Amanda Ripley has been trying to find out what happened to her mother for years. She might have that opportunity. She must go to a distant space station and find the Nostromo's flight recorder so that she can find out what really happened. But the space station is falling apart, and people have started to disappear. There is something very, very wrong on Sevastapol.
1. Gameplay
Alien: Isolation is a stealth-based horror game. Most of the gameplay is a constant, stressful cat-and-mouse scenario where you try to accomplish your goals without getting eaten by the Alien. It requires an insane amount of patience, so if you don’t like the idea of spending an hour just to get three or four simple objectives completed this isn’t going to be your cup of tea. It’s an exercise in planning and slow, methodical execution of actions while still being able to think on the fly. If that sounds like your cup of tea, this is an excellent game. It provides just enough of a challenge to keep things interesting but while still allowing the player to choose exactly how difficult they want to make the game. But while the game will be considerably easier on the lower difficulty levels, don’t think that the game just lets you off the hook. If you make any loud noises, the alien will pop out of the ceiling and walls, ready to kill. But the game makes it clear when you make mistakes and, most of the time, it’s fairly easy to learn from those. The game isn’t perfect though. The times when I was playing against dynamic Alien AI were tons of fun, but once things became more scripted I was extremely disappointed. I understand when some scripted events are used, like to let me know when the Alien has re-entered the picture after a long absence, but I don’t appreciate it when an Alien will always come after me from a specific hallway or doorway. I wanted to feel like the Alien was hunting me, not like the developers were hunting me. Fortunately, these sections were not numerous and were mostly confined towards the end of the campaign. I loved the setting and the art style but didn’t like the story at all. I was captivated up until the plot twist later in the game (you’ll know what I’m talking about once you reach the reactor core), at which point I just felt like it jumped the shark and left far too many critical questions unanswered. And the ending was thoroughly disappointing, but with such solid gameplay it was hard for me to fault the game too harshly from this. My greatest test for my satisfaction with a game is how much I want to keep playing, and I can honestly say that I want to play this game’s DLC, especially the Nostromo missions. As I said before, it’s fairly critical that players are able to withstand a slow, tense experience. If you can fight through that, you’re in for a great experience.
I completed the campaign in around 14 hours. I normally try to take my time, but this game really forces it. You’ll be constantly sneaking through rooms and hallways, trying not to draw too much attention from any of the numerous enemies that will actively try to kill you. As I said before, as long as you’re patient this shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Certain sections felt drawn out, especially the sections when you’re in a space suit, but most of the game felt appropriately long. There are a number of survival challenges the player can complete and plenty of hidden logs and collectibles to find in the campaign. Serious fans of the Alien movies should also consider picking up a few of the DLCs, since they allow players to take the role of some of the characters from the original Alien movie. This is one of the few times when I’ve been genuinely excited to play DLC, so it’s at least worth looking into.
There are five difficulty levels for this game, so it is designed to allow players some wiggle room with how intense of an experience they want to have. The lowest difficulty level will allow the player to make a significant amount of noise before the alien notices, while the highest will force the player to be extremely creative with using weapons and hiding spots. That isn’t to say that the game won’t ever be frustrating, but selecting the difficulty level that fits to how much you want to be challenged by the game is the best way to reduce frustrating in around 90% of the game. But there were still plenty of sections that left me fairly frustrated, some because of their difficulty and some because of how utterly dull they were. Any time I put on a space suit was a section that I dreaded. For some reason the developers decided that walks in space suits would force the player to move extremely slowly and cover long sections of open ground with little to no action. This would be different if these walks were filled with conversation or backstory, but the player is often just walking forward with nothing else to do until she reaches her destination. I can’t tell if I hated these sections more than the ones that were genuinely frustrating. There were a few sections where the environment forced the player to keep track of too many elements at once and made me question whether the Alien AI was as random as the developers said. This was especially noticeable in certain sections where I was hiding from humans. A number of times the alien would flat out ignore the other people and instead go straight for me or wait in a vent for me to pass underneath before he killed me. I wasn’t sure why Ripley was so special to the Alien, so this quickly broke the immersion. Even excluding the above, this is a game that requires intense patience. While that may sound impossible, it’s the best way that I can describe it. The player will move very slowly yet deliberately, knowing that action could pick up at any moment. If you don’t have the patience for it, you will not enjoy this game. 2. Parental Notices
