Alien: Isolation

Watched Giant Bomb's quick look and found it incredibly tedious. They spent so long redoing sections or hiding from aliens/droids that most of the hour long video they barely made any progress.

From reviews I've read its about 6hours too long too.

I'm gutted becaue I really fancied it, maybe if it gets an Oculus mod I'll grab it.
 
b82REZ said:
Watched Giant Bomb's quick look and found it incredibly tedious. They spent so long redoing sections or hiding from aliens/droids that most of the hour long video they barely made any progress.

From reviews I've read its about 6hours too long too.

I'm gutted becaue I really fancied it, maybe if it gets an Oculus mod I'll grab it.
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6? A lot of people saying it's 15+ hours and a complete time sink for this type of game.
 
Hal9000 said:
6? A lot of people saying it's 15+ hours and a complete time sink for this type of game.
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6 hours too long.

In hearing 15-20 hours for the campaign with a lot of reviews saying it should end around 10-12 hours.
 
Vato said:
A game is only too long when it's shit. Good games can't be too long.
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What @Twigg said.

After watching an hour long quick look I feel I've seen everything that game has to offer and dont need to waste 15-20 hours seeing the same thing in slightly different environments.
 
Late contender for game of the year for me! Everything about this game is amazing. Best atmosphere I've experienced in a game in years.

Another plus is the fact that the controls are nice and easy, not like other games where you have to configure 3 pages of buttons. If you like slow paced scary games, get this one!
 
Vato said:
Late contender for game of the year for me! Everything about this game is amazing. Best atmosphere I've experienced in a game in years.

Another plus is the fact that the controls are nice and easy, not like other games where you have to configure 3 pages of buttons. If you like slow paced scary games, get this one!
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What console are you playing on Vato?
 
bp76oTJ.jpg


Pretty much sums it up for me.
 
b82REZ said:
Watched Giant Bomb's quick look and found it incredibly tedious. They spent so long redoing sections or hiding from aliens/droids that most of the hour long video they barely made any progress.

From reviews I've read its about 6hours too long too.

I'm gutted becaue I really fancied it, maybe if it gets an Oculus mod I'll grab it.
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You really can't judge games like this on videos of someone else playing. Pretty much every horror game will look slow and tedious when watching someone else playing.
 
paceme said:
You really can't judge games like this on videos of someone else playing. Pretty much every horror game will look slow and tedious when watching someone else playing.
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Of course you can.

When 80% of their time was spent hiding and waiting for AI characters to move off their search patterns it gives me a fairly good idea how the rest of the game will play out. I don't find games where the majority of your play time your spent prone hiding from AI entertaining. That's not even mentioning the crappy controls and hit detection.
 
b82REZ said:
Of course you can.

When 80% of their time was spent hiding and waiting for AI characters to move off their search patterns it gives me a fairly good idea how the rest of the game will play out. I don't find games where the majority of your play time your spent prone hiding from AI entertaining. That's not even mentioning the crappy controls and hit detection.
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Then horror games aren't for you, hiding from AI is what builds tension and fear. How would you know about crappy controls having not played it?
 
paceme said:
Then horror games aren't for you, hiding from AI is what builds tension and fear. How would you know about crappy controls having not played it?
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The quick look showed them constantly hitting invisible walls and they complained loads about how the game handled.

I like horror games, but games like Outlast and Amnesia did this idea earlier and much better from what I've seen and read.

All tension evaporates when you're waiting for an AI to move away for extended periods. The two aforementioned games do this brilliantly by having NPCs not hang around for too long building the tension when they do leave because you're not sure where they are.

It seems like isolation was in a catch 22. They couldn't justify the price tag for an 4-6 hour experience like Outlast, so padded by adding extended "hunt" sequences.
 
I played it for a bit but decided I couldn't be assed before I even encountered the Alien. Was taking far too long. I liked the atmosphere and the retro feel though.
 
b82REZ said:
The quick look showed them constantly hitting invisible walls and they complained loads about how the game handled.

I like horror games, but games like Outlast and Amnesia did this idea earlier and much better from what I've seen and read.

All tension evaporates when you're waiting for an AI to move away for extended periods. The two aforementioned games do this brilliantly by having NPCs not hang around for too long building the tension when they do leave because you're not sure where they are.

It seems like isolation was in a catch 22. They couldn't justify the price tag for an 4-6 hour experience like Outlast, so padded by adding extended "hunt" sequences.
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And you didn't even pick up a controller yet...

Amazing
 
I'm just glad they didn't make Ripley a feckin Space Marine with ability to kill dozens of Aliens without one sign of effort like in epic fail - Colonial Marines by Gearbox.

Sega is back bitches.
 
UnofficialDevil said:
I was really enjoying this but now its just become too hard. The fecking Alien is everywhere its just too difficult.
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I know this feeling. I've finally finished it. Good game, but it's way too long. At times it feels like it's never going to end. If it gets too annoying, just bump it down to easy.
 
DixieDean said:
Yep! That's exactly how I felt about it too. I was killed so often by the alien, I become numb to it.
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I haven't played it but from the clips I've seen the alien seem to be able to run out you at warp speed and it's impossible to simple run away from it(Seem to remember there was a fair bit of running away in the movies).

And as you said get killed for the thousand time is always going to be slightly less frighting than the first time.There's always a fine between being scared of an unstoppable monster and being annoyed by it.
 
Played the first hour or so last night. Not really got any positives to say.

