Alien: Isolation
PlayStation 3
Like other long suffering fans of the Alien franchise, I too have been longing for a decent video game adaptation of the series to hit home consoles. The only Alien game I have ever played and truly enjoyed was Alien Trilogy for the Sega Saturn, and that was released somewhere in the area of twenty years ago.
Ever since first catching whiff of this title through a Game Informer cover story, I have been looking forward to playing it. My initial impressions coming in were that this was going to be more of a sneaky, stealth based title where you evade the Alien as opposed to fighting it. And this for the most part was what I got. Did I like the game or not? Some facets of the game I thought were brilliant. Other gameplay mechanics left me very frustrated. Despite going back and forth on whether I was having a good time or not, now that I am through with the game I can say that it was for the most part a satisfying experience.
The story line isn't much to write home about. If you have ever played other first person games where you are trapped on a space station and have to go around reading and listening to crew logs, then this title does little to stand out. Based on the way the game started, I thought that the story was going to be one of the highlights of the game. But alas, it quickly devolved into nothing much more than moving around from point a to b to c to d, etc. I know that there was still story related stuff going on, as my character often held comm conversations with other characters off screen, but I tend to tune out what people are saying when they are talking while I am walking around and still playing the game.
Although the story line of the game is nothing fabulous, the atmosphere of the game is. The graphics are brilliant, sharp, and lifelike. The makers of the game did a terrific job creating some of the environments here. There is a ship in the game that has a layout which mirrors the Nostromo from the first Alien movie, and it is faithfully recreated in extreme detail. It is like the movie came alive and you are now walking around in it. Little personal touches make the game seem even more lifelike. I enjoy seeing things like half eaten meals, family pictures, ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts, and personal decorations scattered all over the game. It gives the environment so much character and lends a very specific feel of authenticity to the things going on around you.
The game's soundtrack is authentic to the original movie. If you are familiar with the film, you will be hearing quite a few tunes pulled straight from the movie. The music always correlates to what is going on in the game. In high pressure situations, the intensity is revved up. When things are chill and you are just kind of walking around, it tends to be a little more quiet. Couple immersive music and sound effects with the game's stunning graphical design, and you have one very impressive environmental experience on your hands. I can say nothing bad about this aspect of Alien: Isolation. I must say, the game sure looks and sounds the part.
But what good is such a great, immersive environment if the game itself isn't any fun to play? This is where I struggled with the game for the most part.
The majority of the stages in the game revolve around sneaking around and avoiding combat. Scattered throughout the game are androids, which as you should know from the movies can sometimes be very bad. There are some areas in the game where the androids ignore you and go about their work, but for the most part you want to stay away from them as they are liable to attack you at any time. Be on the lookout for human scavengers as well. Stealth is the preferred option when dealing with your foes, but even though this is not a combat oriented game, sometimes you have to fight.
Conventional attacks in the game are quite ineffective. Your default attack involves you swinging a wrench at your opponent. Effective against human foes, but useless against androids or the Alien. As you proceed in the game, you do discover weapons like a handgun and a shotgun, but ammo is very sparse. The key to survival in this game is crafting items to help you along your way. You can craft molotov cocktails, EMP grenades, shrapnel bombs, noisemakers, health items, and many other things.
For the most part however, you will find yourself sneaking around and avoiding combat situations. Anyone who has played a game with stealth elements should have an easy time picking up on things. Walk slowly or crouch to avoid making noise. Stay out of your enemy's line of sight. Avoid cameras. Hide in lockers. Create distractions to pull your enemy away from you. I have no problem with the stealth element when it comes to dealing with human or android foes. The main thing that irritated me about this game was your interaction with the Alien itself.
On paper it sounds like a great idea. Lay low, keep quiet as you sneak through a dark science station in outer space. An Alien is stalking you, and you must avoid it as you progress through the game. You don't have the proper weapons to kill or harm the Alien, so you must hide from it or shake it off of your trail when the opportunity arises. Sounds fun right? An exciting little cat and mouse chase to keep you on your toes. But the execution of the idea fell a little flat for me.
The Alien can't be killed or harmed. If it sees you, you are automatically dead because there is no getting away from it once it has you in its sights. Later on in the game you pick up a flamethrower that forces the Alien to retreat, but for the vast majority of the game you don't have this luxury at your convenience. So you have to be extra careful that you avoid the Alien and hide properly at all costs.
