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Alien: Isolation |OT| 1 Alien. 1 Ripley. No Jonesy.

heh... I've never noticed that the PS4 also records the real life audio along with the gameplay.
I have the camera connected/active for the leaning but disabled that the game tracks rl noises.

I watched one of my recorded videos in which I get surprised by the Alien and you can hear my nervous laughter afterwards... :D At least I didn't scream like a little girl.
 

teokrazia

Member
Beaten at Hard.
Humans and androids awful AI and lack of polishing popping here and there apart, a wonderful experience.

I've ended up to like also Crew Expendable and Last Survivor, even if they represent a missed opportunity and they manage the challenge in a cheaper and unfairer way.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
The game isn't that challenging on hard except for a few areas where the alien can't stay away and makes exploring and collecting stuff a pain in the ass. I finished it a while back and I liked it very much overall, but I'm not really interested in playing it again to collect all the trophies I missed for the first time (a lot of backtracking didn't help there).
 

microtubule

Member
Started on hard but changed to easy around mid way because my library backlog keeps calling. It took ~20 hours and I did not have an issue with the length. I saw Alien in theaters with my dad when it first released and I thought he would have loved watching me play the game.

I kept wanting to send a glowing message to the developers and that doesn't happen often. Everything was close to perfection in my opinion. I'm almost afraid to think they're working on a sequel because my pessimism but I need more of whatever magic they might still hold if they could pull this off again.
 
This game is kicking my butt. Playing on hard. Im still not too far into it but I've already gotten stuck a few times. I like it though. Great atmosphere.
 
Good grief. The Alien won't leave me alone in chapter 10. Constantly hovering right above me and I've been sneaking 99% of the time. I tried using the flamethrower for shits and giggles. It took over 50 for the Alien to fuck off, then it came right back!

I counted a few times where it popped out right as I entered a room too. Feels like the luck of the draw. Although I'm being extremely stingy with items.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
Good grief. The Alien won't leave me alone in chapter 10. Constantly hovering right above me and I've been sneaking 99% of the time. I tried using the flamethrower for shits and giggles. It took over 50 for the Alien to fuck off, then it came right back!

I counted a few times where it popped out right as I entered a room too. Feels like the luck of the draw. Although I'm being extremely stingy with items.

that's kind of the thing with the flamethrower. it knows you're there. best thing to do after you flamethrow and it jumps into the vents is to get as far away from where you just were.

also that chapter is about trapping the alien...so yeah you're basically acting as bait for it...so it would make sense that the alien is always around you as you're trying to lure it somewhere :)
 
I finally started it this morning, and played for almost 3.5 hours. I'm currently at the beginning of mission 5,
where I've linked up with my allies
.

So far, the missions haven't been too long, and it hasn't been as hard as I feared on normal. However, the first encounter with humans was kind of a pain.

Do the missions get a lot longer as they progress? Or am I ahead of schedule, time-wise? I highly doubt that's likely.
 
So I was about to hit a button that I knew would make some noise so I got ready. On either side of the hall I put down a pipe bomb, each in a location that I figured covered the area fairly well in case of alien. Wanted to scare him off before he even got to me.

Ready, hit the button. Turn around, alien is already in my face screaming.

Scared me so bad I have a stomach ache now haha
 

hew9753

Member
So I've recently started this and have a question about human/enemy encounters:

In the first group human encounter you experience,
the lady at the elevator spotted and fired at me then ran off for help. I grabbed the device and ran back out of the room and hid in a vent. Then saved my game. Now when I go back into the big two-story there are multiple people patrolling with almost no room for error for me to get around them. I watched a walk-through and saw that you could go up the stairs on the side as soon as the lady runs off and you grab the device.

Is there a right/wrong way to do this sequence? I was under the impression that the game was difficult but fair and that there would be multiple approaches to the encounters. Is it worth trying to find my "own" way through the room or would I be better off loading my previous save and mimicking the walk-through?
 

psychotron

Member
Anyone have crashing issues with this game on PS4? It crashed right at the end of Crew Expendable during the final cutscene, and it started me from the beginning upon rebooting. Is there a trophy for it? In the main campaign it's crashed twice. I did a database rebuild which will hopefully help.
 

Kolgar

Member
Just completed this, my big game for Christmas break.

I gotta say, I wish I'd spent the time on a different game.

I just wasn't able to love this game the way I wanted to. For every thing the game did right--artwork, atmosphere, voice acting--it did several things wrong, such as progress-breaking glitches (NPCs not showing up), silly traversal problems (forcing the player to take stairs instead of what looked to be small differences in split-level flooring), minor glitches (guns and other objects hanging in the air), having to wait endlessly for trolleys... I could go on.

