Alien: Isolation

Greetings from Iran! It took me three days to complete the campaign. I found the graphics to be head-and-shoulders above other games. The texture is very high-quality and more realistic than Watch Dogs', though round objects such as buttons are not perfectly rounded. The expression on characters' faces during cut scenes are vacant and unnatural, despite the high-quality texture that even shows sweat running down their faces. The scenery outside the spaceship is remarkable, though you won't get to see it much; when you do, look around and enjoy the "blinding" sun nearby. It's a wonderful effect!

The beginning levels were very slow and I was quickly bored of the repetitive nature of the game, of walking through the same claustrophobic sterile corridors, constantly running into locked doors requiring unlocking tools nowhere to be found. 1/3rd into the game I found a jack and much later two types of torches (ION and Plasma torches) to open those locked doors. This means you have to do quite a lot of backtracking; go to one end of the spaceship and return through the same corridors back to where you were to do something else.

Basically the game consists of performing a set of repetitive tasks such as opening locked doors, finding key-cards and pass-codes on computer terminals to get the doors opened, restoring power to generators and hacking, "again" to open locked doors! Boring, isn't it? I couldn't be more wrong, because after the incredibly slow built-up, there comes the alien; agile, frightening, unstoppable and truly well-designed I might add. Every time you see it adrenaline is bound to rush through your veins! Surprisingly, its movements are unscripted and totally unpredictable, so every time you die you will have to try out new tactics to get past the alien, as it will be roaming some other spot. You have to sneak around and use a motion detector "at all times" so that you don't accidentally run into the creature. It can even find you by the sound of your breathing while you're hiding in a closet! The downside is, the motion detector never tells you if the alien is a story above or below you, which makes the game all the more exciting.

The alien could kill you anytime and anywhere; whether you are in the middle of starting up a generator, hacking a door, reading a journal on a computer terminal, or "saving your progress"! Once you get to a distant phone booth to save your progress, the alien might cut you open while you are saving the game, which is really frustrating. The worst thing is, saving spots are very distant from one another and you might find yourself dead after performing loads of tasks and evading the alien before you find the next saving spot or you might get killed right in the middle of saving your progress! Another frustrating thing is the map. It never tells you if the location you are to reach is below or above you. You will die a lot trying to find out just where the game wants you to go, and the map is quite confusing for another reason; use the map and move around and see if you don't get lost!

During the game, you will collect maps, blueprints and seemingly useless stuff enabling you to build useful things, which will be vital to your progress. Of all the things I built, I could do without most of them, but some are essential. Make sure you have at least 20 revolver bullets, 6 med kits and 3 pipe bombs with you at all times. You will not be able to progress during later levels without at least 2 pipe bombs to get rid of a horde of relentless androids. Bullets are scant and won't do any good when encountering four androids at once, so you will have to throw two pipe bombs to pick off the four androids. Don't waste your valuable pipe bombs on individual androids. Instead, shoot them twice in the head with your revolver and hit them twice with your wrench. Oh and never run or pick up fights because that will lead the alien straight to your location. The flamethrower will make it go away for a few seconds only to come back to you more forcibly. It's truly the most invincible foe ever seen in a video game.

To deal with the alien, you will get a flamethrower 2/3rd into the game, but that doesn't mean that you don't need to sneak around anymore, because just like all other types of ammunition, flamethrower bullets are extremely rare and you will need them A LOT, especially during later levels. Always try and save as many bullets as you can. NEVER have less than 15 revolver bullets or 300 flamethrower bullets, because if you run out of bullets you will not be able to progress any further and there's no going back, as when you save the game your previous save games are overwritten. If you're lucky, every one hour, you will find a single revolver bullet and virtually no flamethrower bullets; that said ammunition in Alien Isolation is extremely rare and hard to come by.

All in all, the game is very intense and after finishing it you will feel that you have accomplished something big. It's a challenging and frightening experience. I strongly recommend this title to horror movie fans. Just ignore IGN and Gamespot and immerse yourself in the atmospheric universe of Alien Isolation.

After many games that ranged from horrible to decent, Alien fans have finally gotten the game they deserve. Alien Isolation is an excellent survival horror game that nails the atmosphere, mood, and paranoia from being on a derelict ship like the first alien.

The gameplay is great. Moving around feels natural and using items and weapons is nice and efficient. You get a wide variety of tools and weapons to help you survive, and they all can be useful rather than some being completely useless, and you can use great strategies with these items. The graphics and sounds are great too.

