• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Teknoman

Member
So, my PC only has headphones and the only way I play my games on PC is with headphones.

This game becomes incredibly terrifying when you can hear every single little audio cue with big comfy, audiophile headphones. The audio design in this game is Thief 2/System Shock 2 levels of amazing.

Actually, this is pretty much a System Shock sequel without the name and lore.



What'd those britches ever do to you, Deimos?



The whole thing with the technology I kind of just thought that because it was a Weyland research vessel it would be a lot more high tech, and the Nostromo/Sevestopol are just the poor man/everyman technological equivalent. I will say that, to be honest I was more excited for Prometheus when it was going to be a direct prequel to Alien, and when it came out as a sort've butchered hackjob of a movie that was still good, and pretty, but felt like it was missing something, perhaps the DNA they ripped out of it to try and make it its own thing. At the end of the day I'll take more Prometheus over what we got with the sequels to Alien, minus Aliens.

And this is why im still not sure if im playing best with no headphones, 2.1, and Dualshock 4 for motion tracker (havent gotten that far yet lol), or just go straight headphones.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Sound design in this game is immense, the best of its class. I especially love how the door opening sound can be mistaken for the alien, ha.
 

Daigoro

Member
I've never gotten that game over message before.

My first time through that area I let him get eaten, watched, then got killed myself as I stood around too long and got ganked by the Alien. Second time I was in the elevator before he even got eaten. I dunno.

hm weird. i definitely got a game over with that message (or something very similar with the same meaning). actually the second time i tried that part. the alien was on the outside and got me first and he got to watch me die.

figured i wasn't missing much either way, but i had to ask. not sure what happened that first time though...
 
Sound design in this game is immense, the best of its class. I especially love how the door opening sound can be mistaken for the alien, ha.
There are so many times where I forget that the doors close a few seconds after you go through them, so I'll hear it close and freeze, check my tracker, and then realize what happened. Those sneaky-ass Working Joes, man. I HATE HOW THEY CAUSE GLITCHES IN YOUR MOTION TRACKER.

hm weird. i definitely got a game over with that message (or something very similar with the same meaning). actually the second time i tried that part. the alien was on the outside and got me first and he got to watch me die.

figured i wasn't missing much either way, but i had to ask. not sure what happened that first time though...
Yeah, I dunno man. I'll have to replay that segment and see what happens there.
 

Birathen

Member
How random is the alien encounters, humans and such?

When I was heading from
Comms
to
medical
the alien never appeared in the
transit station
. Then later I watched a streamer doing the same mission and in her game there were two humans patrolling the
transit station
and after a while (the Streamer couldnt figure out what to do so it took a bit longer) along came the alien and ate the two humans.

Could the absens of humans in my game in that area be coz
when I had fixed the motiontracker the alien ate the people guarding it and perhaps it hadnt in her game?
 
so how similiar is this game to amnesia? what are the differences? I havent played the latter.

You actually interact with the environment much more in Alien Isolation. There is more "gameplay". There's even some combat in Alien though its best to avoid it.

Basically the biggest difference is you'll be "doing a lot more" in Isolation
 
Just finished my first playthrough on Hard. ~20 hours

Amazing, just amazing. Had some annoyances early on but those went away as I played more and learned more. This really is the Alien game I've always wanted.

Thank you Creative Assembly.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Should I play on hard or normal, guys? I like a challenge but I don't like if the difficulty gets harder artificially.
 

Guerrilla

Member
Ok finished the game yesterday, just one thing left to say:

wxy3znt2.gif
 

Teknoman

Member
PUT ON THE HEADPHONES.

I think I might die with headphones lol. Just ran into it for the first time...that was too nervewracking. And Working Joes...plain ol androids...but damn those eyes and featureless "skin" are creepy.

Should I play on hard or normal, guys? I like a challenge but I don't like if the difficulty gets harder artificially.

Hard doesnt seem to hard so far, just have to be decisive.
 
How did you went? Im currently stucked there.

Go to the room w/ the save point. Across from that room is a vent. Once you exit the vent, you will be in a room. Leave the room. Then, you will see a room directly in front of you. Do not to into that room, instead head to the room directly to the right. A-29? I believe. Search the body on the ground, grab the key card, and on the map you should see a room that will let you use the security scanner and cut through the map a bit and lead you safely back to wherever you need.
Hope that helps.
 

ekim

Member
Started the game yesterday right after watching the first movie. The beginning is so good. Just found the motion tracker... this is too intense for my little heart. I sat there with a friend of mine (I'm 28 and he is 34) and we both shat bricks.

