Really Not Ggetting on with This Game

Alien is my favorite movie and I tend to like this kind of game but so far I have at best felt indifferent and at worst become irritated with several aspects of the design, for example:

• Hideous aliasing that isn't fixable
• Immersion breaking on screen objectives, cut-scenes and fixed animations
• Bug that stops me from exiting the 'rewire' menu, forcing a reload
• A n unimpressive introduction that didn't grab me
• Full of cliche's like a horror movie/Alien theme park ride ticking every cliche box
• Graffiti EVERYWHERE, very distracting
• Completely bland characters
• A general lack of a feeling of urgency to the story
• Kind of........boring, just a bunch of (beautifully designed) corridors and a gameplay loop the likes of which I have experienced many times in games like Dead Space

I'm really pissed off because i was ready to love this game but it really isn't clicking! I realize i'm early on, having only just met the Alien but i'm lacking any compulsion to continue. Does anyone else feel the same? Should I keep playing?

I remember thinking the game's opening was its weakest segment. Especially that bit where you first encounter hostile humans in that big room as they try to hack the elevator.

That being said, the general activity in the game doesn't change a whole lot from now on. If you're not feeling the ebb and flow after the Alien becomes a constant, consistent threat, it's probably not going to pan out for you.

Personally, I loved the game, and felt like it introduced little nuances at regular intervals that impacted how I was approaching varying scenarios. If you can make it to the point where you get a very specific tool that will help you fend off the Alien, and you still aren't liking the game, I'd say that's the spot where you walk away from it.

Honestly, the "grafitti everywhere" and on screen objectives bits are very petty complaints.

The fact that it's cliched is very much deliberate - the game is a love letter to the first Alien that attempts to put you in the shoes of Ripley in the climactic parts of the film. It may be appealing or not, I enjoyed it because it gave me precisely Alien The Ride. The gameplay loop isn't exactly similar to Dead Space, too, since the way you fuck around with the xenomorph is much more non-linear.

I say stick with it for a while, maybe it will grab you. Don't feel bad if it won't, not everything is made for everyone. People really loved Shadow of Mordor and I just can't bring myself to enjoy it past the 4 hours I spent fucking around with the Nemesis system.

I played through a part of this game last night that had me walking through shitty looking fog really slowly for about 30 minutes and I am utterly baffled by how this section made it into the final product

Maybe this is the thread to bring this up. I really wanted to get into this game, but I found it to be too difficult for me, even on the easiest setting. I stopped after getting stuck on literally the first non-tutorial situation (the three or four dudes wandering the atrium). Is there just something obvious I'm missing? Am I just terrible at video games? I'm willing to accept that possibility...

It becomes a good video game after you've had the first proper encounter with the alien. I liked this game a lot.

I having trouble getting in to this game as well. The wall graffiti in particular sticks out to me as one of the most shopworn tricks in horror games, though the game's problems run deeper than that. There's just not enough here, mechanically or narratively, to keep my interest. The game has one trick, pants-shittingly terrifying though it may be.

I don't have any particular affection for Alien the movie so perhaps a nostalgia factor is missing for me. However, poor gameplay is poor gameplay.

@cairnsythebeard:

The beginning of the game is really weak, and I agree that t's pretty damn boring. Once you've died to the Alien a small handful of times, and learned its patterns, it's just very mediocre, since for the most part, you're hiding simply to avoid a one-hit kill, and not because of genuine fear.

It wasn't until the flamethrower that I actually really started to like the game. I've said this in pretty much every thread on here about this game, but wait until you get the flamethrower until you make a final judgement. That ONE weapon alone manages to change the entire game for the better. It turns from a mediocre horror game into an intense action game, and like I said, it's significantly better as a result. I also feel like the following missions also really help the game along, since you're no longer running and hiding, but you're also actively trying to stop the Alien.

Seriously, I say hold out until this point, and if you're still not enjoying it by then, then drop it.

That part is so ridiculously poorly designed and it's so insanely hard that I remember getting incredibly frustrated with it too. I beat the game, and even now I can confidently say that that's by FAR the hardest part of the game. It's really stupid, since if anything, it relies more on luck than any actual skill. God damn I hated that part. I don't blame anyone who quits during this part, simply because it's so fucking bad.

Yeah... Get through that massive hurdle, and you're in for a fun and intense game, but I don't blame you for giving up.

No. This section just really sucks.

Don't forget your tools, whatever you can build at this point. Otherwise, after the first lady runs at you firing her handgun, get out of sight. When the coast is clear-ish and you decide to re-enter the room, stick to the right side. There's a box in the darkness on the second floor, just past the top of the stairs, you can hide behind as the group passes to investigate the disturbance. Don't forget you can kill humans from behind with the wrench.

Ok. This was easily my favourite game of 2014 but it does have a number of pretty big issues but the ones you've mentioned I either didn't notice or didn't bother me at all.

@random45: @historyinrust: Wow, I never would have guessed that! Thanks for the tips, I'll have to give the game another shot.

Thanks for your answers, sounds like it's worth sticking with it a bit longer. Maybe I'l try to marathon it on a day off :)

Shit, just noticed the typo in the forum title :S Can I fix it?

Not to be a debbie downer but honestly you should probably just put the game down.

The core gameplay loop, the aliasing, horror cliches, grafiti - that doesn't go anywhere... maybe the characters get less bland.

Personally none of the above bothered me, but just saying - when I get to a point in a game where everything seems like it's no good, usually a sign to just float off.