So I'm at Mission/Chapter 5 and I'm having a blast. Watching gameplay, it seemed that Alien Isolation was a glorified fetch quest where you die really easily. While there is a ton of fetching, the journey and what you experience is extremely varied and always enthralling.
Visually the game is amazing, technical stuff is aight, but its all the objects and stuff in the world itself. Feels like you're running around on a legit space station instead of a giant steel coffin. Sometimes rooms and such seem unrealsitcially dark, but that's nitpicking, the darkness itself sets the mood. The soundtrack is excellent, waiting for a travel tram to arrive while the music ramps up and nothing is actually happening is one of the most tense moments I've ever experienced with videogames.
Gameplay wise, it always feels like the Alien is stalking you and it decides when it wants to stop toying with you, which is the most important aspect to nail in a horror game like this. Fear and anxiety get compounded when humans or droids are also in your way, things feel unpredictable constantly. Sprinting feels like a high risk move instead of feeling like the main way to traverse the game world, running towards an elevator or tram is a fight or flight scenario in any other game wouldn't matter.
The combat and crafting are functional and aren't bad, which is fine for a stealth survival horror title.
So yeah, I thought Gaf hyped this up way too much and that I'd be disappointed when I played it, but it turns out I really dig what Creative Assembly did for a Alien game.
