Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsTense, scary, and well put together.
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2014
Prepare to have Prometheus AND the game that shall not be named redeemed. Alien Isolation follows Ripleys daughter attempting to find her 15 years after the loss of the Nostromo.
Graphics are sublime. The developer did wonderfully capturing not only the feel of the tech standard of the original Aline, they even did a great job adapting the movements of the Alien, making it sometimes serpentine, and sometimes almost human. The lighting and environment setups are wonderful and actually laid out somewhat logically. The wonderful addon is the motion tracker, which also serves as your objective marker, and a serious kudo to whowever managed to get the light of the PS4 controller to make that lambent green glow everyone will instantly recognize. The tools and toys all also look and play like 1980's tech, which is a nice touch and a attempt to be dedicate to the universe as a whole thats usually either poorly done or pointless, but works perfectly here.
Audio and creepiness are well maintained. Ducts and other hiding spots are logically laid out and allow for get use of environment. The only issue I've had is it is sometimes a nightmare to distinguish between a green button thats a critical plot device and a green button thats just a green button. Exploration is well rewarded with bits and bobbles.
Gameplay is tight, and while its frustrating not being from the USMC, you definitely tell fast that your character is an engineer and not a soldier. Subtle highlights are being able to see your feet as you walk, the crafting system is simple but useful and most of the devices you'll actually use. The Alien is well setup and will stalk others almost as much as you, and its a creepy thrill to see its drool draining down from a ceiling vent and knowing you have a few moments while its erched there waiting for a snack. Combat can be frustrating as you can bust a head with your wrench but at the cost of alerting the whole level. Ripley the engineer also doesn't have a terrible amount of engineering knowledge outside ofjury rigging some parts, like say the synthetics you encounter basically cant be killed by gunshots. The only real downsides with the Alien are it moves insanely fast and at random moments, so you can be caught unawares even with a good sneaky plan, and also the motion tracker can be a death sentence when your close enough to it. I do wish you could turn in lockers rather than be stuck staring straight ahead, as the Alien does not give a lot of signals as to its location after its more than a few feet away.
There is a good amount of horror in this survival horror in this, and your paid off in spades for being stealthy. While you do get bit pieces for taking out enemies, watching the Alien clear a whole room for you like a scythe through wheat is one of those simple things in life you treasure.
There's only a handful of nits. I lost sync between audio and video for several of the cutscenes, which basically obliterated any horror feeling they may have caused. The finding quests are a bit trite and totally irrelevant to the story. Some of the QTE are unnecessary. Unless I'm under great stress or being shot at, wasting time doing QTE is annoying at best. There are some reactions that simply make no sense. You can't loot weaponry until you find it at the appropriate story point. The other humans you encounter should have been programmed with better AI to flee the Alien and draw it away rather than stand and shoot you, an unarmed woman. The only thing that made me actually upset was the fact that there was no tutorial. Non-spoiler, until you get a good hour into the story, you're basically safe, and you need to poke around A LOT to discover all the commands. They had no instructions, and while I can get behind making the player figure out how to play, theres a need for basic game mechanics to be glaringly shoved in your face, at least at the beginning.
Overall, this is wonderful. I wish there was that rush of relief music you get when you've survived another day, but the atmosphere of tension is well maintained and helped along by a dozen tiny things they worked into the visual appeal that add to the horror without making it tacky or overly trite.
