Alien: Isolation

[Solos blaster]

So I hooked my 360 up to the surround sound just for this game and it changes atmosphere completely. Turning off the music(or on the lowest setting for some music), was a necessity.

After you get the tuner and go back to hack the elevator to go up to comms, I decided to hit the room that's through the vent since I thought I could get to the room now with the tuner...WRONG! Not only do I need the torch to get to that room but the alien saw me when the vent opened up. I went back down to the room and waited for my certain doom(since there was no other way out of the room), which didn't happen right away. I waited while it began to patrol the lobby some more before entering the vents...and with the surround sound hooked up...I felt like it was right above me even with no speaker on the ceiling lol. So I sat for an actual hour in the corner of the room, listening to it roaming around in the vents waiting for certain death that did not come. It would come near me but stayed in the vents and never did find me. I was certain it was in the vent, but I said "F it", and went for the elevator. I don't know if it heard me in the vent but I never saw it as I briefly scanned the lobby then ran to the elevator and hacked it...wating to be killed the whole time but I made it lol.

Yeah, I'm very slowly making progress through the game.

 

[Wes R]

Sadly i bet this game will get bad reviews from the FPS crowd for being boring. Gamers have become so fickle and divisive since i was younger.

 

[Jeyl]

I think as the game progresses that Amanda is going to find herself on LV-426 and wind up inside the Derelict spacecraft.

Spoiler

While it might not have been Amanda and only a flashback, CALLED IT! The moment you take control of Marlow made me a very happy camper. Every step the team took was one step closer to the Derelict. I know it's out there, and it's going to make a grand entrance. Which step will it be?.. Come on! Show yourself!

Things I would like to make note of.

1. NO PROMETHEUS REFERENCES! This is a big one and I give huge props to anyone on the team who decided not to carry over any details from Prometheus. The derelict is the same, HR Giger's design was not toned down, the Space Jockey looks exactly like it does from ALIEN and as an added bonus it's referred to as a life form and not a suit!
2. Great rendition of the Jockey room. In ALIEN, you could tell that the Space Jockey set was a redress of the egg chamber. The game's designers took a step further and made the room not only incredibly large, but also circular to reflect the design as seen in Giger's works.
3. A continuity issue between ALIEN and ALIENS is resolved in this part of the game. Marlow decides to go into a part of the Derelict passed the Jockey room where the distress signal is being transmitted so he can shut it down. Sort of his way of making a claim on the ship.
4. The "Director's Cut" version of the alien transmission is used. I was kind of hoping the original would show up once you got closer to the source of the transmission, but I like this version of the signal enough to not mind (It incorporates Jerry Goldsmith's main title theme!).
5. The sequence where you descend down the shaft leading into the egg chamber now pretty much confirms that it's not part of the Derelict ship. Alien temple? :O
6. Despite excellent notes in continuity, there was no used egg in the chamber upon closer inspection. Maybe the eggs don't die when releasing the face hugger?
7. On that note, the eggs finally look like they did from the first movie instead of the ALIEN RESURRECTION ones!​

Two tiny issues though.

1. How the heck did Dallas, Lambert and Kane bring all those boxes with them to the Derelict? I wanted to say that it was another team who found the Derelict, but the dialogue keeps making references to the first film, especially the "it looks like they dragged something out" bit.
2. The damaged section we see in ALIENS isn't covered. Guess this is the last bit of detail involving the planet's volcanic activity solving continuity issues (Though I'm still wondering how the ship shrunk down to 1/3 it's size).​

 

[Bryancd]

Did you try running it through bootcamp?

I did on my 2011 dual core 2.7Ghz iMac and it won't run.

 

[The Terminator]

I did on my 2011 dual core 2.7Ghz iMac and it won't run.

that's a shame

 

[Jedi2016]

Sadly i bet this game will get bad reviews from the FPS crowd for being boring. Gamers have become so fickle and divisive since i was younger.

The FPS crowd doesn't even seem to be playing it, really. But it's demonstrating that they're not the end-all, be-all of gamers any more, because everyone else is playing it, and there's a lot of them.

 

[Wes R]

The FPS crowd doesn't even seem to be playing it, really. But it's demonstrating that they're not the end-all, be-all of gamers any more, because everyone else is playing it, and there's a lot of them.

You don't even see the game mention anymore in the media, it's like as soon as Evil Within came out that it lost it's title of scary. I haven't had a chance to play either yet as i'm still way backlogged but it seems to me they're 2 different kinds of survival horror. Then again the gaming media is pretty fickle. As soon as the new Call of duty comes out they'll forget everything else.

