Fear’s Take on Alien Isolation
I have recently been going through my back catalog and knocking out older games that have been just hanging out on my digital shelf. Alien Isolation is a game I have wanted to play since it first released but honestly never got around to it. This past month I had the time, and jumped. I won’t lie, I just put this on my “overlooked” games blog, but that doesn’t mean I loved everything about the game. I’ll get into what I like, what I didn’t and what my overall feel for the game was.
So up until the week before I started playing this game, I had never seen either Alien or Aliens, I started watching right as Aliens 3 came out and watched the series from there. I was never a big fan, but I always heard watching the first two would give me a better appreciation for the Alien and franchise. I’m glad I watched them, it made me really get into the game, and this game is filled with so many nods to the original movie that would have flown over my head. I say that because going into this game you have to understand this game is more survival horror like the original game, than survival action that the sequel was. This took me a little to get used to going into the game’s first few level (I have been playing GTA: SA off and on the last few months). Then it happens, you get just a glimpse of the Alien as it grabs someone while hanging off chains, very similar to the first movie. My heart was pounding, and I was rushing as fast as I could to find the exit to that room.
The game is great as that; filling you with so much suspense that you just can’t take it. The sound of the Alien crawling in the vents and the sound of its heavy footsteps are two sounds I don’t know that I ever got used to hearing that didn’t make me panic and look around in fear. The developers were very smart in making the Alien AI not only random, but also making it so that you could not do anything to hurt it. If you heard or seen the Alien, you had better find a place to hide. Later in the game you get a flamethrower that will cause the Alien to retreat, but it will be back. Not knowing when the Alien would appear, rather you hear it or not, was just an extra layer of suspense to the game. There was one instance that I had no idea it was around, only to open a door and bam its standing right there and I had no time to do anything but die. There was also a time that I went to save at a save point (you have to do it manually) and right as the game was about to save, it has three lights that go out then it saves, the damn Alien got me. It was a moment of frustration, but also a cool moment seeing that you never really were safe.
Anyone who reads these blogs knows that I am not a person too concerned with graphics, but I will say this game has some average graphics. Not bad or mind blowing either. But what is great about it, is the art style is what I referred to it as “retro future”. What I mean by that is the game is set a good ways in the future, but everything looks like it came out of what the original late 70’s movie envisioned the future would look like. From the DOS computers to the desk items all look like they were from the movie. This really makes you feel like you are part of that franchise. Had I not just watched the movies I might have missed this or not understood, but it totally works in the game. Also at some points in the game you see out of windows into space and see a planet or other parts of the ship, and it honestly is an amazing sight.
The story itself sees you, Amanda daughter of series protagonist Ellie Ripley, trying to locate the black box to the ship your mother blew up in the first movie. Once you board the ship that has the black box, it all goes south. The ship has been decommissioned leaving people struggling for survival, and there has been a shady side of things as well, which is why you have the Alien on board. Just playing the game, you won’t get a lot of the story, but reading all the computer terminals you will find there was a lot going on here. While this wasn’t handled as bad as say, MGSV, it still wasn’t great. You could have spent the entire game really not know what is going on. When you do find the black box, it really doesn’t do enough with the message to make up for that. Not a bad story but not great.
Ok so I talked about a lot of the good points, but let’s talk about the bad. This ship you are on is huge, but really you only see a few areas. And most of those areas you do see, you will see going and coming. That’s because this game is filled with backtracking. Look I get a lot of open world or hub games have you going to certain places a few times, but this game doesn’t even give you much of an extension to the places it sends you. You might go to medical, but once you are done there go straight back to your starting spot. And the ship is huge. There could have been more variety.
Another issue is no matter how great and random the Alien AI is, during chapters where it’s not random but purposely tracking you, it can feel overly cheap. Chapter 10 is the worse with this the Alien is always there. Now by then you have a flamethrower, and that helps but it’s a long level, scares ammo, and filled with backtracking. And all that backtracking just put you right in the Alien’s path over and over. The droids on the ship are also an issue, though not as bad and add a little combat. But once you get into the middle of the game you are introduced to advanced droids and they for some reason are almost on par with the Alien.
Here’s the thing, for the most part from chapters 1-9 and 14-17 none of those issues are regular enough to bother you. In fact on chapter 5 the Alien stalks you but it is so damn suspenseful it didn’t come off as cheap to me. Those issues might still be there but they not in the forefront like they are in chapters 10-13. Those chapters really added nothing, and felt like they were there just to pad the game’s run time leading to a game that would have been epic at 10 hours, dragging on to the 20 hour mark. I often thought of quitting during the middle section, which is a shame because last levels are great. As I mentioned the game has manual save points, which I think added to the suspense of the game. I would have like to have seen a few more checkpoints that auto save. Not a lot, but during those longer levels dying just to have to complete annoying sections over again really didn’t help my temper. I would have also like face huggers not to be an auto death. One last negative, the ending is dumb. Aliens are walking in space with no issues, and that last 2 mins of the game just feels like they were trying to hook you for a sequel.
In closing I have to say that before and after I got past those middle chapters I loved. The last few chapters in particular are just visually and gameplay wise awesome. Had this game trimmed the fat, I think this would have been one of, if not the, best license games out there. If I ignored the middle, I’d give this game an 8.5, but since I can’t I have to go with a solid 7. If you see it for 20 or less, grab it.
0 Yorumlar