What really bugs me: the cutscenes are running at like 10 fps or something on the Xbox One version. Is this normal? They even stop completely for like 1-2 seconds.
 

derFeef

Member
Started the game yesterday right after watching the first movie. The beginning is so good. Just found the motion tracker... this is too intense for my little heart. I sat there with a friend of mine (I'm 28 and he is 34) and we both shat bricks.

What really bugs me: the cutscenes are running at like 10 fps or something on the Xbox One version. Is this normal? They even stop completely for like 1-2 seconds.

I did not experience it this bad, but they do stutter. I have the game digitally and installed on an external hdd.
 

ekim

Member
I did not experience it this bad, but they do stutter. I have the game digitally and installed on an external hdd.

Also digital but on the internal hdd. Also did a power cycle to see if it cures the behavior but nothing changed. Also when in the Menu, my left stick barely works when navigating - it either ignores my input or has a lot of lag. No problems with the DPad though and ingame everything is fine.

my first death... :lol
Guess I shouldn't have waited so long
 

GAMEPROFF

Banned
Go to the room w/ the save point. Across from that room is a vent. Once you exit the vent, you will be in a room. Leave the room. Then, you will see a room directly in front of you. Do not to into that room, instead head to the room directly to the right. A-29? I believe. Search the body on the ground, grab the key card, and on the map you should see a room that will let you use the security scanner and cut through the map a bit and lead you safely back to wherever you need.
Hope that helps.

I looked in the vent but I was just able to roam in the larger section, where I was able to walk without the Passcode... But there were dead ends which looked like some kind of airlock. Do they open after Xenomorph appears?
 

Codiox

Member
Fuck these bad reviews. Played the PC version yesterday for almost 3h for the first time and it was glorious. The atmosphere is really good. This is survival horror like I always wanted it. Not too scary (like outlast) and good elements (I love things like finding a key card or turn the power back on.) just like in the old SNES days with Jurassic Park. I'm really satisfied.

I'm playing on 720p in favor for >40fps with everything on max. And it looks stunning. Hooked my laptop on the TV and my dualshock 4 over Bluetooth on laptop.

One of the few hidden gems this year.
 
So has anyone managed to collect a Nostromo log yet? I've seen a bunch, but they're all behind locked doors, or just now
in a room full of deadly gas
.
 
Got this game Saturday for like 20€, didn't know it looked THIS AWESOME!

Also the PC port is GLORIOUS, my laptop doesn't struggle at all to keep the game at at least 30fps or more (I had a "John Carmack plays Wolfenstein 3D" effect happening when I got 60+fps when I looked into a specific corner), and that's with everything set to Max/Ultra/whatever. My laptop only has a maximum resolution of 1366x768, so there's that. Maybe I'll hook it up to my TV and see if it remains playable at 1080p.

That said though, everything looks awesome.
I actually position myself to take beautiful screenshots, that's how awesome this game looks. I only ever had that happen with Dear Esther, and that wasn't even a real game.

The atmosphere so far is amazing. I'm currently on my way to
get access to the comms and the Androids look seriously frightening with their non-moving faces, glowing eyes and sick skin color.. This uncanny valley is deeper than the Grand Canyon, god damn it.

Being hunted by the Xenomorph is pure mental torture, which I haven't experienced since I first played the first Amnesia. I always get goose bumps because I don't know if it's behind me or not, if it will kill me or not, if I survive or not. It's an astounding thrill and I love this game for achieving this.

So yeah, that's my impression of the game, roughly 4 or 5 hours in.
It's awesome.
 

Skele7on

Banned
SO.... I am on chapter 15 I think I love the game, has made me jump quite a few times,
I really like that the alien isn't just on rails and it constantly makes you need to check what you're doing and your game plan, I am playing through on hard which is indeed a challenge I really like this game.

The mission when you find the massive nest under the reactor. MAN WHAT AN AWESOME AWESOME LEVEL, those working joes though, such pricks, somehow managed to get past them by going back to the start area then hugging the opposite wall and just sprinting away... IDK how but I felt awesome

I would also like to say thank god Ripley is a skinny female, As if you were say peter griffin or something trying to get in half the hiding spots you'd be 99% fucked.
 

pottuvoi

Banned
4k downsampled to 1080p, this game is still shimmery and jaggy.

Wat the actual feck.
Yup, that's what happen when using proper PBR and HDR, it really needs some strong measures to reduce aliasing.. (Lean mapping / something similar or UE4 AA).
Currently use t2x SMAA + 4xSSAA and FXAA on top, most of the shimmering is gone.
 