The longer the game went on--and it was too long--the less I liked it. The final bit was a laborious slog that concluded in an ending that felt cheap, abrupt, and wholly unsatisfying.

Goddammit. I really wanted to love this game, and I did love it several times throughout. But in the end, some stupid problems stopped it from being all that it could have been.

Shame that a game with so much potential and so many great things going for it has wound up feeling so disappointing.

On the plus side, I still have the two DLC missions to go, and I am willing to give those a shot. There's hope for a little redemption here, and even if they don't live up to it, at least they are priced fairly at four bucks or so a piece.
 
Just finished it too. Have to say I really liked it. It had a bit if a lull for me during chapters 11-13
the android only chapters
but then ratcheted up nicely towards the conclusion.

It did get a bit samey though and it felt a case of "Ripley, do everything". I would have liked some more meaningful npc interaction as none of the npcs were really memorable. But they nailed the look and feel of the setting perfectly imo.

I'll probably buy some of the dlc to support CA and really hope they do a sequel.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Just finished it too. Have to say I really liked it. It had a bit if a lull for me during chapters 11-13
the android only chapters
but then ratcheted up nicely towards the conclusion.

It did get a bit samey though and it felt a case of "Ripley, do everything". I would have liked some more meaningful npc interaction as none of the npcs were really memorable. But they nailed the look and feel of the setting perfectly imo.

I'll probably buy some of the dlc to support CA and really hope they do a sequel.

I only felt like it was too long in the sense that the amount of things to go fix or whatever (which means throwing switches and doing hacking games) got to the point where they were so excessive it even started to become hard to suspend belief for "video game stuff", but overall I forgave it for that for how rich and novel the experience was. in another year it'd probably have a hard time winning my GOTY, but in 2014, yeah, GOTY (I'm not going to count TLOU remastered because I already gave the vanilla version GOTY in 2013).

For context..

10 years of Jobbsy GOTY Award

2005: Shadow Of The Colossus
2006: TES Oblivion
2007: Bioshock
2008: Fallout 3
2009: Demon's Souls
2010: Bioshock 2
2011: Dark Souls
2012: Dragon's Dogma
2013: The Last of Us
2014: Alien Isolation
2015: Bloodborne
(kidding, but let's face it, this is pretty likely)

(bolded are my top 3 games)
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Just finished. That final chapter was perfection. It felt ridiculously tense, so much so that I was actually holding my breath at points during it. The game also didn't fall into the trap that so many horror games do and make the final chapter all about combat, it just build on what the game did best and cranked it up to 11. As a huge Alien fan I'm ecstatic that this game exists.
 
Oh my god. Chapter 10 down. For the last 3 hours the Alien wasn't off my radar for more than 10 seconds at a time.

Bring on the
Working Joes
I don't give a fuck.
 
Finished last night. That was a monster of a game. It's repetitive in and of itself, but it's an extremely fresh experience. Hopefully, it's a sign of things to come in that regard.
 
On chapter 14 now at the
Alien nest
and it feels like it's impossible to sneak to
beta core. The Alien spawns every fucking time no matter how quiet I am. Or maybe I can't be quiet because I have to kill the face hugger. I've tried setting up a molotov underneath the vent it pops out of but it shows up instantly at the other vent which is only a few steps away. I've thrown my only other molotov at it and tried to save. Go figure, the save point is right beneath a vent. This behaviour was fine before but this area is ridiculously cramped. I was starting to miss the thing too. Fuck you Alien!
 

hew9753

Member
I'm up the beginning of Ch. 5. The end of Ch. 4 was where the gameplay finally clicked for me:

Sneaking my way past the Joes after re-establishing Coms, having the elevator doors open to see alien slime dripping from the ceiling vent down the hall, and finally breaking into a sprint for the final elevator as I hear the music indicate I've been spotted by a Joe....that was some tense shit.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
On chapter 14 now at the
Alien nest
and it feels like it's impossible to sneak to
beta core. The Alien spawns every fucking time no matter how quiet I am. Or maybe I can't be quiet because I have to kill the face hugger. I've tried setting up a molotov underneath the vent it pops out of but it shows up instantly at the other vent which is only a few steps away. I've thrown my only other molotov at it and tried to save. Go figure, the save point is right beneath a vent. This behaviour was fine before but this area is ridiculously cramped. I was starting to miss the thing too. Fuck you Alien!

