I'm curious to know, as I personally find they've been useless thus far after hitting chapter 11. I imagine they were supposed to focus as your light source before you find the headset torch, but since then I've never found a reason to ever use them. Can they at least be used to distract the alien in someway?

I feel that unless it's completely pitch-black, those things makes me see worse, and using them in vicinity of any enemy seems like suicide. I guess they're there for when you run out of batteries for your torch, but that hasn't happened to me yet.

On the hardest difficulty, I would have trouble crafting noisemakers early on with the limited amount of resources you have, so flares were typically my second option for distracting androids or the alien. Don't know if they work with humans, but both the alien and the androids will go over the flare to inspect it, giving you the chance to sneak around them. Obviously it can also be used as a light source, but I've never had to worry about running out of batteries for the torch.

Yeah, same. That's undoubtedly because I feel I only ever need to use the torch in the vents; wish there were more darker areas that would force you to use it, but ah well.

Aha, I thought as such. Good to know they at least have that use then anywhoo.

I have actually used them quite a bit and they are in a way a poor man's noise maker, at least from what I've gathered. It seems like it does grab the attention of both the alien and humans alike. In fact, I had an instance where I threw a flare down a hallway just as the alien appeared and it walked over to it and kinda stared at it for a bit and searched around that general area. Humans do about the same thing, they investigate it and search around the area to see who threw it. Now, the only downside to it of course is it doesn't make the noise that the noise maker does so it seems like they need to catch it in their sight to actually go look at it.

So yeah, they can be useful for sure given the right situation but I've found that other items like EMPs, rewiring and pipebombs to be much more effective.

Also kinda wanted to ask how many chapters are in the game? I don't know how far I am and I know the game is long but I seriously don't want it to end because Im having a ton of fun with the game.

I kinda use them all the time. Definitely effective in distracting the Alien - haven't tried them on humans/androids.

@sackmanjones: You can look at the trophy list to see the number of chapters - i am on a phone and thus can not put it in the spoiler tag in here.

Androids will just stare at them for ages. So yeah, I used them a lot.

So far, I haven't used...anything. I assume that'll change sometime.

I mainly just craft stuff and never use it, just like The Last of Us.

Same, except I used craftables a bit more often in The Last of Us. I'm through 7 chapters of Alien and I've crafted at least one of each item but I've only used one noisemaker to attract the Alien to some human enemies.

I just beat the game, and must say I never really used the flares, I used the wrench to beat on walls as a way to distract the Alien and it worked pretty well.

Actually the one time I used it was on a pretty funny death moment, I was walking around with a flare in my hand, when I saw the Alien, accidentally lit the flare, so it started coming towards me and my only reaction was to throw the flare at the Alien which promptly murdered the living hell out of me.

Really? I'm surprised to hear that, as I've been constantly using craftable items in this game. Noisemakers are always handy, and molotovs have proved to be a lifesaver at times, too. Pipe bombs, flashbangs and EMPs have gotten to be more useful as time has gone on, though at first I rarely ever used 'em.

They look real pretty.

(No, I don't really use them anymore).

That they do. The lighting all around is top notch in this game.

I just have this mentality that if I use an item, then I won't have any later on when I absolutely need it. I dunno, I should probably start using items more often. I wanna throw a molotov at one of those damn creepy Androids right now.

In all honesty I at least have found that I've used many items out of necessity, especially during the segment where you lose your guns while having to maneuver around an area containing a few androids. The Alien has also definitely been aggressive enough in its search that I'll end a 'hide and set-piece' with no noisemakers or molotovs.

One thing I also think is sort of darkly comical is how you'll slowly accrue quite a bit of ammo across the game... but it's all practically useless throughout most of it all. Beyond the flamethrower of course, which has been incredibly useful. However ammo for it will likely deplete a lot quicker than you may expect given you start off with like '400' fuel, least in my experience. A single tap of the firing button equals 5 with it, for reference.