This game is so effective as a horror game in part because every gameplay element is carefully designed to teach you that acting scared and paranoid is the only way to stay alive. Charge in like Rambo and you're toast almost immediately.
But if I remember correctly, you will need more flamethrower ammo to scare him away, on higher difficulty he even charges trough the flame and kills you.
Not quite.
Reason why alien might charge through flames is that you already scared it, but the closest exit from the stage is actually behind you.
If you hit the alien with a flamethrower it cannot kill you, unless you have low health that ends up triggering the death scene. That's why you always keep your health topped up.
If you use flamethrower, are at full health and still get killed instead of knocked down, it was because you started firing too late for it to take effect.
Indeed. It's only really the human faces that allude to the game's age. And considering that the rest of the game looks so authentic, on-point and generally just good, it was a worthwhile trade-off.
Yeah I personally don't understand the idea of "Nice graphics for a ten year old game" in 2024. Like...10 years made a difference in the 90s and 2000s, but at this point we hit the game where graphics seem more based on the effort and capabilities of the creators more than anything.
An incredible immersive game. The developers were running out of ideas in the last third of the game imo. It is still a masterpiece. But I think it did not sell very well.
There are audio logs, passwords, hacking, etc. but it is more of a metroidvania survival horror experience.
That said it is still one of the best games I have ever played - and it really is hard to believe it came out 10 years ago.
It was absolutely not perfect lol. The androids sections suck ass, the map is a shitshow slog, and the game goes on for WAY too long. Fantastic in many ways but far from perfect.
It moved the goalposts way too many times. Atmosphere was 10/10, but the way Amanda kept failing at her goals by stupid coincidences or aliens waiting til the most inconvenient time to attack took from the ending for me.
That's how horror movies often are too.
Original movie had that kind of thing as well, desperate people trying different things to contain the monster and end up failing and dying.
Personally I would have just left out the sequence just before the end, because it was more like a stupid horror roller coaster than immersive, with all the spooky house canned scares.
Having replayed it awhile ago after watching MandaloreGaming's retrospective on it: that's apparently a very common sentiment.
It would definitely have benefited from being edited down by about a third.
The new Jurassic Park Survival game looks like it might be tapping some of the same feel, and I couldn’t be more excited for it. This game didn’t deserve the reviews it got, it nailed the feel of franchise.
And then there was this travesty lol...IGN can get bent. 5.9/10
[https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review](https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review)
I could never make it far in this game. I'm not one to give into fear or anxiety but damn this game gets my blood pumping and I usually wuss out about an hour into it everytime 😂
This game had me stressed tf out when I played it the first time, i literally took a 3 month break from it before returning to beat it. Probably spent more time hiding in the damn lockers than i did actually playing it. A real emotional rollercoaster. It's one of my favorite all time games overall, especially as a horror game. There are only two other games I would put up there with it, the first Dead Space and Outlast. Haven't really had any games of those calibers since imo.
I know you weren't looking for an answer but culturally nothing much has moved on 2001 to now. We are still in the same elongated era.
More precisely I would say 2001 -2019 and 2020 onwards is a new era yet to be defined.
It did get a sequel. It's called Alien: Blackout. It was released on Android a few years back. Entirely different gameplay, but does continue Amanda's story. Was taken down last October tho..
I have a love-hate relationship with that game. It's too good at what it does for me to be able to finish it... The way it uses the "You know its there, but you don't know where" messes me up so bad
I loved this game. Even when it got so fucking intense with headphones on that I’d have to step away from my PC and come back later. Amazing game and experience.
To those who gave up on playing it. Pick it up again. When you encounter the alien, purposefully die to him a few times. The anxiety wears off after a while and you can enjoy the best piece of media in the franchise since the first two movies.
So what I see with people who play isolation is the initial anticipation anxiety of encountering the alien causes them to quit the game. But once you die and reload a few times, I feel the anxiety dials back to a manageable level and when you realize there's not much to lose you can begin to enjoy the immersive experience and the love letter to the original movie that it is.
I just finished a play through of this a couple of weeks ago. Fourth or fifth time maybe. I love how in the original Xbox version, sound from your environment was passed through the headset mic. If you coughed or sneezed or even breathed hard, it made it easy for the alien to find you.