Violence is a part of this game but it is used sparingly and deliberately. The game discourages the player from engaging in direct violence by making ammunition and the parts necessary to craft offensive gadgets extremely rare. The player is meant to only have enough to get out of a few tight spots, but there will never be enough to kill every enemy in the game. That being said, even if the player goes through the game without killing anyone or anything there will be times when violence must be used in self-defense, and times when violence or the aftermath of violence will be seen. Violence against people is the most graphic but not particularly common. Many humans on Sevastapol will try to shoot Ripley if they see her, but this doesn’t cause any visible blood. If Ripley shoots back, small amounts of blood will come from the wounds but there isn’t any gore. However, the player can see minor amounts of gore in the environment. Towards the end of the game, the player can find humans who were infected with an alien parasite. This parasite, once gestation is complete, bursts from the human’s chest and leaves behind a gaping hole. Ripley can find the aftermath in a number of places, but it’s most prevalent in the hive. There were other types of gore in the environment as well. However, while these did occur in a number of different places, they were not very common. The only time Ripley can see violence that does or would result in gore is when the alien is attacking a person in a scripted event. Normally, an alien just jumps an enemy, slashes them up, causes a bit of blood, and then leaves the now dead human to continue hunting. However, in scripted events, the alien can use his tail as a giant spear and drive it straight through the back of a person and out the front. The alien can perform this action if it catches and kills Ripley. Most of the death sequences are scary but benign. This is the only example that I found of a death sequence containing obvious violence. The game is far less gentle to the androids, but the overall effect is exactly the same. The player will almost certainly have to kill some androids in the game, but even when this does happen the violence level is minimal. Hits will result in lines of milky white “blood”. This is much more noticeable than human blood because of how many hits it will take to kill an android (it could vary between four and six depending on the strength of the robot) and because the androids do not react at all to being shot. A number of androids in the environment will be torn up either by industrial “accidents” or possibly by the alien. The player can never see this process happen, only the aftermath. Fire is possibly the most powerful and effective tool in the entire game and even the best players will need to make use of it, especially later in the game. The player has access to a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails which can both keep the alien at bay. Using either of these correctly against the alien will briefly light it on fire and cause it to run away. Androids do not react to being on fire, but when they are ignited they are completely engulfed in flames. Humans can also be killed with fire but this is much more difficult. Molotovs are rare and most effective when used against groups of enemies. There were very few instances when humans would group together enough to make a Molotov more effective than the revolver. I must mention that the game actively discourages the player from entering open combat. Firearms are loud and draw the attention of the alien extremely quickly. Even if the player manages to use the revolver or shotgun to kill an enemy, the alien often comes out and quickly kills the player. Firearms are not effective against the alien, so I made it a point to go through the entire game without killing any humans.
There are some posters in the worldspace that are meant to be public health posters. They contain text that is supposed to make the viewer question how much they know their sex partner. This is clearly a bid to try and get people to use protection to prevent the spread of STDs. It fit in with the hospital areas but felt a bit out of place in the other random environments. This was the only example of sexuality I could find in the game.
The most obvious substance is the “medkit” the player can craft. In order to use the medkit, Ripley injects herself with the crafted syringe and is instantly healed. Aside from empty cans of beer and used cigarettes, there are also bottles of “ethanol” (read: alcohol) that can be picked up throughout the game. These bottles are actually a crafting material for items such as Molotov cocktails. Ripley never drinks from these. As with sexuality, there are some posters that advertise or discuss pharmaceuticals. These were all fairly benign.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
The law enforcement presence on Sevastapol has basically completely collapsed by the time the events of this game begin. Despite the fact that there is a marshal present on the station who still maintains his title, he has almost no ability to enforce laws and there is no remaining governing structure. As a result, anti-law is not a factor in this game.
There are no multiplayer modes for this game.
There are a few sections when Ripley will walk across precariously placed ladders and walkways. Other than this, extreme sports are not a factor in this game.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Scary Images I didn’t find this game particularly scary. It’s hard for me to be scared of an enemy with a clear motive and that has to obey the same laws of nature (i.e. physics) that I do. I never saw the Alien as some supernatural creature with powers beyond my understanding, and that kept me from staying up at night after playing this game. But that isn’t to say that someone else won’t find this game absolutely terrifying.
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