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[papercan55]

It took me about 7 hours to get to medical, and by then I was starting to get tired of it. I haven't gotten back into it since then. I really think I will finish it someday, but the initial feelings were not on par with what I expected. I still have it installed right now, so maybe I will check out my save and see if I can pick up where I left off? Not something I would normally do.

As amazing as the game was it really needed trimming with some chapters cutting entirely.
I would have preferred, like most people, a shorter game focused on just the alien and face huggers with replay value.
As it stands there are certain chapters that are really not needed and actually make the game worse.
Stick with it if you can, other than a few bad chapters it does get much better from medical onwards.
I would love a sequel but that's pretty much never going to happen i guess given sega was pissed at the sales.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

As amazing as the game was it really needed trimming with some chapters cutting entirely.
I would have preferred, like most people, a shorter game focused on just the alien and face huggers with replay value.
As it stands there are certain chapters that are really not needed and actually make the game worse.
Stick with it if you can, other than a few bad chapters it does get much better from medical onwards.
I would love a sequel but that's pretty much never going to happen i guess given sega was pissed at the sales.

The android gameplay was great though. Cutting some of those sections out would be terrible. Any section with human enemies sucked though.

 

[xamidoxhua]

I had no patience for this game. I got stuck at a bit right at the start where

Spoiler

the robots turned evil

and would kill me every time. After about 5 deaths I put the game down and never picked it up again.

 

[Mandelbo]

When you get to Medical (Chapter 5 iirc), that's when the game starts. That's when you'll know if the game is for you or not. Isolation is one of my favourite games from the past year, but I'm not gonna deny that it's slow, because it is - and all the better for it! I also won't deny that it really does start dragging later on, and I really think the game would have been better off had they cut a few of the chapters nearer the end. If the game had ended

Spoiler

after you go through the reactor core and into the alien nest (which already feels like a final area)

then the game would have finished more succinctly and wouldn't have felt like it was dragging in the final levels.

I had no patience for this game. I got stuck at a bit right at the start where

Spoiler

the robots turned evil

and would kill me every time. After about 5 deaths I put the game down and never picked it up again.

Were you playing it sneakily? The androids can't follow you into the vents and get distracted by noisemakers, so using those to your advantage would make the section much less frustrating. Plotting your next move so you don't get seen is incredibly important in this game.

 

[papercan55]

The android gameplay was great though. Cutting some of those sections out would be terrible. Any section with human enemies sucked though.

A few android sections would be great, that whole chapter of getting to samuels and then through apollo servers i found really bad.
The two spacewalks i also found a little problematic due to how slow you walk, either speed up the character(probably would look odd) or trim those sections down in size.

In terms of human enemies they just needed to be more involved with the alien and facehuggers, i loved setting the alien on the humans.
anytime there were humans and i couldn't do that though sucked, and that first human encounter was probably the worst enemy encounter i have ever played in a video game, it's as if nobody play tested that section.
So many people couldn't do that section without help.

If they had trimmed the game down in size and focused more on the alien i think the game as a whole would be much better, they could have spent all that extra dev time making the alien even more creepy, have him crawl on ceilings/walls and more interaction with the environments.

Al that said i still found the game to be amazing and easily the best depiction of the alien franchise, a huge shame that the developer won't get another chance.

Play it on your own, in the dark with the sound nice and loud and experience it.

I would actually go so far as to say if you don't play this game with either headphones or loud surround sound then i wouldn't bother playing at all.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

Wow slowly building tension is one of the best things about it at the beginning. If you get bored and don't feel it's scary then your not really embracing the emersion and just thinking like it's just a game. Play it on your own, in the dark with the sound nice and loud and experience it.

It's about feeling like a part of the Alien universe, go watch Alien again, it's a very slow film, but it builds tension and is still one of the very best Sci-Fi Horror movies of all time.

 

[tioslash]

Easily one of my favorite games of 2014. Hope you keep playing it until the end OP.

 

[eXistor]

For the most part I think it's a great game, but pacing and length are definitely issues. The game really does go on way too long. Cut off about 5 hours in total and the game's pacing would be fixed. That said, they really did know what they were doing with this one and I'd love to see them try it again in the future.

To the op: just give the game up. You've given it more than enough time to know if you'd like it or not, you clearly don't and there's nothing in the game that's gonna change your mind I think. It's too bad, but it happens, can't like 'em all.

