Before I go any further, this is not to downplay how incredible this game is. I'm playing through it for the first time right now, and I find it remarkable. The visuals are great, the attention to detail and atmosphere is outstanding, and I feel that the game generates legitimate tension effortlessly. I have yet to finish it so I don't necessarily feel like reviewing it or sending it flowers just yet, but there is one thing about this game that is bothering me to no end, and it's something that other games of this type are very much guilty of.

Graffiti. Graffiti everywhere.

At first, it obviously wasn't a big deal and it's not something that I put much thought to. Initially. But almost every corridor in almost every environment in this game is riddled with it. Immature messages written in blood, redundant, spray-painted symbols, and more. The film that inspired this game was about subtle atmosphere and art direction, and while the Sevastopol station is finely crafted and so far thrilling to be in, I feel that all of this typical graffiti plastered around every corner is just peeling away at the otherwise very well done and thought-out design. I don't understand why space stations in horror games like this have to have so much of it; with Dead Space it was passable because it made more sense within the context of the story and it's an original franchise. Isolation is trying so hard to be a proper Alien installment, and I would say that it mostly works, even with flying colors, but this one element is really jarring to me and feels completely unnecessary.

Perhaps there's some context to it that I haven't discovered or read about at any of the computer terminals yet, but I feel that this game would have been so much better without it. It didn't need all these messages scrawled over the place in blood or red spraypaint to be scary, and I feel like it takes away from the Alien atmosphere and causes it to look too much like Dead Space. Imagine if the original film had this stuff everywhere. It does, at least to me, have a huge and lasting impact on the atmosphere. It feels like the team thought that by adding this stuff that it would make Sevastopol station more "evil" or scary, but it does the exact opposite. Alien should feature sterile environments, not graffiti-laden ones, and it's literally the only thing holding this game back in any way for me. So on one hand while the environments are mostly awesome and while there is a great sense of atmosphere, on the other I can't help but feel that the team should have dialed some of this stuff down a notch. Or forty.

It also doesn't help that the game features a transit system, also like in Dead Space's Ishimura. Instead of Sevastopol feeling like a station out of Alien, it feels like a place you'd find in other games, and I find that more than a little disappointing. This one is a little more nitpicky, but I also feel that the various terminals and such are way too much like Bioshock in addition to the various tape players conveniently placed everywhere. The game is great otherwise and they nailed a lot of things, but if they make a sequel I desperately hope that they're able to create a more, I guess I should say down to earth location that actually feels like it's from one of the films instead of a place that takes elements that are frequent in other videogames and snowballs them together. I'm just having a hard time believing that people on the station prior to the events of the game would have taken the time to apply that much graffiti everywhere. It feels like it's trying too hard to "fit in" when it should have had enough faith to be its own thing. Because otherwise, it's fantastic.

Its mostly in the first couple of areas though right? Later in the game I wasnt paying much attention too it. Yeah its a bit overdone but the game is sooo long. A bit too long for my liking. But very good.

I actually just finished it today on hard. Had to really pull myself through to do it though, as later sections are quite hard, and very tense as well.

One of the best games with a movie licence ever, and one of the best Alien games.

What chapter are you on right now?

MMaRsu said:

Its mostly in the first couple of areas though right? Later in the game I wasnt paying much attention too it. Yeah its a bit overdone but the game is sooo long. A bit too long for my liking. But very good.

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I think I'm halfway or more through the game, and it's still just as prevalent. I hope you're right and that it starts to go away.

And I agree, it's by far the best movie-licensed game I've played and the best Alien game bar none. It's just unfortunate to me that this element is sticking out like a sore thumb.

I'm on chapter 7 or 8 I believe.

They do it, even if they dont know it, because of System Shock 2.

It's a pretty big crutch of a lot of games really to try to communicate stuff without relying on outright exposition. It's especially silly in Alien when you consider the amount of time the station has gone to shit is pretty short.

I'd say some games also try to make things too lived in. Like Joker's lairs in Batman Origins. He has a couple and he's only been in them a few days and you'd think he'd hired a professional "make it look like a crazy man lives here" decorator.