But a lot of times, the game doesn't let you hide properly. You will be walking along, minding your own business when all of a sudden the Alien appears out of nowhere and sees you. You are dead, with no warning whatsoever. You have a radar in this game that detects the Alien's movements, but a lot of times it is hard to read. It will show an Alien in the next room, but the next room will be empty. So that means it is in the vents above you and could drop down at any time. But then at other times, there will be nothing on the radar and the Alien will drop down from a vent and see you immediately. Bam, you are dead. Or you will be walking down a corridor and there is nothing on radar. You come to an intersection, turn the corner and guess what - there is the Alien. And you are dead. Many times the coast will be clear, so you will start working on hacking a computer or opening a door panel. The Alien just LOVES entering the room unexpectedly when you are doing these things. It takes too long to back out of what you are doing. By the time you do, it has seen you and you are done for.
So my problem was the (at times) ridiculously unfair AI in the game. You could do everything right and still find yourself in a situation where there is no escaping the Alien. I suppose some people will say that this adds to the tension and atmosphere of the game... makes it more unpredictable and exciting. I mean, I guess that's true. It makes you fear that damn Alien so much more. But I just found it very unfair at points. Especially when there is a long gap between save points and you die and have to replay the last twenty minutes over again. It is too random luck based, is what I am trying to say. Sometimes the Alien hounds you and won't leave you the frack alone, other times you hardly see it.
When you do see the Alien coming and it hasn't spotted you yet, the best thing to do is to hide. There are lots of lockers and cabinets to hide in. When you are in a locker, make sure you withdraw as far back into the locker as you can. If the Alien walks by, it can hear you breathing. So there is a button to hold your breath. Holding your breath drains your health, which is supremely annoying. But losing a little health is better than the Alien finding you and ripping your innards out. When hiding, also be sure to put the handheld radar away as the Alien can hear it.
The idea is to hide until the Alien leaves the area or goes up into the vents. Then you can come out and explore the area. Again, this is where the game gets annoying sometimes because you can find yourself camping out in lockers for a long time waiting for that stupid thing to go away. Or it will go away but immediately come back as soon as you emerge from hiding. This can be VERY annoying, especially if you have just wasted a lot of time evading it.
This is my main problem with the game. I thought it was a fantastic idea, but the execution of this idea was not perfected by any stretch of the imagination. My interactions with the Alien left me more frustrated and angry than exhilarated. Lots of trial and error while running through these levels. Lots of random luck involved. Expect to die a lot. A LOT.
And that is why I struggle with how to grade my experience with the game. Phenomenal presentation, visuals, environment, sound. An extremely immersive and detailed atmosphere. Truly top notch in every technical aspect. But it was just a bit too frustrating at times. There was a span of about two or three weeks where I didn't play the game at all because I was dreading picking it up. There is a lot of walking around and backtracking in the game. A lot of frustrating random deaths. The story line - hell I don't even really remember what was going on and I just finished the game. I was only along for the ride.
But now that I am over with it I think back on it fondly. Which is odd because I didn't always have a great time with the game. I realize that this could have been a lot better, but if you are a big time Alien fan this is probably the closest you will come to that authentic Alien experience on a video game console. The game itself has a lot of flaws, but as an experience it is pretty darn cool. I can't see myself giving it a B or higher, and it is definitely not D material. Anywhere in the C range would probably work. So I'll take the safe route here.
Conventional attacks in the game are quite ineffective. Your default attack involves you swinging a wrench at your opponent. Effective against human foes, but useless against androids or the Alien. As you proceed in the game, you do discover weapons like a handgun and a shotgun, but ammo is very sparse. The key to survival in this game is crafting items to help you along your way. You can craft molotov cocktails, EMP grenades, shrapnel bombs, noisemakers, health items, and many other things.
For the most part however, you will find yourself sneaking around and avoiding combat situations. Anyone who has played a game with stealth elements should have an easy time picking up on things. Walk slowly or crouch to avoid making noise. Stay out of your enemy's line of sight. Avoid cameras. Hide in lockers. Create distractions to pull your enemy away from you. I have no problem with the stealth element when it comes to dealing with human or android foes. The main thing that irritated me about this game was your interaction with the Alien itself.
