Quick Look: Alien: Isolation

I wouldn't take that phrase as blaming the game, it's just a general phrase of frustration for Brad. Dan and Brad both discuss why he was caught multiple times, and never blame the game. Brad can be too quick to blame the game at times in other QLs, but I don't think that applies here.

I just hate hard save only games. I just know it'll frustrate the hell out of me, and going into a game with that kind of attitude only ensures that it'll frustrate me even more. So it's partly my own fault, I guess.

At first I had zero interest in this game. Then I read Patrick's review, and my interest was piqued. Then I saw this quick look and now back down to zero. A horror game that relies on a chase mechanic is a cool idea if implemented correctly, but if I was playing this game and lost 30 minutes of progress because I got caught in a corner with an android blocking my path, then I'd be super pissed.

If you want to make the player feel weak, have it be through strong and cunning opponents, not through getting caught on geometry. The fact that the protagonist of this game can't jump or mantle tables to try and escape is real stupid.

I couldn't handle playing this game. Just watching it has me all stressed out.

@liquidprince: A quick save option would go a long way, I think.

the alien walking on 2 legs looks stupid. it bothers me that its not crawling around ceiling and wriggling its tail.

Surprised brad lasted so long being undetected by the alien, so tense! Definitely some BS here with the lack of maneuverability up foot tall ledges and such but I actually don't mind how it looks like the save system works.

Text logs and everything, they're checking all the boxes.

'Boy I sure hope that Alien thing doesn't come into my room, because I'm retiring tomor-alrmddrghas;dghjfl;askdhg

I thought Patrick would be doing a "Spookin with Scoops" for this game. I guess he still can.

At least it isnt Colonial Marines

I swear Dan was always 2 beats away from telling him he flat-out sucked at video games.

@skinnyluigi: "Shovelware" seems to imply that the devs initiated development with "quantity over quality" expectations. There's a difference between that and genuinely trying hard yet producing a mediocre to decent product. Also, genius move: make a video game that "ties in" with a movie which came out years before the target demographic was born.

Not sure which I love more: watching Brad play stealth games in his uniquely... Brad-ish... way, or Dan reacting to it.

That was a legitimately tense watch, though. I must play this game. Most of the "negatives" are actually exactly what I want. A way to get over inch-high obstacles would certainly be nice, though. I'd be rather annoyed if I died due to the protagonist's inability to ever-so-slightly raise her foot.

~54:00

Brad: Oh God!

Dan: [Laughing] Check your thing!

Brad: FUCK IT!

Thanks guys, this was a great QL!

You have to lean back while hiding in lockers to hold your breath. That's why they can find you. They hear you breathing.

holy shit, the way brad is playing this is driving me insane, ahaha

That last bit of the video game we see what totally worth it.

"You got him! You got him! Oh no you don't, not at all."

Seems like the robots are just auto pissed

This was excruciating to watch at certain points.

Man this game doesn't seem for me. I am admittedly a huge coward and hearing those thumping noises just stressed me the fuck out

It's a cat and mouse game. You're not meant to hide under a desk and wait for it to go into the vents. You are meant to go where it isn't. avoiding it. using flares/noisemakers etc.

The frustration comes from playing the game WRONG.

Fifty…..seven……..years……… I think I hear a cat hissing.

I really don't like when dead-people-graffiti is written in blood. That just makes no sense. Why would you write a message on the wall in blood other just dramatic effect?

RUN BRAD

re; Alien reproduction procedure. Assuming the aliens are more or less based on reptiles and amphibians, from what is shown in the movies their reproductive routine should probably be something like: boy alien impregnates girl alien with his seed. Girl alien lays eggs. A sort of tadpole analog pupa state of alien emerges from the eggs. Tadpole alien attaches itself to another organism (can be human host) as part of its metamorphosis to adult alien stage, presumably for incubation and sustenance purposes.

The human host bit happens well after the egg is already fertilized. So there's still sex involved.

Also, Brad stop twitching the camera around when you are standing still just talking. STOP THIS PLEASE.

I may be in the minority, but I've never been a fan of the Alien films, and I've seen all of them. I can see how Alien and Aliens are great, but don't enjoy them. Looks like a good game for those interested.

That voice on the synthetics is odd to me. I thought he spoke like that in the movie because he was broken? I don't know- it's odd. I don't remember them touching too much on those models, though, so maybe that is the lower quality of their voice.