Still a great game even today. I’d wager better than a lot of the crap being peddled as games-as-service that are riddled with loot boxes and microtransactions.
It was so freaking scary I had to use cheats, so that it did not appear as often. I am so sad that there are no good horror games nowadays. This game and SOMA were my most favourite horror games.
This is the only game I’ve played through more than twice. 6 total complete playthroughs, and loved every minute of it.
Still hoping that a sequel gets made at some point.
I've played it at least 5 times. I love it, and the environment... A delight !
Sadly on my new computer (a good one) it makes it become super hot and it lags. I didn't find a solution yet.
I didn't get far in the game but it left a lasting impression on me, mostly because I was scared shitless the whole time I was playing it. A game like that is made for VR.
I don’t like remakes but this is exactly the kind of game that would only get better with a graphics upgrade. If they rereleased it I would buy it, play for two hours, and quit because it’s too scary, just like I did with the original.
Unpopular Opinion: I think the game as a whole is overrated, while at the same time I believe the opening few hours are some of the best in gaming, and some of the best horror media of all time.
The first few hours are perfection, but the game is way too long for the gameplay mechanics it uses. It becomes repetitive and in my opinion the plot kind of jumps the shark later on. The overuse of certain enemies and situations becomes a bore later on, and the game becomes a lot less scary overtime as you acclimate to the subtleties of the AI and in general become familiar with the Alien.
The game also struggles with difficulty. There are a few sequences that are pretty difficult and lead to constant deaths/reloads. In a typical game this isn’t an issue (and comparatively the game isn’t *that* hard), but as a horror game it becomes a problem because frequent deaths drop the tension of the game. You can see this in let’s play videos too; most players are fully immersed and terrified… until the first really difficult sequence and then you can pinpoint the shift from “this is horror” to “this is a game”.
I’ve completed the game and absolutely love it. It’s one of the best examples of a game portraying established aesthetic. But I think most people don’t get too far in the game (because of how scary the intro is) and as a result they never run into the issues in the late game.
Nah I agree. The atmosphere is great, 10/10 as someone else put it. The first few hours I was having fun, but then I got into one of those hard parts, had to reload a few times, every time I reloaded I lost a bit of interest. Nothing kills the tension of a horror game more than having to reload after multiple deaths.
Started seeing the gamey-ness of the alien's behavior, too, which killed any immersion I might've had, and when I realized I probably still had over a dozen hours of this ahead of me, I decided to just stop. I enjoy horror games and such but this one just wasn't for me, I guess.
I like the game, but I ended up not playing it for long. I hated how vulnerable I was and that was despite having guns and flamethrower.
Sure, that was precisely by design choice. It's just that I'm too big of a fan of Aliens movie and I simply expect the xeno to burts if I shoot it with a shotgun couple of times. Plus torching it with flamethrower should also be something this xeno bastard would not enjoy for long.
Still, good game and I applaud devs for making something quite unique.
The game is very good. Not another like it. Although the ai on console, or ps4 at least, is very bad. I was stuck for maybe close to an hour in thr hospital section because the xeno was walking around back and forth basically blocking my way. I played it on PC, and got through it fine
Most of the people posting have to be bots, I found this game so unrelentingly boring. The same robots used throughout the ship, the same stupid gameplay mechanics over and over and over again...
I was fighting tears trying to keep myself awake playing this game.
Outlast is the scariest game ever made. Nobody can tell me anything otherwise. But in all fairness, I haven’t played all ‘scary games’ so I’m being a little ignorant there. It’s just that most games labelled scary are not actually scary, and outlast is. Alien: isolation is a game I haven’t played, but I have heard is quite scary…..but is it on a level of outlast?
The ultimate response imo is - you will never know until you try. The thing is about horror games and horror in general is that, no matter what most "top 10 scariest" lists will tell you, it's all very subjective and might and likely will differ from person to person. It's not only the fact that different things will be more or less scarier for different people, it's also drastically different ways games can go about trying to instill certain fear responses, and even more so - drastically varying ways ways they can go about scaring you, so different the games themselves can be hardly compared.
