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

Yeah.....so I'm hiding in a cupboard, a Working Joe pulls me out and has me grabbed, I hear a hissing sound and running footsteps. I escape from the Joe only for the Alien to kill me.....yup........
Dude, I've had the Joes wig out on me so many times. A non-hostile Joe will suddenly pull me out of a hiding spot, do the choking QTE, and then act like nothing happened. And most of the time it attracts the Alien...
 

-Deimos

Member
I really enjoy how quick Ripley is to tell someone so shut the hell up when they start talking to her over the radio while she is in the thick of it. Her voice actress doesn't do a great job in the cutscenes or major in game dialogue sections, but she absolutely nails the stressed out whispers and general freaked out little sentences and such while playing
Agreed, her acting during the cutscenes are pretty bland but she nails it during gameplay.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Same happens on X1. I guess it has something to do with unified memory optimizations and loading. PC is butter smooth at similar spec. The difference there is dedicated VRAM and better CPUs.
It's not present in the lastgen versions so I doubt it has anything to do with VRAM and CPU's.
 

4lejandro

Member
Give me this and I'll almost forget that I want Snatcher 2.

Almost.

That would be sooooooooo badass, I mean, Deckard was mostly running from/getting beat the shit out off in most of his encounters with the replicants, so the sense of helplessness I get from this game should apply beautifuly on a Bladerunner game.
 

strafer

member
DAMMMMMIITT! It got the jump on me from a damn vent.

and I feel the Joes ruin the game a little bit. Why must they be hostile.
 
Been so busy recently I haven't had time to play much. Got 2 hours in and still didn't see the Alien, lol. Fantastic game so far though, the atmosphere is seriously impressive.
 

Osahi

Member
Holy shit, how scary is this game? Can't stand it for more than an hour :p

If it wasn't for some infuriating cheap deaths, this would be a personal goty contender
 
Didn't realize that I was supposed to go to the door with the keycard instead of going back the way I came. After I figured that out its been smooth sailing. Great game so far.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Ok I'm confused I got to
medical and it's told me to go somewhere on the map after collecting a box in the surgery room I gone down in a vent and came out where some power generators are and activated them which release a Working Joe, after I killed him it's it's started an evacuation but the other objective is gone now
I have done something wrong?
 
Is it possible to miss the torch upgrades? I have the first one already.
Nah, you don't get the second one for a while.

My issue is that there doesn't seem to be any visual difference between doors that need an ion torch (last plasma torch upgrade, I guess) or the other two. I wish there was. I hate backtracking to where I remember seeing a torchable panel, seeing the same torchable door as anywhere else, but it'll tell me I need another upgrade.
 

Razorback

Member
Ok I'm confused I got to
medical and it's told me to go somewhere on the map after collecting a box in the surgery room I gone down in a vent and came out where some power generators are and activated them which release a Working Joe, after I killed him it's it's started an evacuation but the other objective is gone now
I have done something wrong?

Is this the part with all the lights going crazy? If so you have to run down the long hallway all the way to the end and you'll find a corridor that says EXIT on it.
 
Just played mission 5 and encountered a very bizarre glitch.
I gave him the passcode and everything ran its course, then on his way over to get his things the conversation repeated itself. He was just standing there, mouth moving, and his dialogue was playing in the other room. The alien came in to kill him but he just stood there, completely unphased. Then the alien came in again and escaped through the vent while he stood there.

I assume he's normally supposed to die at that part.
 
holy shit, this game is really good. lovely crafted enviroments, atmosphere is oozing out of my screen and speakers. just finished chapter five, can't remember a game in recent years, which caught me that way.
 

-Deimos

Member
Just mission 5 and encountered a very bizarre glitch.
I gave him the passcode and everything ran its course, then on his way over to get his things the conversation repeated itself. He was just standing there, mouth moving, and his dialogue was playing in the other room. The alien came in to kill him but he just stood there, completely unphased. Then the alien came in again and escaped through the vent while he stood there.

I assume he's normally supposed to die at that part.

Yeah, he's supposed to die.
 

Ricker

Member
Ok I'm confused I got to
medical and it's told me to go somewhere on the map after collecting a box in the surgery room I gone down in a vent and came out where some power generators are and activated them which release a Working Joe, after I killed him it's it's started an evacuation but the other objective is gone now
I have done something wrong?

How did you kill the Joe....?
 