Now I have read that you have to lean back and hold your breath for the lockers to work, something that wasn't covered in this QL and which is why they claim lockers don't work. My question is: Does the game actually ever tell you this? It would be very disappointing if it didn't.

My very first thought too was, yeesh, how tall are you supposed to be in this game?

Hell, if I'm going to die I might as well write a blood graffiti for shits and giggles.

It's a different corporation than Weyland Yutani. Their synthetics are far less advanced.

Thank you for showing us the Alien. You went out like a G.

I don't think I'd mind hiding for 5 minutes if it fit with the overall pace of the game. Brad hiding from the Alien, not saying a word for like a minute, was the most exciting part of the quick look.

Fun fact: I work with a dude that looks just like Lance Henriksen. When I started working there I had just finished going through the Quadrilogy set and all its special features. First time I saw him I freaked the f out and nearly called him Bishop constantly through the first month or so.

That's my story.

I'll probably get this on PC when it's on sale. I wish I could watch Brad play it more just because of how much Dan kept fucking with him, great stuff

The more i see of this the more this seems up my alley, even if i dread playing it. I am utterly fascinated with games where you are relentlessly hunted.

@danryckert The game warns you when there are enemies nearby if you try to save, and lets you pick from the current and previous saves when you load the game, so it should be quite difficult to accidentally end up in a state where you have to restart the mission because you die instantly when loading either of them.

Perhaps they should have implemented a system which always stores at least one “safe” save, rather than simply the current and previous saves though, as both could be “dangerous.”

@brad Surprisingly, thereʼs not much that can be done for aliasing on the PC version either, since theyʼre using deferred rendering for the lighting (great article on the gameʼs tech here) and itʼs all shader aliasing. There is an option (SMAA T2x) which does a very good job cleaning up aliasing when the image is static, but thereʼs still a lot of shimmering edges that remain when the game is in motion, even when combining this with downsampling from 4K using NVIDIA's DSR on my 970.

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I can certainly understand why people would find the save system problematic if they arenʼt doing so well in the game and dying a lot. On the easier difficulties there should have been a checkpoint system and a reduction/elimination of the save delay.

Iʼm having a good time playing the PC version on Hard though. I find that the save system really adds to the tension of the game, since most PC horror/stealth games donʼt feel tense at all when you have access to quicksave/load.

If I do die—and 10 hours into the game, it has not happened often—I find that itʼs usually very quick to get back to where I was once I have learned the general layout of an area, especially since the crafting system has not proven to be much use at all thus far, so I donʼt mind passing up on materials.

I do agree with Dan that collectables like the name tags—and possibly even blueprints—should be saved separately from your progress.

I would love to have a “sightseeing” difficulty mode for the game though. While Iʼm playing it on hard my first time through, I do feel like I will have missed many of the small details put into the environments. Iʼd love to just explore the ship without any pressure once I beat the game—though it is disappointing that thereʼs no zoom function to inspect items, and most of the textures are relatively low resolution even on the PC. Gone Home has really spoilt me in that regard.

I completely agree with you about grafitti-covered space stations. It needs to go. The only memorable one for me was “Remember Citadel” from System Shock 2.

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Iʼm not certain, but I think that walking creates the same noise as being crouched—the difference is that youʼre more visible, rather than being louder.

On hard mode at least, if you can see an enemy, it can see you. Leaning is not the traditional video-game style lean where your head is invisible and it acts as though youʼre still crouched. If you lean out from cover, they can see it.

If you see something on the motion tracker, donʼt just stop moving and spin the camera around watching the tracker as it walks up to you! Keep an eye on the distance and slowly move away from it to try and get to a hiding place or move around it. And as long as the Alien is running around inside the vents, it doesnʼt know you are there if you arenʼt making any noise or moving past an opening for it to grab you, so you should be safe to “cross paths” with it.

If you hear a high-pitched pinging noise which is distinct from the motion tracker, youʼre near a save point. You skipped past at least three of them in the Quick Look, beyond the one that Dan pointed out.

A ticking noise means youʼre near one of the panels that can be hacked to turn lights on/off, lock/unlock doors/vents, disable camera/alarm/speaker systems etc. Many of the systems serve no purpose other than to provide power that can be routed to others. Sometimes you will have to compromise and kill the lights in order to power the doors for example, or maybe there are times when you want to lock a door.

Green lights generally indicate an object which can be interacted with.

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Seeing Brad completely oblivious to the second android entering the room early in the Quick Look, and then backing into a corner while being attacked and saying how unfair it was, helps explain why people have a problem with this game if itʼs a common reaction.