 

[CaptainGyro]

Any section with human enemies sucked though.

yes they did. A good example of what helped the intro become too long while not doing shit to add to the atmosphere

I love the pacing in the game, including the "slow start". Not everything has to be fast paced or "evenly" paced like a movie, for people with short attention spans (the majority i guess?)

Also, 3 days? Unless you play less than an hour each playthrough, i don't know why you are still so early in the game. I assume this will take you weeks to finish.

I hate when people pull the short attention span thing, it's really insulting.. I could throw in a comment like the long intro is just for people who are apparently too slow to pick up on the atmosphere and immersion in a decent amount of time

Anyways, it's not like people were expecting the alien to pop out in the first five minutes of the game. after a point the atmosphere is already soaked in and it just drags on.

 

[Real Hero]

It's a great game thats clearly not for you

 

[moggio]

Unfortunately the game is at least 20 hours longer than it needs to be which is a shame.

 

[Kamina777]

The pace is fine and modelled after the film where it's a slow build.

If that's too slow for you then the game isn't for you I reckon.

You can grit your teeth and push through to when the shit really hits the fan or abandon ship.

The game is never action orientated though so if hiding and avoidance aren't your thing I suspect you thought best Alien game meant best Aliens game. But this is really aligned with Scott's take not Cameron's and there's no frantic pulse riffle action at all.

But the film is barely 2 hours, that's just way to slow for a non rpg.

 

[Galactic Fork]

I personally loved the atmosphere of the beginning and never felt it was "slow". Reading and hearing about the station's decline, the broken sections, and graffiti all made it really interesting without the alien.

Sadly, once the alien started stalking me, I really couldn't enjoy the atmosphere as much. I kinda wish the alien wasn't as constant.

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

Shit, so it's a really slow start then. I'll keep playing until I reach that lab and I'll see what happens

Also, play on hard modee. Don't worry its not that hard. It really should be the games normal.

 

[old manatee]

I don't get why they put the keypad to open the doors behind a metal panel that needs to be cut open with an ion torch. It seems inefficient to have to build a new metal panel any time someone needs to go into a room.

 

[SilentRob]

The game has a strong foundation but is completely bogged down by it's ridiculous amounts of filler. You spent hours upon hours searching keycards to walk through doors that lead into hallways that leads to a closed door you need to search a keycard for. Very little actually happens or progresses. It takes hours to start, then just doesn't want to stop (you basically have a finale, then it goes on for 4 hours after that and THEN it ends the same way it already could have ended 4 hours ago).

I like Amnesia and appreciate what Isolation tried to do but more than anything, this game just left me bored out of my mind.

 

[Chao]

Another thing I've noticed is that the checkpoints (or lack thereof) are pissing me off.

I could finally escape the synthetic guys but they were still running after me so I rushed to the elevator and the Alien came out of nowhere (I thought I wasn't supposed to confront it until I reached the medical lab, why was it there?) and killed me. Now I have to the the entire section again, JESUS CHRIST. I guess I need to use those manual save points more often.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Another thing I've noticed is that the checkpoints (or lack thereof) are pissing me off.

I could finally escape the synthetic guys but they were still running after me so I rushed to the elevator and the Alien came out of nowhere (I thought I wasn't supposed to confront it until I reached the medical lab, why was it there?) and killed me. Now I have to the the entire section again, JESUS CHRIST. I guess I need to use those manual save points more often.

I actually feel that the save points were spaced out very well. It gave the game tension knowing that you could die at any moment without frequent checkpoints to save you. But the save points never really felt so far apart that I got pissed off with it.

 

[papercan55]

I guess I need to use those manual save points more often.

You use them every single chance you get, that sound should be a huge relief every time you hear it.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

I'm liking what I'm hearing in this thread. Which difficulty is recommended for an experience that's challenging but not frustrating?

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

I'm liking what I'm hearing in this thread. Which difficulty is recommended for an experience that's challenging but not frustrating?

Hard. And hey even if you are getting frustrated by it you can always lower it. But I feel hard is the way the game is meant to be played.

 

[IcyEyes]

.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Hard.

Thanks. I'll take a look at my finances next week and buy it second hand.

 

[old manatee]

I'm liking what I'm hearing in this thread. Which difficulty is recommended for an experience that's challenging but not frustrating?

