign me up. I'll play this soon. Have a few games in my backlog. Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brick Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 It is a crime against humanity that this game didn't sell more, and I'm confused as to why it didn't sell better. Did Colonial Marines sour people that much on an Alien game? My only real complaint is that the alien is too fast when it sees you leading to pretty much instant death, and no reason to run, which maybe lowered review scores a bit which also maybe lead to lower sales since everyone only wants to buy 9/10 games. Still, with the horror surge in the past decade you'd think it would have sold better than it did, and we'd have gotten a sequel by now. Maybe two. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 19 hours ago, Brick said: It is a crime against humanity that this game didn't sell more, and I'm confused as to why it didn't sell better. Did Colonial Marines sour people that much on an Alien game? My only real complaint is that the alien is too fast when it sees you leading to pretty much instant death, and no reason to run, which maybe lowered review scores a bit which also maybe lead to lower sales since everyone only wants to buy 9/10 games. Still, with the horror surge in the past decade you'd think it would have sold better than it did, and we'd have gotten a sequel by now. Maybe two. Based on my experience, I found some of the reviews spot on. I read the Gamespot one right after dropping the game for example and I thought it hit the nail on the head. It is an incredibly well realized world and everything about it feels like it should be amazing but then the alien-related meat of the gameplay hits and the game just fell apart for me. Clearly most of you in here won't agree with this but I found the Frictional Games style Hide & Seek mechanics barely serviceable to begin with but once the alien became quite frequent, it kind of shined a spotlight on how limited, unreliable, insta-death-reliant and cheap the core gameplay often feels. What I mean is that I thought it was okay against the handful of automatons and still veering on the 'yeah I'll deal with that because the rest is awesome' side of things but against the alien, the game just felt like a frustrating coin-flip against a constant insta-kill machine with AI that just didn't feel like it had any discernable internal logic to it that I could base my approach on properly. I understand the nature of it being an alien etc. should have a sense of the unexpected and all but in practice I often would watch the alien walk in repetitive circles around my locker location leaving me not tense but simply bored while waiting for the AI to snap out of its 'ya can't leave' mode. Since there is no other option than hide and leave from lockers, which are your big pal in the game, I just found the lack of any strategic element really boring. You're always sitting around waiting out the AI for often seemingly pretty long stretches and your crouch-crawl may or may not subsequently alert the alien because I just could never reliably tell what the rules were. This paired with the old school save station system is what sent me over the edge. I remember my last play session with it was me testing out all sorts of shit because I had already given up, all the tools and so on, just to see if I could establish some more reliable tactics before giving up and I just couldn't. I remember baiting the alien for example and throwing a flare and escape, one second later OHKO. Maybe I didn't get something about it but damn, I play a lot of games with way more intricate systems than this and I'd have a hard time buying that I just had no idea how to play or engage with it after a total of 8 hours. I think the IDEA behind the game is fucking great but it ending up feeling like Insta-Death: The Game with rudimentary YouTube Horror stealth mechanics like press crouch and hide in locker in practice. I had other issues with it but that's the crux of it for me and I can totally see why a lot of people were turned off. It's kind of like playing Amnesia: Dark Descent with very frequent and very aggressive encounters. I think after only a handful of full alien objectives, I just found it equal measures exhausting, boring and unwieldy. The world, story and everything thought is a straight 10/10 so I really had a hard time giving up on it and also wish they'd done a sequel with fleshed-out stealth mechanics but alas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Is this on gamepass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 1 minute ago, best3444 said: Is this on gamepass? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Good. I won't buy this game after reading what Bloodporne wrote. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 8 minutes ago, best3444 said: Good. I won't buy this game after reading what Bloodporne wrote. What have I done... A lot of people seem to love the game (I mean look in here) either way and it's always dirt cheap, it's absolutely worth a try probably. Edit: Wait he just said it's on GamePass...nevermind duh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 58 minutes ago, best3444 said: Good. I won't buy this game after reading what Bloodporne wrote. He's a man with peculiar tastes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said: He's a man with peculiar tastes. A man? That's Demon Of The Sheets to you, Sir. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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