Especially when the next thing he does is try running into a locker twice while in clear view of androids, or making a lot of noise in their vicinity the third time.

Donʼt crouch when something is chasing you unless you are certain that youʼre out of their line of sight and it will hide you. Getting away is more important than trying to be sneaky and getting killed because they know where you are, though running very frequently results in death—especially if you run into a small room with only one locker and end up getting caught—where else could you be?

And if everyone waits for the enemies to do a loop and come back around before leaving their hiding place… well that explains how certain reviewers were complaining of spending “five minutes” hiding in a locker waiting for them to leave, or how they were eventually found after an enemy doing several laps of the room. You canʼt just hide in one spot and hope for everything to be OK, you have to be actively avoiding the enemies.

While it might work with the androids early on in the game who will eventually return to their patrols, there are points in the game that the Alien is going to be there and won't leave. You have to avoid it, you cannot hide from it.

I think a lot of people play this with the expectation of standard game logic when Creative Assembly have tried to apply some more realism to their game systems than other recent stealth games, such as Dishonored.

It may not be perfect, and I havenʼt finished the game yet, but I have been having a lot of fun with the game so far, and I have yet to find it frustrating or unfair.

@screwdan: I'm with you buddy! Divisive game but the tense pacing is doing it for me, big time!

Jumping or climbing obstacles would be nice for the average player that gets stuck/boxed in. However, from one of the two instances it happens in this video, it seemed kind of Brad's fault for getting in that position. He ran down to that little area while being chased by multiple enemies to try to open a door clearly marked with a red light. Doors you can open seem to be marked green. The Androids didn't appear to be fast, so to have every situation allow the player to escape just reduces the threat to a ridiculous level.

A big criticism people make that I can definitely understand is having to wait long periods of time in a hiding place before an opportunity to start moving again, but this could be a matter of just understanding where your opening is and going for it. Another would be the saving system, yet on the other hand I can see how an auto-save feature would lessen the penalty of player errors and removing an aspect of the game's tension.

I'm very interested in this. I'll hold off until that Nostromo stuff is potentially bundled in at a later date.

The Blair Witch guys bought their cameras at Circuit City. It wasn't Best Buy.

That isn't an indication that your friend knows them, either, as they told that story in several interviews after the movie came out. I knew about that at the time as a friend of mine and I were trying to mimic what they said they did using Circuit City's return policy.

What's funny is the camera they used was damaged (they dropped it several times during filming) and they were still able to return it because that return policy was so outlandish. It's one reason that Circuit City probably went out of business.

I'm sure your friend may know them, but I'm just saying that story was everywhere. It's not an "in-the-know" story or whatever. If you're gonna name drop I'm gonna have to call you out on that. =P

So weird that that has me thinking about Circuit City again. Man, that store policy was bad, but I have so many memories about that policy and that store. I even applied to work there a few times over a decade and a half ago.

Brad, i love you but it was almost painful watching you play some of this quicklook. When there's an enemy right behind you you RUN!!

I want Alien Bradsolation!

I can see why that may be your initial reaction. However, as a 6'2 individual (probably significantly taller than Amanda) who has walked through the cramped interiors of seafaring vessels, a replica space shuttle interior, and a real chunk of a space station, the camera position seems about right. Yes, those corridors probably do have really low ceilings.

This is one of the harder QLs to watch. Not as bad as SotC, but not pretty.

As I watched more and more of this quick look my thoughts on this game went from mildly interested as an Alien/Aliens fan to "wow, this game really isn't for me."

I don't know where it fully lost me. Probably somewhere around the inability to move around freely or naturally in a game that is basically 80% hide and seek.

I mean, really? Can't even jump over that 1' barrier. Yeah, no, sorry. It's as dumb here as it is in Dark Souls. That immediately breaks whatever realism the game built up through the nice visuals and atmosphere. It just becomes one of those dissonant "gamey" things.

Even without that, the gameplay just seems less frightening and intense to me than, as Brad put it, "tedious" and frustrating.

In most first person games the camera is actually set around chest level and your perspective is fucked up (ie Killzone 2's tiny protagonist). I found the camera height in Alien refreshing.

@liquidprince: It'd be the players fault really for not saving sooner, which isn't hard. You'll pretty much want to save every time you're at a station. It's not a bad system, and it surprisingly does make it a bit more intense than it otherwise would be. It usually doesn't take 30 minutes to get from one save station to another.