The survival element is the strongest. The game nails the mood and atmosphere and really makes you feel like your on that ship, especially when the Alien is around. The Alien has an amazing AI and is completely unpredictable. So you always have to be on your toes when it's around. There are also androids (which are pretty creepy) and paranoid survivors you have to deal with and while you have weapons to defend yourself, gunfire attracts the alien, so you have to be careful.

The only negative part about the game is that the later parts have many false endings and involve a lot of backtracking, which can get tiring for some. The game could have easily been 2 hours shorter, but overall, Alien Isolation is a great game and something Alien fans will love. highly recommend it.

Opinion is divided on Alien Isolation. You ever love it's inch-by-inch stealth, occasionally frustrating unscripted events and lack of combat, or you hate it. Certainly, if you have been raised solely on 1080p exploding uber-monsters, plasma turbo-cannons and a body count higher than a city-wide zombie apocalypse, you may well fall in the second category.

But that's not me and so I can only speak from what I have seen of the game.

The developer knows their audience, that is for sure. Even the grainy VHS tape appearance of the 20th Century Fox logo when you insert the disc is pitched at a male gamer who was too young to watch Ridley Scott's original Alien in the cinema, but who fell in love with it at home on video. This is no Alien Resurrection with its throwaway CGI and ugly evolutions of the original monster. Forget the lame AVP franchise with their atmosphere thinner than LV426. Last year's Colonial Marines? Nope, never heard of it. There isn't even a smart gun on show here. Instead, Alien Isolation is a faithful attempt to tie a loving companion story to the original film and amazingly it is done with completely authentic and painstakingly recreated music, sound effects and interiors.

So, forget your expectations of what a modern action game should be and join Amanda Ripley as the search for her long missing mother leads her to space station Svenstopol, where on arrival it is immediately obvious that, in this run-down backwater, something has gone badly wrong. Aboard the station the atmosphere is truly frightening. Chokingly tense, it's as visually creepy as Doom III with sound design to rival the high points of the Silent Hill series. Forget that you know exactly what the Alien looks like, forget that you've seen it do it's stuff a million times. It won't make any difference. When it finally does appear, the effect will be as great as it was all those years ago, watching the film. It is elegant, beautiful and utterly lethal.

So what does it play like? While this game is in the first person, make no mistake, this ain't Call of Duty. This is old skool survival horror, complete with a clunky movement system that all but forbids you to out-gun or even out-run trouble. Progress is gradual, movement halting. The first lesson the game will teach you is to slow down, be prepared, never rush in. The puzzles and tasks reflect this. You are required to use observation and lateral thinking rather than a volatile trigger finger. As the story unfolds you will be reminded of those halcyon days of Resident Evil I and II when searching for keycards and missing components from broken-down machines to further your progress was the glue that bound the set-pieces together. None of the puzzles are prohibitively hard. But trying to execute them while you are being actively hunted, is.

But the granddaddy of survival horror is not the only touchstone here. There is a thoroughly modern sheen on this game, not just in terms of graphical detail and environmental effects but also features. Indeed the game owes a great deal to the original Dead Space, not just in the crafting system but also in overall atmosphere. The post Resident Evil 4 staple of strategically placed button bashing cues are present too and used to strong effect – always furthering the action, never impeding the story. It's a masterpiece of storytelling and like the genre-defining The Last of Us, it allows the other non-player characters to tell much of the story. Hence the action blends seamlessly with the cut scenes.

While these may sound like the doe-eyed ramblings of a super-fan, Alien Isolation isn't perfect. The very nature of the alien's unscripted arrivals can be frustratingly difficult, particularly early on when you have no defence against it and don't really know what you can get away with. If it sees you, you die. If you sprint, you die. If you make a noise, you die. In short, you will die a lot! Several hours into the narrative, I began to try and use the technique of making a noise on purpose and then relocating quickly to draw the Alien away from an area I needed to access. Even this, is very hit and miss as the creature can negotiate the air ducts so quickly that if it is hunting you, it can be on you in a matter of seconds. No doubt, this makes for a pulse pounding ride, but it can be frustrating too and were the makers not so generous with save points, I believe the game would be basically unplayable. The load times are also a little lengthy in places, although to be fair, the payoff is that the game looks incredibly beautiful.

I could go on but, really it's better that you experience the game for yourself. But make no mistake, this is high budget, high concept fan fiction pitched at the older gamer. Their mission statement was obviously to deliver not just an exciting experience but also to add to the Alien universe rather than detracting from it as, in my opinion, everything from Alien 3 onwards has done. And in this, they have succeeded utterly.

