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

Tiktaalik

Member
Lol I've died twice on the very first stealth encounter with other humans. It's not clear at all what the hell you're supposed to do here, where you're supposed to go, etc...

I've beaten every Metal Gear game so I'm no novice at this sort of thing...
 

-Deimos

Member
6 hours in and still haven't reached the part where the alien starts stalking you. I think I've used sprint like 2 times and the first time was when I was checking the controls.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
so you turn off the generator to distract the guards and there's literally no where to go without them seeing you? I feel like I'm being incredibly stupid here but I'm totally missing this...
 
so you turn off the generator to distract the guards and there's literally no where to go without them seeing you? I feel like I'm being incredibly stupid here but I'm totally missing this...
When I was a that part, they saw me, tried ineffectually shooting at me through the glass, and I just walked back over to where Axel was waiting.

Edit: I like how the alien completely ignores the androids, while they ask it "what are you?"

Edit2: Okay yeah this thing cheats when you aren't looking. I'm in a multistory stairwell, the Alien goes through a door on the second highest level, I sneak up to the highest level, and suddenly see it plod by on that floor. No vent noise or anything.
 
oh for chrissakes there's a vent on the ground. ok there you go.

When I was in the terminal (real close to the beginning) I ran back and forth for literally 35 minutes before I discovered that there was a vent on the ground in the snack shack. I was so pissed.

Now I take special note of them. Instantly hopped right in at the part you're talking about.
 
so you turn off the generator to distract the guards and there's literally no where to go without them seeing you? I feel like I'm being incredibly stupid here but I'm totally missing this...

oh for chrissakes there's a vent on the ground. ok there you go.

Haha! It's not very visible.

When I was in the terminal (real close to the beginning) I ran back and forth for literally 35 minutes before I discovered that there was a vent on the ground in the snack shack. I was so pissed.

Now I take special note of them. Instantly hopped right in at the part you're talking about.

Same thing happened to me.
 

Skyzard

Banned
It's odd because during cutscenes on PC I get like 240fps, during gameplay about 90.

So it's hopefully something that can be fixed...why would it drop fps with a recorded cutscene :S
 
I finally met up with some humans.

I was feeling a little settled finally when
OMG HES DEAD FUCKING RUN BITCH OMG...

ALT-F4, back to SC2 for a while.
 
so you turn off the generator to distract the guards and there's literally no where to go without them seeing you? I feel like I'm being incredibly stupid here but I'm totally missing this...

I waited in the generator room towards the back and crawled out when they came in. There seem to be multiple solutions to each encounter.

I love this aspect of the game. I was using the power alternator to move power to the speaker system in order to lure out each of the survivors one by one to melee them. I felt kind of awful, but they kept shooting me with revolvers and I couldn't sneak around them.

The ambience is so great that you wind up moving slow just to look at everything. The game goes back to old-school basics. Though it tells you to move from point A to B, it doesn't hold your hand and you do have to figure things out yourself.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Was running from a Synthetic, run about 3 rooms away from him. Turn around and pull up motion tracker, Alien sprinting full force at me.

Fuck. Lol
 
A big thank you to Death Metalist for his kindness, he graciously gifted me a key to this game and now I can join the rest of AlienGAF in enjoying this masterpiece.

Again, this is why I love GAF, the kindness and camaraderie of the people here astound me since from my perspective and current station in life, there is nothing but darkness and assholes.

Darkholes.

Now my darkness is filled with liiiiiiiiiiiiiight. And a homicidal killing machine.
 
I'm having a great time with this now. The encounter where you are trying to acquire the data cell in the transit station was really breaking my back, so I bumped down to normal mode. Since then I don't think I have died. I'll wait a bit and see if Alien related gameplay feels too relaxed and maybe bump it back up.

So far so good. System Shock 2 vibe is kind of on point, along with a lot of other cool influences. Not too much video game crap either - there's a whiff of Mass Effect here and there, which is a stink I don't like to sniff, and the graffiti on all the walls is so hackneyed, but it's doing a lot of stuff right.
 
How much is too much? I used it 3 times in a row in the server room since he kept hopping down right next to me every 10 seconds.