For a start the graphics are awful. I don't know what's wrong with some people's eyes, but the character models and animations are as bad as anything seen at the start of the last generation, the shadows and lighting are terrible and so are the particles. They've even borked simplistic stuff like lense flair. Plus everything is too new and plastic looking so far.

In gameplay terms there's absolutely nothing so far that hasn't been done far better than this before. Though to be fair I am still at the start so I'm hoping it gets more interesting.

The worst thing though is how they've tried to make you feel 'confined' incredibly cheaply by first making your eye level right up on the ceiling, and secondly fecking the fov right up. It's amateurish.


I'm going to persevere, because it's Alien. That is also the reason I can see for half the reviews being good. Because as a game it's sloppy, old and cheap looking and well behind stuff like Amnesia.
 
Seriously? I think the assets are excellent, the station has a really well designed look and manages to make corridors interesting. Everything looks to have a purpose. I also liked the very clear difference from the starting ship to the station itself. The lighting is fantastic too, the lighting makes the atmosphere.

I do agree that the character models are a bit sketchy. They ballsed up the skin shader, the clothing looks great, the skin looks terrible in comparison.

As for Gameplay, I think they tried to stick to the theme of the film and keep alien interaction low in the first third of the game. I don't mind so much as exploration is fun, but it does lessen the fear factor when you get the idea that the Alien only appears in set pieces in the first third of the game. They should have kept the Alien AI throughout the game but changed its parameters at points to make Alien interaction more/less frequent. I love adventuring though, so exploring the station is great fun for me.
 
RedSky said:
Seriously? I think the assets are excellent, the station has a really well designed look and manages to make corridors interesting. Everything looks to have a purpose. I also liked the very clear difference from the starting ship to the station itself. The lighting is fantastic too, the lighting makes the atmosphere.

I do agree that the character models are a bit sketchy. They ballsed up the skin shader, the clothing looks great, the skin looks terrible in comparison.

As for Gameplay, I think they tried to stick to the theme of the film and keep alien interaction low in the first third of the game. I don't mind so much as exploration is fun, but it does lessen the fear factor when you get the idea that the Alien only appears in set pieces in the first third of the game. They should have kept the Alien AI throughout the game but changed its parameters at points to make Alien interaction more/less frequent. I love adventuring though, so exploring the station is great fun for me.
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I suppose I'm talking more on a technical level, it's just not well done at all.

I love these types of games, and so far the exploration is fine. Though there's not enough logs or things to actually see and touch. For example, why not have a simple physics system where you can move crap around, even build a fort or something out of scrap where you can hide? It's frankly pathetic how they've enclosed you off because your character can't simply move one out of the way :lol:

Though I have a lot of game to get through, so maybe it gets a bit more involved?
 
Who is the better authority on this stuff, RedSky or RedLambs?
 
Warlock1 said:
Who is the better authority on this stuff, RedSky or RedLambs?
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I have no idea. Does @RedSky develop? But you can use your own eyes and decide.

For example, the lighting is pretty simply set up, most of it might as well have been baked (a lot of it probably is). They are all in specific spots with simple bloom, even the torch appears to use a very simple texture light. The shadows themselves aren't very dynamic even on a PC with ultra, everything casts straightforward, there's no deviation.

Also, like I say, the fov is wrong (they've gone for a kind of fish lense look, but it doesn't scale properly) and those characters are laughable.

I like the art style, and I like exploring, but the tension is far less than it should have been thanks to some cheap tricks they've used. Some people don't notice these things, some do. It's off putting to me though :(
 
I was thinking of getting Evil Within but my brother (who loves horror video games) said this is better. Not sure what to get...
 
Redlambs said:
I have no idea. Does @RedSky develop? But you can use your own eyes and decide.

For example, the lighting is pretty simply set up, most of it might as well have been baked (a lot of it probably is). They are all in specific spots with simple bloom, even the torch appears to use a very simple texture light. The shadows themselves aren't very dynamic even on a PC with ultra, everything casts straightforward, there's no deviation.

Also, like I say, the fov is wrong (they've gone for a kind of fish lense look, but it doesn't scale properly) and those characters are laughable.

I like the art style, and I like exploring, but the tension is far less than it should have been thanks to some cheap tricks they've used. Some people don't notice these things, some do. It's off putting to me though :(
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You played it with Oculus lambs?
 
Dirty Schwein said:
I was thinking of getting Evil Within but my brother (who loves horror video games) said this is better. Not sure what to get...
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I went for Evil Within, its a crock of shite so far, feels like I'm playing a late PS2 survival horror. This looks to be heaps better.
 
Redlambs said:
I suppose I'm talking more on a technical level, it's just not well done at all.

I love these types of games, and so far the exploration is fine. Though there's not enough logs or things to actually see and touch. For example, why not have a simple physics system where you can move crap around, even build a fort or something out of scrap where you can hide? It's frankly pathetic how they've enclosed you off because your character can't simply move one out of the way :lol:

Though I have a lot of game to get through, so maybe it gets a bit more involved?
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A fort made from scrap... may as well just make a sheet fort! I've never been fond of it as a gameplay option, barricading doors might be neat but in terms of plausibility, it would require several people to be able to move heavy enough objects/scrap to make barricading worth while. It's more of a multiplayer experience option imo. From a technical view point it also takes away the use of lightmaps, so that in itself would increase graphical stress, despite lightmaps finally being pushed into the history books it's still a valid option for most developers at this point.

From a technical level, I'd say that the shaders needed more work. I don't have any issues with the lighting though, the particles vary in quality, but I'm used to UE4 so all particles in every game looks awful in comparison!
 
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