After having it for a week, I finally finished Isolation yesterday morning. I'd been up throughout the early morning hours playing it, due to a bad sleeping schedule, and had done so for most of the nights before it. I'd say it took about 17-20 hours, though I didn't time myself.
Overall, it's very solid. I didn't buy it or want to put money down on it because I'm new to stealth and its mixed reviews plus drawn out length worried me. I'm glad that I did play it, though, even if I just got it from the library. Then again, I'm unemployed and without disability right now, so it helps.
The game isn't perfect, though, and here are some of my thoughts:
- The alien was scary, but only at times. At other times, it was more like a guard patrolling in MGS - something I'd watch and wait for. It lost its frightening appeal at times.
- Part of the above had to do with the flamethrower. They needed to introduce something that you could use, and it is a video game after all, so I'm not criticizing. However, when I knew I could just shoot it with a burst of flames and get rid of it for a bit, it made things a lot less tense.
- The flamethrower became too much of a crutch.
- Most of the times I died later on were just me being stupid and trying to do too much at a time.
- The crafting system was really cool. I loved being able to make my own medkits at will, and usually had a full assortment of them. Only once did I just have 4 (I think) with no crafting materials, but that changed quickly.
- I should've played on hard, but with my newness to the genre, I didn't want to make it too frustrating.
- The facehuggers are a bitch. You'll hear them at the last minute and then you're fucked.
- The atmosphere is great. The graphics are good. And it runs well. I also liked the art design.
- Fuck the androids.
- Pacing was an issue at times. Editing would've helped.
- Sometimes there were too many save points, while there were too few at others forcing lengthy backtracks.