I have used it so much that I have lost count. It still stuns it but it won't run away anymore.

I bet taking breaks and using it less frequently won't case the same issue.
 
I'm reading some things about the Alien's AI learning your behaviour - is this true and does is remain in normal mode or only hard?
 

Cajun

Neo Member
Got to about chapter 6 tonight, and while I'm loving the game, I think it has the same problem as Outlast for me as horror. There is very little that's scary apart from the sound. That being said, CA does get things right as far as terror goes (seeing a working joe's eyes, among other things in a pitch black hallway can actually be pretty unsettling with the right timing).

However, so far the game's tension is on another level, even in comparison to games like Outlast, Amnesia, etc. Generally, in a stealth-based game I can figure out the NPC AI relatively quickly (they'll walk between two or three points or in a loop endlessly, with some pauses thrown in), but in my first 1v1 in Isolation, I had absolutely no idea when I was safe to move. I actually hid in a locker for about ten minutes because I got cornered. Several times I thought, "I'll move the next time the Alien goes down that path," and it would do something it had never previously done before (playing on Hard, but I don't know if that matters). And every time it came back to my corner, it would walk a little bit closer to the locker I was hiding in.

Not knowing what to do, thinking, whether it be a figment of my imagination or not, that I had a set time limit to get something done, both came together for an incredibly tense ten minutes.

On a side note, I think the save system is actually quite lenient. If you die and lose progress, the majority of the time you, at the very least, have better knowledge of the map, item locations, and how to complete your next objective. I imagine if it had checkpoint saves littered throughout alien-heavy sections, an auto-save seconds before death would be a pretty common occurrence.

tl;dr Isolation after six chapters is not terrifying by any means, but it is amazingly intense because of the AI.
 
Just finished a 2 hour session.

I'm still fairly early in the game,
having just left Comms and ventured into Medical. I managed to dodge the alien in Comms (if he ever even shows), but he's just reappeared in the Pysch Ward.
At that point I decided enough was enough.

edit*: Regarding the graffiti:
I think the graf on the walls is there to (clumsily) show how bad the situation was in Sevastopol was prior to the arrival of the alien. The people still on the station by the time Ripley arrives are there because they couldn't afford to leave/Seegson had stopped sending transporst. People didn't trust each other, and no one seems to have trusted the Colonial Marshals. I'm still early on, but I wonder if this is why Apollo made the synthetics so hostile.
 
I have used it so much that I have lost count. It still stuns it but it won't run away anymore.
Okay, guess I'll try and keep track. Those have been the only times I've used it, so we'll see how it goes.
I'm reading some things about the Alien's AI learning your behaviour - is this true and does is remain in normal mode or only hard?
It's true, and it still happens on normal. Mine has gotten to the point where it won't look at a noisemaker for more than a couple seconds before taking off again.
 

gossi

Member
I'm reading some things about the Alien's AI learning your behaviour - is this true and does is remain in normal mode or only hard?

It learns what you do for sure. If you keep repeatedly hiding under tables, for example, it will notice and eat your face. If you keep distracting it in same way, it stops following the distraction.
 
Oh lawd, the hype I have right now is so fucking high.

Thank God our stupid TV package with Comcast that my parents have to have because reasons, came with a decent connection.

Again, I cannot say thank you enough to Death Metalist for this, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be playing at all until God knows when.

EE3hPpA.png
 
Specs of PC?
Quick and dirty version:
i5-4570 3.2Ghz
GTX 760 2GB
8GB RAM
Windows 8.1

Don't think specs are the issue here, I've been running it maxed out at 60fps/1080p. Reading the steam forums it looks like it's been randomly happening to people with all sorts of configs.

There was one spot where I got it to crash consistently 3 times in a row, but other than there it's been random. In-game, during a loading screen, motion tracker up, motion tracker not up, etc.
 

Skyzard

Banned
^ I've had one crash so far, on my first death...nothing since though.

so you turn off the generator to distract the guards and there's literally no where to go without them seeing you? I feel like I'm being incredibly stupid here but I'm totally missing this...