If I remember right I used short flamethrower bursts to stay alive (really short bursts because otherwise you'll quickly run out of fuel). And I returned to save point after completing each small task. It doesn't matter if you die a second or two after you saved. ;) Don't waste your resources on
trying to get rid of the alien for good, because this is one of the scripted areas where you can't. You can use Molotovs, though. They will give you more time than a flamethrower to complete your objectives.
 
If I remember right I used short flamethrower bursts to stay alive (really short bursts because otherwise you'll quickly run out of fuel). And I returned to save point after completing each small task. It doesn't matter if you die a second or two after you saved. ;) Don't waste your resources on
trying to get rid of the alien for good, because this is one of the scripted areas where you can't. You can use Molotovs, though. They will give you more time than a flamethrower to complete your objectives.

Got through it. My God that whole chapter was gruelling. I need to play this again on easy so I can laugh at it. The bit with
all the Joes at the core
what the fuck? I had nothing to work with. At 22 hours now and I've just hit mission 15. This is Nightmare-ish for real.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Well, the game has some trophies that should encourage to complete it one more time (like finishing it without dying), but one playthrough is enough for me, at least for now. ;)
 
Finished the game the other day and bought the preorder DLC yday. Finished it pretty quick as both missions are pretty short.

Anyway thinking if doing a Nightmare run but have a few questions.

Does the alien have any new animations or new behaviour that he doesn't really demonstrate on hard or lower?

Also just a general question but did anyone wander off the beaten track early on and not go straight away to the next objective. I think after the med lab I decided to visit Solomons Habitation Tower.

Everything was locked so I could only walk about the lobby. The alien dropped from a vent and killed me pretty quick.

Also when the shuttle to Solomons arrived two identical Npcs got off first. They bought freaked out at my site and ran off hiding. Random.

Finally, does Sinclair
ever appear anywhere or his corpse even? He is mentioned a lot in logs.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Got through it. My God that whole chapter was gruelling. I need to play this again on easy so I can laugh at it. The bit with
all the Joes at the core
what the fuck? I had nothing to work with. At 22 hours now and I've just hit mission 15. This is Nightmare-ish for real.

The bolt gun takes care of them with one shot to the head.

That part was so easy.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Finished the game the other day and bought the preorder DLC yday. Finished it pretty quick as both missions are pretty short.

Anyway thinking if doing a Nightmare run but have a few questions.

Does the alien have any new animations are new behaviour that he doesn't really demonstrate on hard or lower?

Also just a general question but did anyone wander off the beaten track early on and not go straight away to the next objective. I think after the med lab I decided to visit Solomons Habitation Tower.

Everything was locked so I could only walk about the lobby. The alien dropped from a vent and killed me pretty quick.

Also when the shuttle to Solomons arrived two identical Npcs got off first. They bought freaked out at my site and ran off hiding. Random.

Finally, does Sinclair
ever appear anywhere or his corpse even? He is mentioned a lot in logs.

If you wander off the beaten path the alien will still appear, but it seems to appear far less frequently when backtracking. Thankfully.

However, I seem to recall that when I did a chapter reload for collectible purposes I set the difficulty down to easy and that could be why the alien appeared far less frequently.
 
Yeh how does replaying individual chapters work with regards to your inventory and collectables/audio logs.

I'd like to go back and collect some of the Nostromo logs that were behind doors needing the final hacking upgrade or in a gas filled room.

Not sure which chapter is best to load for those purposes.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Yeh how does replaying individual chapters work with regards to your inventory and collectables/audio logs.

I'd like to go back and collect some of the Nostromo logs that were behind doors needing the final hacking upgrade or in a gas filled room.

Not sure which chapter is best to load for those purposes.

Chapter 16 is the absolute best to reload since you will have all the items you need and you start that chapter very close to a train station.
 
I'm at the start of Chapter 10. So far, it's quite good.

I'm hoping to finish it before Friday night, to avoid late fees, but they're only a dollar a day so it's not a big deal. I don't feel like playing tonight because I'm too tired.

I actually thought I was maybe on Chapter 9, because there was no real indication that I'd finished both 8 and 9.

EDIT: Does this thing get much tougher as it progresses through its back half?
 
Fuuucking hell! Just finished it for the first time on Nightmare. Glad I went for that difficulty even though it was pretty frustrating at times, in a good way though. The Alien was such a fucking asshole. I was stingy as hell but I had almost nothing on me when I finished the game. I think I used the flamethrower 3 times throughout the whole game to repel it and I finished the game with about 100 units of ammo so there was a lot of waiting, praying that that fucker would go back into a vent. According to Steam I took 27 hours, maybe shave off a couple hours for when I had it paused. Good gravy. Really felt like I scraped by there.

