I don't think I spoiled anything except gameplay mechanics and enemy types/behaviors.

I've been toying around with the idea of reviewing a game when I am approximately half way through it and then reviewing it again once I've completed the main story. It's more an experiment for myself to see how my views differ from 50% to 100% but I figured some other people may get a kick out of it.

Two things about me, I adore horror - especially Alien. It was the second horror movie I ever saw as a child and it has stuck with me since, I even hold a special place in my heart for Resurrection despite it being pretty poor. The second thing is that I really disliked Outlast, it was fun for ~1 hour but after that I grew increasingly tired of it and was glad when it was over.

So when reviews and consumer opinions about this game came out and many compared them to Outlast, I was pretty gutted. I was worried that like Outlast the formula would wear out it's welcome on me relatively fast and with Alien: Isolation's game time supposedly being around 20 or so hours I was convinced to wait for this to drop in price by a large amount before I took the dive.

But I kept seeing a ton of positivity for it around the internet, something which is quite rare, and decided to take the dive.

This game has two things in common with Outlast. 1) It is a first person game. 2) It exists within the realm of "horror gaming". That's it. While Outlast was "Ooo gotcha!" Alien: Isolation has been "Ooo I'm gonna get ya!" To me, that is the biggest difference in the world.

The atmosphere, mechanics, AI, sound design, level design, lighting, everything is superior in Alien: Isolation.

The first thing I want to discuss is the sound design, and the importance of it. For the first mission or two of this game I played through my TV's speakers, I quickly found myself holding my PS4 controller up to my ear to hear the beeps of the motion tracker (I realize I could've turned the speaker volume up). Around mission 3 I tried something I've never done before with a video game. I plugged in headphones to the controller and set it on all audio. This changes the game completely, you hear the Alien scuttling around in the vents above you, not needing your motion tracker to approximate it's location. You hear the various creaks and cracks of the ship as it falls into disrepair. The atmospheric music drones in the background heightening your tension. If you have not played this game and are reading this, play it with headphones in and you will be immersed so deeply you'll get scared by a tag on your pillow.

I caught on fairly fast that Alien: Isolation is a stealth game, pure and simple. If you sprint, you're most likely dead. If you don't check your corners, probably dead. Read a terminal without checking your surroundings? Tail through the chest. It is a game that frightens you into wanting to rush through an area and then punishes you for it. The Alien has no time for hubris and if it senses it you're getting gobbled.

Maybe it's because I grew up with the franchise but the first time I was being hunted, I got scared, genuinely scared. Grown man peeking out from behind his finger tips scared. As I cowered under a table the Alien passed behind me, as I turned around to look I caught a glimpse of that iconic tail knocking over a stool, it hit me and I was certain the noise was going to alert it and I was going to get my face eaten. Luckily, I survived that encounter. I've actually survived most encounters with the game's main antagonist, by staying ever vigilant it is possible to pass through areas without ever getting near the beast. But my low death count to the monster has not lessened it's effectiveness in scaring me into hiding whenever I hear it drop from a vent, I know that if I see it's face I'm dead and no one likes being dead.

That's not to say all enemy encounters in this game are great, the humans are more of an annoyance than anything, their ability to see you when you're obfuscated by fog across a poorly lit room and then headshot you has a tendency to kill tension and make me grumble whenever I come across a human-populated room. Even more so when an attack of any kind by me is guaranteed to alert the Alien. This has been by far my least favorite part of the game.

The androids lie somewhere in the middle, part scary with their Michael Myers-esque plodding, part annoyance with their supernatural vision, though they are robots - I can give them a pass for this.

When I finished playing tonight, it was out of frustration. I felt myself lacking the patience to continue sneaking through an area I had figured out only to get to a human-infested room that seemed impossible to navigate silently. Of course, it's not impossible, I just found myself without the required diligence to keep on. The save system in this game is a throwback and one that benefits the game by death having a genuine penalty, it is just not a penalty I wish to receive too many times in a row.

At the moment, if I continue to play for relatively short sessions, allowing myself to be immersed and on point - I can see my excitement and enjoyment for this game continuing. If I tried to marathon through the end, I could see myself disliking this game a great deal more than I do.