Bumhead

Banned
The station is absolutely massive, why does the Alien keep hanging around me?

Same as the film though, that.

From the moment it goes loose it's constantly "there" in their general vicinity. Waiting for them to pick them off. The crew of the Nostromo never really escape it, and the film feels a lot smaller than Isolation feels in terms of the sense of scale of the ship.
 
Just got to mission 14. 13 was the first mission I was a bit like 'okay, get on with it, game.'. I'm ready to start gearing up for the finale now, whatever it might be.
 
Alien found me in medical inside a locker and I have NFI how he did? I sprinted past him where he takes ages to come out and threw a noise maker to the other side of the room. Entered the code and ran to the room on the left where the locker is and hid in there for about 1 min where he finally seemed to just trudge up and slam open the door, wtf?

Loving the game but I thought that was pretty shitty.
 
Alien found me in medical inside a locker and I have NFI how he did? I sprinted past him where he takes ages to come out and threw a noise maker to the other side of the room. Entered the code and ran to the room on the left where the locker is and hid in there for about 1 min where he finally seemed to just trudge up and slam open the door, wtf?

Loving the game but I thought that was pretty shitty.
Lockers are a trap. Don't do it to yourself.
 

strafer

member
It looks like the androids arent that smart after all.

Just had
one walk into electric water and got lit the fuck up
 
I don't actually get the impression the alien IS around all the time even when it's on the loose. There are sections where it kind of disappears and you dunno why. I mean, personally I've got no issue with this since it's necessary suspension of disbelief, but another possible reason is most of the people on the ship are holed up and staying quiet while Ripley is constantly on the move and drawing attention to herself.

edit:

I've been found under beds and stuff a few times but never in lockers. I'm always holding back up against the rear wall of the locker when the Alien is nearby, though. Maybe that's the reason?
 

valkyre

Member
Οk without any kind of spoilers please (sorry for bolding and underlining it, just my OCD about spoilers) I am playing on Hard and I am on mission 11 now and so far I can manage my way through the game without many issues.

Am I good for the rest of the game? Or are there any frustrating rage/quit parts? My question is, what I've experienced as of now is representative of the "hard" difficulty or are there any crazy spikes?

Pls no spoilers, and thank you.
 

Stare-Bear

Banned
I'm absolutely in love with this game. The atmosphere, the sound design, the art direction, they way they expanded on the Alien universe. It's a huge accomplishment by CA.
 
Mission 14 is a lot better than 13.

Yeah, I'm expecting it to pick up again.

At first I was very much enjoying the Alien being off the station for a while. I was enjoying the chaotic running around taking down a lot of androids - the combat at this late stage in the game was actually a welcome mix up of the formula. It also allowed me to let loose a bit with some of my inventory, trying out my pipebombs and stuff! And running around semi-freely!

When they took my weapons off me on the way into the Apollo sector though I suspected they might pull some irritating android spamming section on my ass....and they did. But! I decided okay fuck sneaking around and getting caught (cos i'm stupid), and I just out ran them and did what I had to do in a couple of minutes in the end. Still, that mission was a bit of a chore.
 

King_Moc

Banned
I don't actually get the impression the alien IS around all the time even when it's on the loose. There are sections where it kind of disappears and you dunno why. I mean, personally I've got no issue with this since it's necessary suspension of disbelief, but another possible reason is most of the people on the ship are holed up and staying quiet while Ripley is constantly on the move and drawing attention to herself.

edit:

I've been found under beds and stuff a few times but never in lockers. I'm always holding back up against the rear wall of the locker when the Alien is nearby, though. Maybe that's the reason?

He said he was sprinting, so maybe it heard the breathing. Could have been the motion scanner or an external mic too. It's never got me from in a locker, and I use those things a lot.
 

ViviOggi

Member
The bug that makes it sound like you're moving around in a spacesuit is so irritating, they really should issue a patch fixing the common glitches like this one and equipment models being spawned floating in the air.
 

bitoriginal

Member
This game is literally the best survival horror game I've ever played. I'm at work and can't stop thinking about it. It's surpassed my expectations in every way.
 

Aon

Member
The bug that makes it sound like you're moving around in a spacesuit is so irritating, they really should issue a patch fixing the common glitches like this one and equipment models being spawned floating in the air.

Oh, I had decided that because I only noticed the bug post flamethrower, that it was all the liquid fuel sloshing about.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
It's very unnerving hearing alien in the ducts above the player. I finished mission 7 without attracting alien or causing alarms, but the sounds of it crawling above me really kept me on the edge.

Great sound design.
 
Top Bottom