Just play normal. The game is waaay long and doesn't really benefit from too much dying.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Just play normal. The game is waaay long and doesn't really benefit from too much dying.

Yes it does. The greater the fear of death the greater the tension.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Just play normal. The game is waaay long and doesn't really benefit from too much dying.

Just note that I love sneaking around environments and have a lot of patience. Still normal or as suggested before, hard?

 

[EGM1966]

But the film is barely 2 hours, that's just way to slow for a non rpg.

It's not way too slow for me and plenty of others.

You can never find a balance that suits everyone with pacing like this. It's not possible.

This game happens to balance in my and others favour. For others it's too slow which I get but its not objectively too slow, just for some tastes.

If you find it too slow it's a case is deal with it or pass on the game.

Even GTA only appeals to a minority of you think about it, so essentially all games are niche by genre: some are just more niche than others.

I do feel the hugely different pacing dynamic between Alien and Aliens results in two core fan groups though: one that wants really slow, constant tension and another that wants muscular, sweaty action.

Like Alien before it Alien Isolation is really a horror game designed, if it works for you, to keep you constantly tense with almost no release until the end. It's not about thrills and spills but a sustained sense of dread and escalating tension.

I don't think it's perfect, I'd swap some elements of the chapter flow around a bit and they try and replicate Alien's famous "forth act" one time too many but overall is does a great job: but only for a minority of players relatively.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I just started this a couple nights ago and I've had the scripting break twice now, forcing me to reload an earlier save. (the first time was in the very beginning, the Captain just stood looking at me when I was to meet her at the bridge. The second time was at the point where you pick up the revolver, the part to fix the hacking device was not there. I believe killing all of the people trying to kill me broke the scripting there based on what happened the second time I went through that area..) Have I just been unlucky or is this something I should be aware of moving forward?

Other than that the atmosphere is incredible so far. They could not have nailed the aesthetic any better.

 

[RedAssedApe]

some people just aren't into this type of slow-burn. i've seen my fair share of gamers who claim to be alien super fans hated this game and never finished it. as if they wanted the alien to just pop out the moment you got onto the ship or something. seems like they are comparing the pacing of a 2 hour movie versus a 15+ hr game.

maybe OP should just stop playing as it doesn't sound like he's enjoying the tension and mood the game is trying to set.

 

[Zomba13]

Just want to say I absolutely loved the game and I'm not even that into the Alien franchise and I'm a massive scaredy cat and can't handle my horror.

Amazingly tense game and in my experience it was never cheap or unearned (except a single time when the Alien glitched right through the floor like a shark coming out of water and kinda rotated around me then got me).

Some tips:

1) Wear headphones. I always use them for everything but the sound design is so good in this game and headphones really help you track the movements of the Alien through the vents.

2) Take it slow and steady. Walk (and crouch) don't run. Running is almost never a good idea as it's noisy and the Alien is a lot faster than you and has good ears. If it sees or hears you running then it won't be long before it has it's claws around your throat.

3) Try and avoid fighting when you can. Yeah, you get some weapons but really you should treat this like a stealth game.

4) Save often. There aren't any checkpoints. You have to manual save and it saves exactly as it is. Make sure the Alien isn't behind you when you save or when you load back in it'll be right there.

5) The game is pretty lengthy and goes a while longer than you think, even after it's gone a while longer than you thought it'd be.

 

[Nzyme32]

I loved the games opening and build up. It's a shame others get bored when there isn't enough "action" and pew pew madness.

 

[somme]

Personally, having played the game on easy and hard; I preferred easy.

The Alien stays much closer to you in hard whilst in easy it does wander off which actually makes it much more frightening as you have no idea where it is. The motion tracker only goes so far to help.

You can think it's miles away, you turn a corner and there it is!

But whatever difficulty you play on it's an amazing game and definitely the best game of the franchise.

 

[hypotc]

This is the only game I've ever got a Platinum trophy on. I guess it helps to be a massive Alien fan (the first film).

The atmosphere is amazing. I personally loved the slow build at the start.

 

[MDSLKTR]

The game is just too long.
I would have been perfectly happy with 8-10 hours experience opposed to 20 hours.

Exactly what's stopping me from starting it. I love Alien, love the concept, graphics are crazy good, played one hour then tried the survival map which pits you directly against the xeno and I can't see myself doing the same things for 20 hours. When I'm ready I guess.

