Alien: Isolation

So my second oldest son told me at the beginning of December: "Dad, I got you something awesome for Christmas."

Being an avid gamer himself, I knew it wasn't going to be another tie or aftershave, but a new game. Christmas day and I had a message on Steam that he'd sent me a gift.

It was Alien: Isolation.

Alien: Isolation is a triple A game published by Sega. It's available for the PC, Playstation 3 and 4, and the Xbox One and 360. It was released back in October and I'd heard a lot of good things about it. It's available in stores and on Steam.

Basically what I heard was: They got back to the roots of the series.

There have been several video games based on the Alien universe, and all of them are shooters. I blame James Cameron for that, due to his Aliens movie (the sequel to the original Alien), in which more bullets were released than WW2 I think.

I remember clearly watching the first movie. I was a teen at the time when it came out, but living over in Italy where my father was stationed. VCRs were still a new thing, but he'd gotten this movie from the video club there. It was late at night when he popped the movie in and the music drew my out of my book I was reading in my room and I plopped down on the couch with him to watch it.

Scary darn movie! At least for me back then it was.

Alien: Isolation takes us back to how that movie felt.

Terror.

No space marines loaded with every gun possible to go out blazing guns. Instead, you're going to be dropped into a situation where stealth, keeping hidden, and trying to not draw attention to yourself is required.

A "Horror/Survival" type play like the game Amnesia.

I can't think of a scarier type of game to play. You can't fight, you have to hide and hope something doesn't find you. Every game I've played that was like that (Amnesia, Outlast, Dungeon Nightmares, etc) has always been more tense and scary than any other game where you have a weapon and can defend yourself with it.

The game also takes it's time before your first run in with the Alien, but not knowing when it will show up makes it that much more suspenseful. And also the fact that the crew of the ship you've boarded has also gone nuts and will shoot anyone they don't know or that moves, and you're in quite a situation.

Here is the first part of this series. If you plan on getting the game, and don't want to be spoiled, then avoid watching the videos.

The first video is a really short teaser I did. The 2nd one is the longer Let's Play

I love the alien series. I never played many of the games though,
But this game i absolutely refuse to play because there is far to much suspense for me.
Hahaha so i guess the game makers did a good job!

I passed on Isolation. Running (no jump feature) and hiding for hours doesn't do it for me. I thought the noise detection feature was interesting and immersive. Also, I can see where others might love it, but survival horror has never been one of my favorite genres even though a love a great horror movie.

I hate the no jumping too.

I'm not that big of a fan of Horror to tell the truth, but people seem to like watching me play it......

The worse thing so far in this game is the suspense. You hear things....makes you think: "Ah HA! It's coming!"....only....no, it was something else...then you come around a corner and there something else is that makes you almost wet your pants.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I was going to type that same sentiment. This is one of those games I enjoy watching others play. I'm weird like that, though. I LOVE the storyline for Assassin's creed 1-3 and 4, the Mass Effect trilogy...I just hate the UI, so I like to watch it more than play it.

a reply to: the owlbear

Ahhhhhhhhh......Mass Effect. My second love.

Took some getting used to the 3rd person perspective, but I did and I'm so addicted to that series of games. When I found out they are making a 4th one, I started jumping up and down like a kid.

i just got it thanks to the xmas sales, i had my eye on it for a while, i'm a huge fan of Alien in general, so of course it was going to end up in my library, love it, even though i am horrible at it.
stealth games are not my thing at all, and Alien isolation is pretty damn unforgiving, especially at hard difficulty, i don't want to know how many times i will die by the end of it, a couple of hundred at least.
Still, it's great to see a game made by people that understand the franchise.
Only minor (very minor) issue i have is that the alien doesn't walk on the walls, but stays always on the ground, that would have raised by death toll by another 50, but still would be awesome to see!

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

I think it using the walls like that would have made me not even try this!

a reply to: eriktheawful

What is the save sytem like on Alien Isolation?
I want to get it for ps4,but I read something about the saves being very far apart,meaning you get killed and have to repeat a lot..

I does look pretty creepy though,and I love the Alien film.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

There are "Save Stations" set up in the game where you can save at, like Dead Space.