Half way Score: 5/5

This is my first time ever writing any kind of review, hopefully it made some amount of sense and hopefully one of you enjoyed hearing my thoughts. Sorry if it was too long winded!

Seriously though, play this with headphones.

I pretty much agree with everything you wrote, enjoyed reading it, and yes headphones are pretty much crucial unless you have a decent surround set.

I've got some really big problems with this game. I think it looks incredible and I think it does a great job with atmosphere, but it ultimately fails as a stealth game. The best stealth games do two things really well. First, they communicate the state of the environment to you at all times so that you know when you're safe and when you're exposed. Second, they make enemies just predictable enough that if you take time to understand them, you can feel a sense of accomplishment when subverting their patterns.

In A:I, It seems like the enemies are constantly aware of me. I started playing first on the most difficult setting and in the encounter with the 3 people when you get the hack tool, I tried to take it slow and work my way around the room. It seems like they can see you even crouched in the shadows from the extreme opposite side of the room. I could barely move without alerting them and, no matter how far away they were, they never failed to hit me while shooting at me.

Once the motion detector is introduced, you have slightly more situational awareness, but it seems like the beeping from it can give you away pretty easily. Also at this difficulty, the alien can never be predicted or subverted in any way. You can hide, wait for the music to die down and check your motion detector, and by the time you get out from under a desk, the Alien is already back. In the medical section, I literally couldn't move more than a few feet without having to hide again and any time I get into a room without a hiding space I almost instantly get killed. There is also some pretty serious cheating going on by the game. I never had a situation where I could quietly slip away from the alien and it took its time to roam around and find me. As soon as you get a certain distance from him, the game seems to warp him within a radius of your location. In fact at one point, I could see him on the other side of the medical area's conference room, I unlocked a door, walked through backwards, heard footsteps running up behind me and he grabbed me from behind and I got a tail through the chest seconds after I'd seen him many yards away.

I started over in the middle difficulty, and it has been better, but only slightly. I understand the context of the game. It's not like I want this to be some power fantasy where I can see through walls and I'm terrifying the enemy like Batman, but I just need the game to give me better information about my situation. I wouldn't say I'm hating this game and I don't expect horror games to always be about enjoyment, but I can't say I'm enjoying playing this much at all.

@lestephan: Thanks!

@oraknabo I'm playing on normal but I could definitely see how hard could increase the difficulty in unfair ways which is something I've always hated about higher difficulties in games. I really hope you have more fun of it on normal and can tell you from my experiences that the Alien encounters are relatively fair on that difficulty, I've only had a couple of run ins I felt were nonsense.

@novadth: I've made it fairly far on normal and while the game has been less frustrating, there are still cases where it clearly switches off the AI and moves the alien around in a really clunky way.

I've seen a hole in the ceiling (vent or maintenance access hole?) dripping, implying that the alien is in it waiting to grab me if I pass underneath, then, just as I pass it, the alien comes through a door ahead up ahead and runs straight at me. Another time I hit him with the flamethrower, sending him back into the ceiling--two seconds later I hear footsteps running up behind me and I get the tail through the chest death again. The problem is that I was standing with my back against a wall. There's also a section in the medical area where it seems like every one of those ceiling vents is active for a while, but that seemed deliberately designed that way.

The absolute worst part has been in the Gemini Distribution area. I was constantly careful and quiet in that area and just kept dying over and over. Usually when I die in a game, I assume it's because I'm doing something wrong or I'm being punished for something, but I kept getting attacked while hiding after staying totally quiet. It took me hours to get through that section and I almost quit altogether.

I put up my finished review here: http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/blog/finished-review-alien-isolation/107738/

That's just bizarre to me because that's basically the exact opposite interaction that I had consistently throughout the game, the Alien was always in logical places for me. I'm half tempted to go through the game again and see if I can have any moments like that. Maybe it's the procedural AI just sorta bugging out for you? That sucks though, I could see that ruining it, the game kinda hinges on you trusting it in telling you that the Alien is where it is.