IIRC there was a vent on the floor right next to the switch lol - leads to exactly where you need to go too :)

ah nvm ;)
oh for chrissakes there's a vent on the ground. ok there you go.
 

frontovik

Banned
Just finished a 2 hour session.

I'm still fairly early in the game,
having just left Comms and ventured into Medical. I managed to dodge the alien in Comms (if he ever even shows), but he's just reappeared in the Pysch Ward.
At that point I decided enough was enough.


Early Ch.6 spoilers:
I finally got the courage to find my way out of the Psych Ward (after hiding under a bed and in a locker every few minutes) I managed to regroup with the doctor and kept my eyes on the motion sensor at all times. He was just about to pack up until the sensor detected another signal in the same room. I knew what was coming and bolted for the elevator. And now I'm in the Emergency Room and have to enter a morgue.

......okay.. time for another break.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Quick and dirty version:
i5-4570 3.2Ghz
GTX 760 2GB
8GB RAM
Windows 8.1

Don't think specs are the issue here, I've been running it maxed out at 60fps/1080p. Reading the steam forums it looks like it's been randomly happening to people with all sorts of configs.

There was one spot where I got it to crash consistently 3 times in a row, but other than there it's been random. In-game, during a loading screen, motion tracker up, motion tracker not up, etc.

It's crashed on me a couple of times too. Two of those times were when it was Alt+Tabbed. *Shrugs*. Though it hasn't crashed since I put in DSR 1440p.

i7-3770k
16 GB RAM
GTX 980
Windows 7
 
Maybe it's an Nvidia thing? The crashing issue? Does it happen as much on AMD cards.

Probably just needs a small patch and a new driver from Nvididog.

You both have Nvidias, and I have an AMD with no crashes.
 
Oh lawd, the hype I have right now is so fucking high.

Thank God our stupid TV package with Comcast that my parents have to have because reasons, came with a decent connection.

Again, I cannot say thank you enough to Death Metalist for this, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be playing at all until God knows when.

Aw man, you didn't have to. =)! Can't wait to hear your impressions from the game, whether they are bad or good. I can't wait till my copy arrives and will join in with you guys soon! I hope this sells well so they could improve and expand on it.
 

SURGEdude

Member
I know everybody is gonna wanna shit on me and claim I have no taste; But this game brought me back right away from The Evil Within I've been diving into

I love me the classic RE's and SH, but I know I will get shit anyways and I'm not gonna recommend anybody doesn't follow their own impressions. Still frankly A:I is a way better horror title than TEW on last gen at least. No glee in saying that- RE1 (+Remake) and 4 are my favorite games bar none. But onto the issues

First Alien doesn't feel like a terrible port. So far TEW has had some aweful IdTech5 pop-in that is- rough to the point where you wonder how this could go out to consumers. Early on there are craines that are focused on in the distance and take a full second to not look like minecraft. Brutal.

The textures (maybe) and the VO is- fine for 2002-2008- but not now. I realize some of that is engine based w/ megatextures. But the VO is arrrrggg. It is stilted and feels like it has very little direction.

At this point I want this horror renaissance to thrive so I'm not going to complain any more. There is clearly a lot of talent and great people working on both of these games. But while Alien has some cruft it takes a long time to feel it. TEW feels dated and (I really hate to say) unoriginal in a way I didn't expect. I like me some Amnesia and Outlast, but I'm not sure I wanted that to become the major thrust of Japanese horror from here on out. Hiding in literal lockers seems derivative in a way I wasn't looking for.

And I really do have a lot of respect for this new found interest in horror gaming so this isn't a fuck your genre post. I hope others disagree and find TEW a gem I don't feel.
 
Early Ch.6 spoilers:
I finally got the courage to find my way out of the Psych Ward (after hiding under a bed and in a locker every few minutes) I managed to regroup with the doctor and kept my eyes on the motion sensor at all times. He was just about to pack up until the sensor detected another signal in the same room. I knew what was coming and bolted for the elevator. And now I'm in the Emergency Room and have to enter a morgue.

......okay.. time for another break.

Lol, the moment I knew the alien was near I quit. There's only so much you can handle.

The way CA designed the alien to appear on your motion tracker is an inspired piece of game design.
 
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