 

[Bryancd]

that's a shame

I'm crushed. May need to finally get an X-Box..

 

[Jeyl]

And finished.

Spoiler

Well, that was intense. I'm not going to lie, this is the kind of ALIEN story I've always wanted. You think you're dealing with only one alien until suddenly the story throws you through a loop when you go into the area below the main reactor. The reveal was just fantastic. I know there's a big debate going on with regards to how this could all be possible, so I'm just going to summarize with my own theory.

DOUBLE SPOILER WARNING

There is definitely a Queen on Sevastopol. I have no doubt in my mind. The look and feel of the nest is such a call back to ALIENS that even the already dead victims and placement of the empty eggs are identical. Just because we didn't see the Queen doesn't mean she wasn't there. The marines certainly didn't encounter her on their first trip into the nest and Ripley just happened to bump into her by accident. I like how the later part of the game introduces aspects of the Alien infestation from ALIENS while keeping the source of the nest and eggs a secret. Maybe she'll appear in a DLC.

 

[Jedi2016]

You don't even see the game mention anymore in the media, it's like as soon as Evil Within came out that it lost it's title of scary. I haven't had a chance to play either yet as i'm still way backlogged but it seems to me they're 2 different kinds of survival horror. Then again the gaming media is pretty fickle. As soon as the new Call of duty comes out they'll forget everything else.

That's a media issue. Over on NeoGAF, they're still talking about A:I quite a bit, everyone loves it.

Games media in general these days seems to be primarily geared towards advertising a game pre-release. Once the game is out and the review is done, they just don't care about it anymore.. it might as well not exist. Even the big games like CoD and GTA get barely a mention once it's in stores.

 

[Wes R]

I've also noticed you never see games advertised on tv much anymore, i saw a bayonetta 2 ad and was in shock lol. I don't trust the gaming reviewers/media, they have to say nice things or the companies won't give them freebies and they'll be out of work. I wonder if there will be any DLC for this game, maybe if it does well enough this company will get all future Aliens games since they seem to know what fans want.

 

[The Terminator]

I saw some like 8/9000 pixel renderings from the game and I'm seriously blown away

I'm crushed. May need to finally get a Playstation.

Fixed

 

[The Terminator]

Found the link to them high-res goodies
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/k_putt/sets/72157648059086540

Definitely big enough to get printed and turned into wall art

 

[Riceball]

I've also noticed you never see games advertised on tv much anymore, i saw a bayonetta 2 ad and was in shock lol. I don't trust the gaming reviewers/media, they have to say nice things or the companies won't give them freebies and they'll be out of work. I wonder if there will be any DLC for this game, maybe if it does well enough this company will get all future Aliens games since they seem to know what fans want.

But I've seen ads for this game on TV several times.

 

[mattrendar]

Great game ! Almost done with it , and it's been a scary and tense ride the whole way ! Big thumbs up from me ...

 

[Birdie]

Finished this afternoon and just started playing 'Crew Expendable'. Nice to see the ole' ice cube tray trackers back in action

 

[Jeyl]

Funny how "Crew Expendable" worked out.

Dallas: Closest to the original movie version that you can get, with some obvious changes. Dying in the vent portion makes this the official movie version.
Parker: Playing as Parker is definitely a take on the partially filmed deleted scene where Parker does indeed try to trap the alien in the airlock but fails thanks to Ash.
Ripley: The version where Dallas doesn't contest Ripley volunteering to go into the vent!

Also, is that Veronica Cartwright voicing Mother in "Last Survivor"? If it is that was an excellent rendition.

 

[Birdie]

I played Dallas, the vent scene was more terrifying than anything in the main game, outstanding The guy voicing Ash did a great job. Pity it's so short.

 

[Solos blaster]

Yea, "crew expendable" had me tip toeing through the station before I even met the alien...definitely should have played the campaign first lol.

 

[CB2001]

Also, is that Veronica Cartwright voicing Mother in "Last Survivor"? If it is that was an excellent rendition.

Don't know.

Additional Edit: rewatched gameplay footage from the "Lone Survivor" mission. It does sound a bit like her, but hard to know for sure. It's not a bad rendering of Mother. TBH, I'm surprised they didn't use the original audio recordings for it (I mean, they had all the audio recordings for every sound and bleep from the first film, yet the countdown timer's voice isn't something they would have? Doesn't make sense. Maybe they couldn't get permission from the original voice actress/her family to allow the use of her voice for the game?).