Seanspeed

Banned
I'm stuck. Have no idea what to do. Early in the game, I guess. Don't know what chapter(where does it say this?). Supposed to find some datapad, but the only way I can see to go has people there that I cant seem to sneak by and I just get killed immediately.

Unsure how the rewire system works. I get the general gist of how its supposed to work, but the interface makes no sense to me.

I also don't get the crafting system. Seems like I can only craft something if I have one in my inventory?

Getting a bit annoyed at how unintuitive the game is so far.

EDIT: I feel like this thread is spoiling shit ahead, too.
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Just started playing this in my lunch at work on PS4...
Only played the first hour but its brilliant and very enjoyable...

Only issue I have is how jerky the cut scenes are... Seems to be reading the discs at the same time...

This is my only gripe too, really kills the immersion. Aside from that though this is the best Alien tie in GOAT imo.
 

Ricker

Member
I'm stuck. Have no idea what to do. Early in the game, I guess. Don't know what chapter(where does it say this?). Supposed to find some datapad, but the only way I can see to go has people there that I cant seem to sneak by and I just get killed immediately.

Unsure how the rewire system works. I get the general gist of how its supposed to work, but the interface makes no sense to me.

I also don't get the crafting system. Seems like I can only craft something if I have one in my inventory?

Getting a bit annoyed at how unintuitive the game is so far.

EDIT: I feel like this thread is spoiling shit ahead, too.

You have to find Blueprints to craft new things,then you will see whats needed...the rewire lets you turn the power out of something to add it to another...like you deactivate air support let's say so you can open a vent for example...move to one that says its active with the left analog and click on it to deactivate...
 
This game can be confusing at times. I don't like how I am hiding in a locker and the game tells me to hold rmb to hold my breath, but I am spotted before I have the chance to do so. Next time I am holdimg RMB ahead of time and it tells me to hold S (move backwards) to I guess hide a little bit more, and I die before I can. This third time I am holding S and RMB, and finally the alien isn't snatching me immediately. But then my screen starts to flash red on the sides with no explanation. I hold the buttons for a couple more seconds til the alien isn't looking at the locker. I let go of RMB thinking I must be suffocating myself or something, and nothing changes... still flashing red on the sides. I figure I am gonna die pretty soon since I can't tell my HP so I tried to press Q to see if I could bring up the HP gauge, but this causes me to leave the locker and die.

So yeah, could someone explain to me what is happening with the borders flashing?
 

DukeBobby

Member
I really like the Working Joes. I guess I'm in the minority there.

The humans suck, though. I hate encountering them when there's no alien around.
 

Sajjaja

Member
This game can be confusing at times. I don't like how I am hiding in a locker and the game tells me to hold rmb to hold my breath, but I am spotted before I have the chance to do so. Next time I am holdimg RMB ahead of time and it tells me to hold S (move backwards) to I guess hide a little bit more, and I die before I can. This third time I am holding S and RMB, and finally the alien isn't snatching me immediately. But then my screen starts to flash red on the sides with no explanation. I hold the buttons for a couple more seconds til the alien isn't looking at the locker. I let go of RMB thinking I must be suffofcourse myself or something, and nothing changes... still flashing red on the sides. I figure I am gonna die pretty soon since I can't tell my HP so I tried to press Q to see if I could bring up the HP gauge, but this causes me to leave the locker and die.

So yeah, could someone explain to me what is happening with the borders flashing?
It's you suffocating. To leave that, you have to let go of both rmb and s. When it's safe ofcourse.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
You have to find Blueprints to craft new things,then you will see whats needed...the rewire lets you turn the power out of something to add it to another...like you deactivate air support let's say so you can open a vent for example...move to one that says its active with the left analog and click on it to deactivate...
Oh I get how its all supposed to work in principle. I just don't understand the fucking UI whatsoever of the system. Like I can choose between 'speakers' and like 'unpowered' or something? I don't get what the fuck its doing.

I've also died over a dozen times trying to get past this one area. Even had to resort to a walkthrough to figure out if I'm doing the right thing and I am, but its impossible for me to sneak past this group of people. I'm about ready to drop the game for good if its gonna continue to be like this. Not having fun at all. I fucking hate stealth bullshit and this has all the same unpredictable sightlines and AI that makes this shit frustrating and game ruining in games.
 

strafer

member
Like someone said earlier, would love for a mode that removes the alien and stuff so you can just explore.

And explore it before everything went to shit, seeing all the people going about their business, kinda like the first Half Life before the incident.

Oh well, wishes.
 