It's risky fare for Sega to pick up such a well-known franchise in an arena it has consistently failed to flourish. H.R.Giger's trademarked xenomorph has generally disappointed upon its plentiful player-immersing platforms, a cross-over plugging plunge that has always fallen short of expectation and in execution. But, the loyal fanbase continues to exist and for those inundated (and re-inundated) by 'Alien' prequel 'Prometheus', finally there's a game that lives up to the legend. For hardcore fans of the face-hugging fiends, 'Alien Isolation' co-exists in harmonious rapture to the first film of the franchise, controlling Ripley's daughter Amanda as she investigates the Nostromo to attain closure. An absolute delight whence interweaving Scott's feature within the game's plot, with a little aid from Fox, the game literally plays like the film - the production team have picked apart every element present within the film in great detail and recreated its brooding atmosphere, lo-fi retrogradation and deliciously dread-inducing soundtrack in making not only the best ever 'Alien' based game - fact - but have created much much more. SEGA have created the 'Alien' experience. For the ardent fan, the game is a must. For the gamer, however, its a necessity.

Experiential fabrication comes at a cost - and that cost was bucking the trend. With the capabilities of next generation consoles allowing for raging wars of epic proportions to engulf the screen, armies of thousands-strong battling it out have become commonplace for these supreme mega-bit simulations. Action revels in eponymous overture, guns blazing, kill everything in sight to win. Frankly, in todays market, all out warfare sells like hot cakes. 'Alien Isolation' renders this defunct. Or at least highly recommends against it. The aim of the game is to survive - any way that you possibly can, which means being strategic, being tactical, being stealthy, being quiet. It's a virtual game of chess between you and the alien. That's not to say you can't kill anything, it's just not advised - where you'd think offing the antagonist paves the way for linear progression, it's more worthwhile (and more satisfying) to plan out your undetected escape - be it in a locker, cabinet, under a desk or in a vent - it is for the virtues of patience and preparation that you will reap reward. As a minor con, the game is rather unforgiving, continual trial and error (and many a death!) will unquestionably frustrate the player, but the gratification is so much sweeter when you finally progress.

Graphically sublime, invigoratingly fresh, poignantly tense and foreboding; the wondrous intelligence of the game urges the player onto the edge of the seat and demands concentration. It's difficult, and at times rather repetitive completing an array of missions that require the player to go back and forth to fetch an item, but it's different. It's alien.

Unlike most reviewers I have read from, I have neither played Aliens: Colonial Marines nor watched the original Aliens movie, so I do not have any real references to compare to. The only "horror" game I had played before this was Alan Wake - an excellent game in its own right. Alien: Isolation, however, is something else. It is not just a horror game, heck, it is not even just a game, it is an experience that has to be felt to be believed.

I started off at Medium difficulty, which I bet is the perfect choice for your first playthrough. Judging by the atmosphere and the survival-oriented resources, I quickly understood I had to play an excellent stealth game, which I did - crafting items, conserving ammo, never making a sound. All good until the Alien took me down for the first time - I was creeping through a vent, but with the Alien lurking around, I had made a bit too much noise before entering it. Suddenly, the Alien hopped down behind me with that terrifying metallic thud. It uttered its customary terrifying squeal and dragged me by my feet before I knew it, game over! I had headphones on with the volume turned up and it was 3 in the night, so it was apt that all my composure went for a toss - I was short of breath, my hands were suddenly cold & trembling and I could not resume playing without taking a break. No game has ever done this to me, and I doubt any game ever will. It is so good! The game is challenging, and I'd definitely say it is not meant for everyone. But, it is a masterpiece, there is no doubt about it. I have never played a game with such depth of atmosphere - the excellent graphics (e.g. the most realistic rendering of fire ever, period!) and the unbelievable sound design come together to create one of the best game worlds I have ever experienced. If nothing else, this game sets the precedent for truly immersive worlds in the gaming industry. Combined with the stealth-oriented crafting-based survival gameplay and an intelligent, deadly monster, this game is a blockbuster of sorts.

The game is not perfect though - the story could be much more taut and the human character models could be more lifelike. But, these factors take away only half a point from what is essentially a 10/10 game, just for the experience it provides.

I highly recommend this game to not just survival horror fans, but also anyone who wants to have an other-worldly, surreal experience in a game. Play before you die!