Loved the look of the game, sound was top notch (the motif when you get a new piece of gear!). Really thankful that this exists. Ripley was a great protagonist. Felt like she at least (end spoiler)
deserved a win after all that bullshit. Fairly certain that's a Weyland-Yutani ship that finds her at the end so it doesn't feel too much like a cliff hanger to me.

I'm still on an adrenaline rush. I watched the whole credits looking like
g4xxnpL.png
 

TTUVAPOR

Banned
Bought Alien over the weekend, I knew this game was 30fps but I can't get past the blurriness of the game when looking around in the game, in all directions. As soon as I stand still in-game, the game looks fine and crisp, but the moment I have to move a certain direction or look in a certain direction, there is a blur, and it's bugging the hell out of me and making the game a pain to look at and concentrate.

I'm playing on a 46 inch Vizio 1080p 120hz LCD TV.

Just for grins, other 60fps games don't do this when I play them on this TV.

Is this just the way Alien Isolation is because it's 30fps?
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
It's crazy after I finished this game I felt it was good, but far from perfect and kinda laughed at people who felt that this was GotY

However, after my novice playthrough it grew on me.

I find myself spending a lot of time discussing this game and slowly appreciating everything it did right and how brilliantly well crafted it is. I find myself thinking about it and wanting to replay it. The ONLY section I felt was truly poorly done was the section in Chapter 17
where you have to go back and forth between two rooms multiple times. That section sucked and I felt it was padding.

There was one really bad plot hole. In Chapter 18
there are eggs everywhere. How did those eggs get there? How would a queen had enough time to lay them? Heck, how would the queen have laid them under the floor?! Are we supposed to believe that the xenomorphs from the reactor carried them to prevent explosion? Or that they would have gone unnoticed.
That is the only section where I felt the CA completely sacrificed believability for providing one last thrill.

So for those of you who called this GotY I am pleased to say that I now get it. I'm not totally sure this is my GotY, but it's definitely up there and will be a game that I likely go back and play from time to time for years.
 

-griffy-

Banned
So....I got this game in the Steam sale and finally started it a few nights ago. But I feel like I'm not playing it right or something. I'm in the first encounter with human enemies, where you need to take the elevator at the back of the room. I got the security scanner thing and need the battery or whatever to fix it so I can open the elevator doors, but I can't get through this damn room. I'm not understanding the stealth mechanics or something, it feels like I can't do anything, I get spotted and then die in a couple shots. I can't move from hiding spot to hiding spot and stay hidden, I can't run to the exit. I just die. I thought it was great up to this point, but then I died and lost 15 minutes because of the save system and it just totally deflated my enjoyment.

What am I doing wrong?
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
So....I got this game in the Steam sale and finally started it a few nights ago. But I feel like I'm not playing it right or something. I'm in the first encounter with human enemies, where you need to take the elevator at the back of the room. I got the security scanner thing and need the battery or whatever to fix it so I can open the elevator doors, but I can't get through this damn room. I'm not understanding the stealth mechanics or something, it feels like I can't do anything, I get spotted and then die in a couple shots. I can't move from hiding spot to hiding spot and stay hidden, I can't run to the exit. I just die. I thought it was great up to this point, but then I died and lost 15 minutes because of the save system and it just totally deflated my enjoyment.

What am I doing wrong?

As many have said that section is frustrating. But there is a ridiculously easy way to do it.
I suggest watching a youtube video for that chapter. I can assure you that not much will get spoiled.
 
So....I got this game in the Steam sale and finally started it a few nights ago. But I feel like I'm not playing it right or something. I'm in the first encounter with human enemies, where you need to take the elevator at the back of the room. I got the security scanner thing and need the battery or whatever to fix it so I can open the elevator doors, but I can't get through this damn room. I'm not understanding the stealth mechanics or something, it feels like I can't do anything, I get spotted and then die in a couple shots. I can't move from hiding spot to hiding spot and stay hidden, I can't run to the exit. I just die. I thought it was great up to this point, but then I died and lost 15 minutes because of the save system and it just totally deflated my enjoyment.

What am I doing wrong?

I was eventually able to draw them out of that room and through the door I'd come in through. Killed one, then snuck past the others.
 