DukeBobby

Member
Noisemaker + pipebomb/molotov combo. Screw stealth. If I can't lure the alien to murder them for me, I'm not just gonna sneak past 'em.

Yeah, I've resorted to doing that now. Fuck the no kill achievement.

It feels like they were shoved into the game at the last minute. They're badly animated, the character models are terrible, and their AI is a bit wonky.
 

Arkanius

Member
I've started crouching 100% of the time
It seems to confuse the Alien as fuck, he keeps spawning very far away from me this way.

Working Joes scare the fuck out of me.
 

Reedirect

Member
About 8-9 hours in, post-flamethrower. Aside from a few unfair situations where the Alien just got me for nothing, I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. It seems to penalize slow walking too much though.

I remember one situation where I was crouching through one part of the base for like 10 minutes and just had enough, so I stood up and started making baby steps toward the objective, which made the Alien go apeshit in the vents because I was being *loud*. Makes no sense really and a solid run through the mission went down the drain.
 

slop101

Banned
I just bought this, but I think I may be too scared to play it...

Maybe I'll start at the easiest difficulty - is it adjustable later in the game?
 
About 8-9 hours in, post-flamethrower. Aside from a few unfair situations where the Alien just got me for nothing, I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. It seems to penalize slow walking too much though.

I remember one situation where I was crouching through one part of the base for like 10 minutes and just had enough, so I stood up and started making baby steps toward the objective, which made the Alien go apeshit in the vents because I was being *loud*. Makes no sense really and a solid run through the mission went down the drain.
Dude, at least in mission 10 he follows you no matter what. crouching or otherwise. It was some smooth bullshit. I basically had to distract him or wait it out until he went back into the vents; either option only really bought me about a minute of progress/exploring. Not to mention he kept coming down from vents in front of me. Didn't even have a chance to hide.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Is this the part with all the lights going crazy? If so you have to run down the long hallway all the way to the end and you'll find a corridor that says EXIT on it.
Yeah and I kinda gathered that, it's the original mission I was doing before that disappeared off the map I'm worried about
How did you kill the Joe....?
E.M.P mine and then beat him with a wrench.
But you can shoot him in the head if you don't have a E.M.P or a stunrod to stun and then hit with the wrench, but they recover from that after a hit or two.

What's this holding breath thing? I've never had to do this.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
XPost from Oculus Rift Alien Iso thread:

Ok, so now that I'm rested and relaxed I can give a bit more of an indepth breakdown. We livestreamed till about 9 in the morning, at which point I went to sleep (my friends had since crashed out). I'll probably livestream next time I play as well, under the same channels, because doing so was a lot of fun.

I used 3 PCs to do my live streaming. My primary PC, the one running the game itself, was using the rift as the only connected display to try and help reduce judder as much as possible. This PC was running OBS to broadcast its monitor feed to twitch on one account. Because I didn't want to further stress the machine, I used a steam machine from Dev Days to run a webcam and mic stream to the second twitch channel. Finally, for the benefit of other people in the room, who couldn't see my rift output even if I had another monitor connected, we had a third PC hooked up to the television, streaming back the twitch feed to our TV.

The game itself is kind of bipolar so far. The first 4 or 5 hours -- which took us about 7 hours to do because we got stuck for an hour twice -- are a real trudge. Lots of exposition, slow dialog, boring non-alien enemies. Anything that isn't an alien in this game kinda blows, using stealth around them is dull and feels unrewarded. These segments are also much more scripted and thus lacks a lot of tension. It feels like you're kind of just blundering about until you can figure out the correct combination of moves to make to get through them. And it this section keeps going for so long.

I guess, in a way, they're trying to emulate the pacing of the original movie, which had a very slow build up in the beginning (you don't see the alien in the film for the entire first hour), but it doesn't work as well in a video game.

The second half of the game (thus far for us) is, however, thrilling. Being hunted by the alien is an exhilarating experience. This portion of the game feels unlike any game I've played, especially with VR. The game itself is built with a huge focus on controlling your display, rather than combat. If you look at the controls for the game, a surprising attention is given to the ways you can lean and peak, giving you much finer control over your vision than you'd normally expect. Obviously, this translates wonderfully to VR, where you have the ultimate control of your view.