The distance between them seems varied to me.

It's so far the one major fault I have with it. I like to be able to save where ever I'm at. Outlast was worse, it was like Bioshock: Infinite, you had to depend on the Autosave.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Oh well,I will have to give it a go I think,as long as I am aware the saves can be a bit frustrating before I play it-That will hopefully prevent me from wanting to throw the controller through the TV.


I loved all three dead space games,sort of Lovecraft/Silent hill in space vibe...

But that damned Outlast....I would get banned here if I told my true feelings about that game.
It actually made me physically ill,I couldn't finish it.
It was the slight zoom difference of the normal view and camera view(that you are constantly swapping between).

After half an hour of play it would make me feel like I had the worst headache/hangover of my life...
Tried watching my bro play it,same thing.
So I would have to do it in 15minute bursts,then turn it off for a day.
Still never finished it though.

Never had that on any game before Outlast-And I have played some games for 10 hours without a proper break(morrowind,far cry,dead space,fallout etc)so I am no lightweight when it comes to screen time!

Outlast just really messed with my brain in some way-kind of like vertigo and travel sickness plus hangover.
Not nice.
Apart from that,great creepy game.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

I just finished Outlast this past weekend........

You should watch my short video of it I posted yesterday here....just to see what the ending looks like, AND....to see the look on my face.

I was ready to put my fist through the monitor.

a reply to: eriktheawful
Ah you got a similar vibe from Outlast it seems,ROFL..
Post the Link please,I want to watch!

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Here you go (Link only as when I started posting here, Staff said I could but only links as there was gore):



www.youtube.com...

a reply to: eriktheawful

Well,I didn't expect that ending,and I can understand you wanting to smash the screen.

There must be other endings,but you should not attempt to find them by replaying the whole game-once is enough with that one.
Check the other endings out on youtube over a brew or a smoke instead.
Much less stressful Bro.



Well done for finishing the game-I could not.

I purchased Outlast on sale on Steam....and played for about 2 hours. I would constantly say to people how scary Dead Space was and it kept me on edge...but this game....this game made me forget I was playing a video game in the first place. Forcing me to walk past obvious danger to find out there isn't any, or surprising me CONSTANTLY and making me run for my life...I just couldn't handle it hahaha. Even my buddy watching me play had to go find something else to do. I have a rule that if I play a scary game, it's in complete darkness with my Triton head phones cranked up. Been a month since I touched that game hahaha.

a reply to: InfinityandBeyond

I've had people tell me "Play with the lights off!", but I've got a good excuse: I need the light for my camera, hehehe.

I did do a video with the light off for Slender The Pages I think....

I've also got someone asking me to do more SCP Containment Breach. I noticed they've updated it from 1.0 to 1.0.6 so I'll have to see.

a reply to: eriktheawful

the idea of save stations is a double edged sword kind of thing.
It increases the tension a ton, not to be able to save when you feel like it ( let's face it, if we could, we would press F5 or whatever every 15 seconds:lol but at the same time, because of it and the amount of deaths, you end up repeating LOTS of pieces over and over again, and that can get boring, unless you are a stealth god, in that case, tell me how you do it!!

Absolutely loved this game. I just recently finished it but will probably crank it back up once Occulus Rift comes out. They absolutely nailed the atmosphere of Alien/Aliens. Normally I can play a game I enjoy pretty all day, but with isolation I had to take a break after a few hours because the tension was too much (dark room, home alone + good headphones is awesome fun).

I can confidently say I now know what it feels like to be a cockroach..everyone's out to kill you and you're totally defenseless so you spend your days running away from the light, scurrying to the closest, darkest cupboard you can find and panicking every time you hear a "blip", or a loud noise that sounds close by.

originally posted by: LordGoofus

I can confidently say I now know what it feels like to be a cockroach..everyone's out to kill you and you're totally defenseless so you spend your days running away from the light, scurrying to the closest, darkest cupboard you can find and panicking every time you hear a "blip", or a loud noise that sounds close by.

And here we thought of ourselves as "Superhero Stealthy Types".

But your analogy is spot on! hehehehehe.