So....I got this game in the Steam sale and finally started it a few nights ago. But I feel like I'm not playing it right or something. I'm in the first encounter with human enemies, where you need to take the elevator at the back of the room. I got the security scanner thing and need the battery or whatever to fix it so I can open the elevator doors, but I can't get through this damn room. I'm not understanding the stealth mechanics or something, it feels like I can't do anything, I get spotted and then die in a couple shots. I can't move from hiding spot to hiding spot and stay hidden, I can't run to the exit. I just die. I thought it was great up to this point, but then I died and lost 15 minutes because of the save system and it just totally deflated my enjoyment.

What am I doing wrong?

griffy!

so after you get the scanner you can back track and go up the stairs by the door you came in on the left. Then move through the middle "lounge type" room and there might be a guy right there. You can sometimes sneak by him, other times he'll spot you, but at that point you can make a run for it.

But yeah. Easily the worst part of the game.
 
WOW THIS IS SO AWESOME. Still in the Medlab, but the feel of being searched for by the Alien is crazy!

It saw me go into an office and I hide under a desk while it's sprinting in. It ducks to look under the desk next to me, then I see it motion to look under mine so I crawl out the opposite end to find a new spot. It searches the others and I'm zigzagging through the darkness without getting seen. It gets bored and leaves.

This may be the best game I've played in years. I had a couple people watching my Steam Broadcast too, my first ever stream of anything ever, I'm a star! :>

</firstTimePlayingCrossPostGush>

griffy!

so after you get the scanner you can back track and go up the stairs by the door you came in on the left. Then move through the middle "lounge type" room and there might be a guy right there. You can sometimes sneak by him, other times he'll spot you, but at that point you can make a run for it.

But yeah. Easily the worst part of the game.

That's how I did it, but I bashed the top guy's head in with my wrench. Thought I was gonna make a personal point to not kill any human adversaries coming in, but eh fuck it, he was probably a douche.
 

Bust Nak

Member
Bought Alien over the weekend, I knew this game was 30fps but I can't get past the blurriness of the game when looking around in the game, in all directions. As soon as I stand still in-game, the game looks fine and crisp, but the moment I have to move a certain direction or look in a certain direction, there is a blur, and it's bugging the hell out of me and making the game a pain to look at and concentrate.

I'm playing on a 46 inch Vizio 1080p 120hz LCD TV.

Just for grins, other 60fps games don't do this when I play them on this TV.

Is this just the way Alien Isolation is because it's 30fps?
That's just the motion blur, there is an graphics option to turn that off, at least on the PC verson.
 
Chapter 11 really started to drag and was overly long. Some of the stuff I've done since has also felt like filler. Creative Assembly should've edited this thing and tried to make it more succinct, because the length doesn't help it.

It's the same issue that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has. I hated the first part of the game because it was so long. There were so many unnecessary levels in chapter 2, including one where you collected coins or something. The latter part got better, but the beginning soured me on the experience, though I did finish it.

I'm now on Chapter 15, and hope to finish it tonight so I can send it with a family member who's driving by the library that wants it back by tomorrow. Here's hoping the final five chapters aren't overly lengthy.
 

TM94

Member
Chapter 14 is one of the scariest levels I've played in my entire life.

The nest, good god the nest

Thought the mass synthetic combat was terrible at the end though.
 
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.
 

hew9753

Member
I've only completed through Chapter 10 so far, but man did I miss the boat on this when I picked Evil Within over this as my Halloween game of choice last October. Despite its frustrating nature at times and its tendency to drag in spots it's still the best Alien game I've ever played, capturing the atmosphere and feel of the movies perfectly.

Any word on how well it sold?
 

mattp

Member
so, i've noticed i'm not alone in this(based on a quick google search)
what are the chances we can convince creative assembly to add a headbob toggle and fov slider to the console version of the game? i really want to play but it destroys my face with motion sickness
 

On Demand

Banned
I've only completed through Chapter 10 so far, but man did I miss the boat on this when I picked Evil Within over this as my Halloween game of choice last October. Despite its frustrating nature at times and its tendency to drag in spots it's still the best Alien game I've ever played, capturing the atmosphere and feel of the movies perfectly.

Any word on how well it sold?

Not good. It wasn't even in Octobers NPD. Damn shame.
 

hew9753

Member
Yeah, that's a shame. The game has its faults but it's an awesome achievement in design and atmosphere. Every time I feel like the game is starting to drag there's a setpiece or moment - sometimes scripted, sometimes random - that makes it all worthwhile and gets me excited to keep playing. CA did an amazing job with this.
 
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