On paper it sounds like a great idea. Lay low, keep quiet as you sneak through a dark science station in outer space. An Alien is stalking you, and you must avoid it as you progress through the game. You don't have the proper weapons to kill or harm the Alien, so you must hide from it or shake it off of your trail when the opportunity arises. Sounds fun right? An exciting little cat and mouse chase to keep you on your toes. But the execution of the idea fell a little flat for me.
The Alien can't be killed or harmed. If it sees you, you are automatically dead because there is no getting away from it once it has you in its sights. Later on in the game you pick up a flamethrower that forces the Alien to retreat, but for the vast majority of the game you don't have this luxury at your convenience. So you have to be extra careful that you avoid the Alien and hide properly at all costs.
But a lot of times, the game doesn't let you hide properly. You will be walking along, minding your own business when all of a sudden the Alien appears out of nowhere and sees you. You are dead, with no warning whatsoever. You have a radar in this game that detects the Alien's movements, but a lot of times it is hard to read. It will show an Alien in the next room, but the next room will be empty. So that means it is in the vents above you and could drop down at any time. But then at other times, there will be nothing on the radar and the Alien will drop down from a vent and see you immediately. Bam, you are dead. Or you will be walking down a corridor and there is nothing on radar. You come to an intersection, turn the corner and guess what - there is the Alien. And you are dead. Many times the coast will be clear, so you will start working on hacking a computer or opening a door panel. The Alien just LOVES entering the room unexpectedly when you are doing these things. It takes too long to back out of what you are doing. By the time you do, it has seen you and you are done for.
So my problem was the (at times) ridiculously unfair AI in the game. You could do everything right and still find yourself in a situation where there is no escaping the Alien. I suppose some people will say that this adds to the tension and atmosphere of the game... makes it more unpredictable and exciting. I mean, I guess that's true. It makes you fear that damn Alien so much more. But I just found it very unfair at points. Especially when there is a long gap between save points and you die and have to replay the last twenty minutes over again. It is too random luck based, is what I am trying to say. Sometimes the Alien hounds you and won't leave you the frack alone, other times you hardly see it.
When you do see the Alien coming and it hasn't spotted you yet, the best thing to do is to hide. There are lots of lockers and cabinets to hide in. When you are in a locker, make sure you withdraw as far back into the locker as you can. If the Alien walks by, it can hear you breathing. So there is a button to hold your breath. Holding your breath drains your health, which is supremely annoying. But losing a little health is better than the Alien finding you and ripping your innards out. When hiding, also be sure to put the handheld radar away as the Alien can hear it.
The idea is to hide until the Alien leaves the area or goes up into the vents. Then you can come out and explore the area. Again, this is where the game gets annoying sometimes because you can find yourself camping out in lockers for a long time waiting for that stupid thing to go away. Or it will go away but immediately come back as soon as you emerge from hiding. This can be VERY annoying, especially if you have just wasted a lot of time evading it.
This is my main problem with the game. I thought it was a fantastic idea, but the execution of this idea was not perfected by any stretch of the imagination. My interactions with the Alien left me more frustrated and angry than exhilarated. Lots of trial and error while running through these levels. Lots of random luck involved. Expect to die a lot. A LOT.
And that is why I struggle with how to grade my experience with the game. Phenomenal presentation, visuals, environment, sound. An extremely immersive and detailed atmosphere. Truly top notch in every technical aspect. But it was just a bit too frustrating at times. There was a span of about two or three weeks where I didn't play the game at all because I was dreading picking it up. There is a lot of walking around and backtracking in the game. A lot of frustrating random deaths. The story line - hell I don't even really remember what was going on and I just finished the game. I was only along for the ride.
But now that I am over with it I think back on it fondly. Which is odd because I didn't always have a great time with the game. I realize that this could have been a lot better, but if you are a big time Alien fan this is probably the closest you will come to that authentic Alien experience on a video game console. The game itself has a lot of flaws, but as an experience it is pretty darn cool. I can't see myself giving it a B or higher, and it is definitely not D material. Anywhere in the C range would probably work. So I'll take the safe route here.
Overall:
C
No comments:
Post a Comment