 

[CaptainGyro]

some people just aren't into this type of slow-burn. i've seen my fair share of gamers who claim to be alien super fans hated this game and never finished it. as if they wanted the alien to just pop out the moment you got onto the ship or something. seems like they are comparing the pacing of a 2 hour movie versus a 15+ hr game.
.

this does not make any sense at all. You don't have to stretch out the length of a slowburn in a game just to make it relatively proportionate of the time it takes in the movie.
If the game was 30 hours long instead of 15 would that mean it was ok for the game to take an even longer time to get started?

 

[Felix Lighter]

I don't know if I have the stomach for this. I'm early on, in the first section where I'm forced to investigate a medical section that the alien is patrolling and if this game keeps the tension up like this for like 15 more hours, I don't think I'll make it.

 

[Krejlooc]

I remember when this first came out, I had some friends over and we livestreamed our playthrough in VR. We had 2 streams going - one a webcam on us outside IRL, and another of the view from inside the rift, what the person in VR was actually seeing.

So we're getting through the slow build up, and haven't really reached the Alien yet. One of my friends was playing and he's walking in this hallway after escaping some of the androids, and he sees a stream of something coming down from one of the vents. So he says outloud "What is that?" and walks under the stream and looks up, only to see the alien sitting in a vent like Sam Fischer staring down, hissing and screaming. He lets out a loud "OH FUCK" and turns to run away, only for him to get immediately pinned, turned around, and the alien stabs his face to death.

It was AWESOME because it was the most cliched movie death ever. Everyone always thinks they'd be smarter than the dumb crew in situations like this, but my friend played out the death to a T.

There was another moment, not that far later on, when I was hiding from the alien in the medical bay. I was behind a desk, so I couldn't see him. I'm actually down on the ground IRL, peeking out through a crack under the desk. I'm wearing a transducer vest so I can actually feel the alien walking around the ship. I'm sitting, being as quiet as possible, when I can feel the alien walk from the left side of the room to the right side. I mean, I actually feel it in my chest, I can feel his location. I feel him stop directly in front of the desk. I can see his feet under the desk. I look up, and his head is above me, peeking around but he doesn't look down. I am trapped under the desk, and I can feel the thing hissing.

I knew in the bottom of my heart that I was safe, that none of it was real. But, IRL, my hair stood on end on my arms, my feet got clammy, my palms started to sweat. I vocalized all this happening outloud for the benefit of the people watching the stream. Eventually he slinked away and I was able to make my escape.

AMAZING game.

 

[ninecubed]

I don't post on GAF much (been here many years lurking) but I really felt compelled to write a post here because this game is just so damn good. I bought it, like others in this thread, on a whim during the PS summer / sci-fi sale. Couldn't put it down - amazing atmosphere, music / sound, pacing and tension.

Be patient - it's definitely worth it.

 

[shiba5]

I remember when this first came out, I had some friends over and we livestreamed our playthrough in VR. We had 2 streams going - one a webcam on us outside IRL, and another of the view from inside the rift, what the person in VR was actually seeing.

So we're getting through the slow build up, and haven't really reached the Alien yet. One of my friends was playing and he's walking in this hallway after escaping some of the androids, and he sees a stream of something coming down from one of the vents. So he says outloud "What is that?" and walks under the stream and looks up, only to see the alien sitting in a vent like Sam Fischer staring down, hissing and screaming. He lets out a loud "OH FUCK" and turns to run away, only for him to get immediately pinned, turned around, and the alien stabs his face to death.

It was AWESOME because it was the most cliched movie death ever. Everyone always thinks they'd be smarter than the dumb crew in situations like this, but my friend played out the death to a T.

There was another moment, not that far later on, when I was hiding from the alien in the medical bay. I was behind a desk, so I couldn't see him. I'm actually down on the ground IRL, peeking out through a crack under the desk. I'm wearing a transducer vest so I can actually feel the alien walking around the ship. I'm sitting, being as quiet as possible, when I can feel the alien walk from the left side of the room to the right side. I mean, I actually feel it in my chest, I can feel his location. I feel him stop directly in front of the desk. I can see his feet under the desk. I look up, and his head is above me, peeking around but he doesn't look down. I am trapped under the desk, and I can feel the thing hissing.

