Phatose on 24/10/2014 at 00:55

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Well, just beat it.

The first 10 hours or so are fantastic, but then when it gets towards the end, it forgets what made it work to begin with.

It's a good game, and I'd recommend playing it eventually, but if you've waited this long you might as well do as ZylonBane suggests, and wait til the inevitable complete edition. It's solid, but not "must play right now".

catbarf on 4/11/2014 at 01:03

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After playing off and on for a few weeks I'm now done with the campaign. Steam says I've played 15 hours, and I regret playing on Normal difficulty, because I was never challenged for resources (maxed out my inventory about halfway through), and it was too easy once I got the flamethrower to just give the alien a burst while backing away, and not have to hide much.

I have a few things to say about the game. Minor spoilers follow.

Good-
-Writing. It'd be easy for an Alien game to fall into a few predictable cliches, I have to say that I think this one was very well done and definitely subverted a few of my expectations. Even as a long-time Alien franchise fan I didn't know where it was going.
-Length. For a purely linear game with some backtracking, fifteen hours for a playthrough is pretty awesome for a modern release. While there is a fair bit of SS2-style 'hey remember that locked door you passed three hours ago? Time to go back there!' it usually involves some new shortcuts so you're not retreading the same ground over and over again like in Dead Space.
-Gameplay variety. There are parts where you evade the alien, parts where you encounter humans, parts where you deal with homicidal synthetics, and parts where you're not threatened at all and can simply explore. It mixes it up pretty well, I think.
-Diversity of game mechanics. There's viable combat, stealth, resource management, minigames, and exploration. It's not just about hiding.
-Style. They nailed the atmosphere and the retro-future look, and it's chock-full of subtle callouts to the film. One thing I really hated about Colonial Marines was how gimmicky and shoehorned a lot of the references felt (sharp sticks! powerloader fight!) but little things in Isolation like the keycard design and the computer interfaces were nice touches.

Neutral-
-Alien mechanics. I like that there are many areas where it won't drop down into the game area, and you just hear it crawling in the vents, unless you do something to attract it. It's often following you, but doesn't become a direct threat unless you do something stupid (like shoot a gun, or trip an alarm). Once it's in the area, though, or if you're in an area where it's scripted to show up, it can get extremely frustrating as it occasionally exhibits a sixth sense for where you're hiding and patrols endlessly, staying no more than thirty feet from your position at all times.
-Minigames. While they're mostly a step above just pressing e, they do become somewhat repetitive by the end of the game and more importantly, the long animations they lock you into even when cancelling because oh shit the alien's right there are often lethal.

Bad-
-Pacing. There were two or three moments where I was sure I was at the end of the game, then suddenly found myself starting a new quest, and some long, dull segments (one involving a spacewalk) that just drag on with little tension.
-Useless equipment. I never found a use for the smoke bombs or flares, and flashbangs and noisemakers were extremely situational (noisemakers in particular sometimes straight-up didn't work). The EMP grenade was by far the most useful craftable item to me, with the molotov a close second for its ability to scare the alien with a good throw.

Overall I'd give it a 4/5. Not perfect, but extremely engaging and definitely well-done.

Phatose on 9/11/2014 at 04:50

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That's doesn't really seem like the kind of thing that requires speculation, given the whole "We saw a picture of her grown old in the special edition of Aliens" thing.

Volitions Advocate on 10/11/2014 at 04:10

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yeah I'm kind of with Driver on that one. Also, no telling if perhaps she got facehugged and then gets rescued by WY and has it surgically removed. Colonial Marines would say that isn't possible, but I don't know how comfortable I am with taking CM as canon. Lots of possibilities.

Also the alien on the Torrens WILL kill Ripley if you don't do the QTE properly, so there's a bit more evidence to support that she's not alien preggo.

driver on 10/11/2014 at 18:22

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Yeah, it was just a thought that occurred to me when those two aliens hissed at me, then scampered off without attacking. Had she been impregnated at that point it would have made her funtionally immune to alien attack, so a lot of the tension would have gone out of the ending.