That makes this game a perfect candidate to demonstrate the ways in which virtual reality can greatly expand and improve a gameplay experience. So much of the gameplay around the alien involves hiding and watching the alien from far away. The general structure of the game is that it drops you into large maps periodically, and tasks you with an objective, usually getting from one side to the other (and sometimes back) with often nothing but the single alien in the area hunting you. These segments are essentially challenge levels, as there are usually very sparse save points in each segments (maybe 1 if you are lucky, frequently none at all). This recalls a very oldschool sort of mindset, which I expect many reviewers couldn't gel with. As a retro gamer myself, however, I adore this setup, especially when the gameplay feels this good and rewarding.

The alien hunts you relentlessly in these segments, and unlike non-alien enemies, the alien feels very random. He doesn't patrol set paths, and thus you find yourself watching him for long periods of time until a window of opportunity opens. The AI for the alien is really fun to mess with in my experience. He's inquisitive, and will go around the area you're in looking in doors or exploring nooks and crannies. Even when hiding, your motion is tracked and this gives you the ability to look out at angles of slits to watch the alien.

The alien is pretty much unstoppable and giving yourself away is pretty much instant death. You can give yourself away in realistically any way you can imagine. Within the context of VR, that takes on added dimensions. When you are hiding in a locker, for example, you can move your head to look around the slits at angles. But, just like in real life, if you move your head too much, you can actually bang it on the door, which creates a noise for the alien to hear. The nature of the alien naturally inspecting locker doors leads to some incredibly tense situations. Hiding in a locker, as the alien sniffs the vents, you find youself frozen in terror, concentrating on not moving an inch in real life because you don't want to tap the locker and give yourself away.

Given the terrific graphics, which approach a degree of photorealism compared to the sets and alien of the films themselves, these situations, when they all come together, form a very powerful experience. I haven't ever felt so enthralled or invested in the safety of my character. The lack of save points in individual levels provides a tangible punishment for losing beyond the way your heart begins to race and palms sweat - losing means also losing 20 or so minutes of your time.

I expected to be horrified out of my mind, and at times the game can be that way, but it's more about being on the edge of your seat, feet cold, with an intense sense of dread about you for hours on end. This is compounded by the audio, which is terrific and dynamic. As the alien approaches and you slowly get figured out, the music dynamically approaches crescendo, building terror. The audio, with a good pair of headphones, also lets you further track the alien, as it uses stereo to great effect. The alien walks like someone who is stepping too hard on the top floor of an apartment. You can hear his weight in each step as it lumbers around the ship, giving you context into where it is. Sometimes, it'll climb into vents too, and you can hear scratching moving from above you. This is pretty much nightmare fuel, especially when you're standing still, hiding, after having lost sight of the alien and you can hear it approach.

This actually becomes physically exhausting after a long period of time. We had originally intended to livestream the entire game in one sitting, but we all eventually felt we needed a break, for our bodies. This has felt like a very new, very different kind of gameplay experience, and easily one of the very best things you can experience in VR.

Aside from the very slow, pretty dull opening, the game has been terrific. As I understand it, near the end, it becomes more like the opening again and that sounds like it'll be a shame. Because being hunted by the alien is one of the freshest, most rewarding experiences I've felt in a long time. I'd say, thus far, I'm agreeing with a lot of the 8/10 scores - the problems are in pacing, definitely not mechanics. Honestly, going forward, I don't think I'd ever want to play this game without VR - I feel VR makes this a pretty transformative experience.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Krejlooc said:
you can move your head to look around the slits at angles. But, just like in real life, if you move your head too much, you can actually bang it on the door, which creates a noise for the alien to hear.
The consoles versions do this if you have the camera, plus noise detection
I'd imagine it's more real with VR.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
The consoles versions do this if you have the camera, plus noise detection
I'd imagine it's more real with VR.

It's definitely much more different, I've used things like TrackIR before. The difference between basically looking out of a window up close, and looking out of a window from across the room.
 

Bumhead

Banned
Interesting to read how divisive the Working Joes are.

I absolutely love them. Or hate them. Whichever way you look at it. I'm shit scared of them basically. To me they feel perfect for the games atmosphere and overall sense of dread. That completely emotionless, dead humanoid thing always gets me and these are particularly terrifying.

Part of me almost can't wait for the Xeno to arrive although I expect that to last all of 8 seconds once it actually does.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
One of my favorite moments came when one of my friends was playing. He was walking around and saw some drool coming from a ceiling vent. He hadn't encountered the alien yet at that point, so he walked close to the drool to inspect it. He looked up, and the alien was sprawled out in the vent, hissing, and the jaws opened and he got his faced gouged out.

Everyone always says they'd be smarter than the people who die those kinds of deaths in movies, but this guy executed the cliche move death to perfection
 
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