I knew in the bottom of my heart that I was safe, that none of it was real. But, IRL, my hair stood on end on my arms, my feet got clammy, my palms started to sweat. I vocalized all this happening outloud for the benefit of the people watching the stream. Eventually he slinked away and I was able to make my escape.

AMAZING game.

I'm afraid this game in VR would have given me a heart attack.


Totally worth it.

 

[FlyingSaucer]

Same problem as OP: the hand-holding lasted way too much time. I really wanted to like this game, because from the 80s visual aesthetics to the feelings of being imprisonned in a System Shock 3 world the game does a lot of things the right way. But from the promotional material, the interviews I had this idea of a really open, really freeform game and experiencing the actual product was a shock.

 

[WX3]

As amazing as the game was it really needed trimming with some chapters cutting entirely.
I would have preferred, like most people, a shorter game focused on just the alien and face huggers with replay value.
As it stands there are certain chapters that are really not needed and actually make the game worse.
Stick with it if you can, other than a few bad chapters it does get much better from medical onwards.
I would love a sequel but that's pretty much never going to happen i guess given sega was pissed at the sales.

What I wound up doing was backed up my save and then started a new game to get reaquainted with the game. Once it felt familiar I loaded up my old save and took off from there! I believe Iwill complete it by next weekend. I normally play a couple of hours per night.

 

[Krejlooc]

I'm afraid this game in VR would have given me a heart attack.


Totally worth it.

It's probably one of the single most intense VR experiences around. It really helps that it has great graphics, even in VR. It looks dingy and believable and the alien is terrifying in VR. Especially if you get the scale right, because suddenly it looks like 8 feet tall and hulking.

One of the deaths in the game involves the alien laying you on your back then straddling you before getting right up into your face and stabbing you to death. It honestly is one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever felt in VR. It honestly feels like the thing is mounting you. It's horrifying.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Play on hard for sure. People say it is too difficult in many forum posts, but I assure you it's not. It makes it shine.

No way. The AI is too wonky for that shit. You can can watch the Alien walk right out of a room, get up from under the table while facing the door and the thing will suddenly kill you from behind....because you broke vision of the door for 0.5 of a milisecond.

 

[starchild excalibur]

Finished it some days ago after recommendation from Gaf. I cant name a game that has better atmosphere then this, a absolutely beautiful game. In terms of gameplay it is one of the worst games i have ever played. A glorified hide and seek game where you are finding keycards to open doors for 20 hours. No variety, no excitement. To answer your question, if you dont like the beginning you are not going to like the game further on.

I don't echo you on the "one of the worst games I have ever played," but I agree with everything else. Loved Alien the film, love the world of the game and the atmosphere. Love that they went with a survival horror vibe with it, but the game is just pretty boring and unsatisfying to me. I would trudge through the rest of it if I didn't hear time and time again from even fans that it's too long. 8-10 hours would be the sweet spot for me, not 15-20.

Maybe i'll try playing it again some day though. I really want to like the game more than I actually do.

 

[Hopeford]

Amazing game, but it seriously takes a long while to get going. I have no problem with slow paced games, but my issue is that I think the game establishes its mood and setting a couple hours in and then keeps setting the tone for a good hour after that. It's not the worst thing ever since the game's atmosphere is really good, but it does feel like you could have cut a good hour from the intro hours and not lose much in the process. It feels a little like your coach is giving you an encouraging speech before a big tournament, and at first you get really into it, get really pumped and in the mood for it, then the speech keeps going and you're like "I get the point coach and I feel it in my bones - can I see the bracket now? Your speech did its job. You can stop now."

That said, game is really good at doing what it does. Does have issues with pacing in the end though, feels like the game goes on for a bit too long. The middle of the game is wonderful though and I have no complaints about it. Not a huge fan of the pacing overall but I'm still a huge fan of the game.

 

[pj]

I actually liked the game more before the stupid alien showed up. The strings controlling it were so obvious and there was no tension after the first 10 minutes dealing with it.

 

[Nuke Soda]

As soon as you hit your first button the real game begins, hope you like hitting buttons.

 

[Fancy Clown]

Just note that I love sneaking around environments and have a lot of patience. Still normal or as suggested before, hard?

Play on hard. The game even tells you to play on hard.

 

[ElTopo]

Takes about an hour for it to get going and get past the tutorials.

 

[MrSerrels]

I'd recommend playing until the Medical section, which is just... one of the best gameplay experiences I've ever had to be honest.