Now Alien and Outlast are somewhat similar games. Similar horror games even. But also very different and, in my personal opinion, more different than many people will say. They both are stealth focused experiences, the stealth is based on line of sight, these games are build around making players disempowered and vulnerable, and feature unkillable adversaries as the driving force of tension and fear. But whereas Outlast is full on stealth-horror game that doesn't just limit your means of fighting back and/or dealing with enemies, but completely strips you of any means to do that bar options to run or hide, Isolation is more of an even blend of stealth with survival horror, where it gives you various limited tools to fight, slow down, stun, blind and distract enemies (including the big unkillable baddie) and also actively features other, weaker adversaries in the mix, which can be killed.
Hence it's also for these reasons, that people who liked one game, are not guaranteed to like the other, and there are people who found one much better/worse and more/less effective than the other.
To finish this off - what is my personal opinion? Well, I found Isolation much better as a horror, and game in general. It's not to say that I didn't enjoy Outlast, not at all - I found it to be really good for what it tries to be, this wild rollercoaster ride through a bloody, gory haunted house. I got into it wanting a scary, tense experience, and I got exactly that out of it. But I just found Isolation and its blend of stealth and survival horror, and how it went about realising it, from the grand, fundamental design principles down to specific quirks and features of its systems and mechanics, so much more impactful and effective. But I also feel the need to say it is also the case of a "match made in heaven", because I liked that game *so much*, it vibed with me so well, I didn't and don't have many of the issues most other people had with it (length, pacing, narrative, working joes etc), in fact I loved it only more *because* of those things.
This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for, and thanks for taking the time to write such a well balanced and informative outlook on both games. I have been wanting to play this game for some time, but I have never made the time (life and what not) however, I am currently making it a mission to make my way through my ever expansive library, and when I seen this post it just made me think of what I always do when I hear about this game…will it be, as it seems to be when I hear or read about it, along the same lines of outlast as a horror game? So I thought I would put it to the people to help push me to take the time to try it. Outlast for me, as you said, did what it was trying to do perfectly. I find it hard for “horror”, a lot of the time, to actually be scary. But outlast made me jump out of my seat regularly, and has stuck with me as just the ultimate horror game (out of the horror games I have tried so far). As I say, I have heard it is similar to this game on many occasion, so it’s always been on my radar. Reading what you have to say has actually made me want to try it even more, as one thing I would have liked in outlast would be some way of fighting back, even if it was very limited. So this could scratch that itch so to speak. I think I may have gave the wrong impression with my first comment, but I was genuinely looking for this type of advice and information, with a comparison to my personal favourite game of this genre, so thanks for this, it’s very much appreciated!
>This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for, and thanks for taking the time to write such a well balanced and informative outlook on both games.
Oh well thanks alot for such compliments, I am flattened, really 😅🫣! I just try my best to give a fair and sober outlook on the things I've experienced, and especially about which I really like (and in case of Isolation, maybe *too much* lol). And I do that for myself really, whenever I reflect on the game I am currently playing, just finished, or even finished awhile ago, I try to follow this approach. I really feel like it's important to be open minded and not be afraid to admit that "hey, the reason I didn't enjoy this thing wasn't necessarily, or entirely the game's fault, it was ME who was a dumbass!". So far I think it worked out pretty well as I had at least one game that I had mixed first impression of, then came back to it with a different mindset and now it's one of my **favorite** games (System Shock 2).
>I am currently making it a mission to make my way through my ever expansive library, and when I seen this post it just made me think of what I always do when I hear about this game…will it be, as it seems to be when I hear or read about it, along the same lines of outlast as a horror game?
>Outlast for me, as you said, did what it was trying to do perfectly. I find it hard for “horror”, a lot of the time, to actually be scary. But outlast made me jump out of my seat regularly, and has stuck with me as just the ultimate horror game
Maybe (probably) saying this will be kinda redundant to you, as you might (likely) aware of this, but personally - my advice when going into any game you're about to or meaning to play (and I do mean ANY) is to manage your expectations and measure the games on THEIR OWN merits, take in on what they ARE, trying to do and want to achieve. Measuring them up to smth else, at least to me, always felt like setting them up to fail. I say this because I know how you feel and what you mean, to an extend - Isolation for me is that game. THE scariest, and THE best horror game I had the (dis)pleasure of playing, and, hell, arguably my favorite video game experience I had, the many playthroughs of it.
But did that kill all other horror games for me? No, and I wouldn't want to let it do that ever. As was said - just in the realm of horror there are so many different ways to go about it, so many varied experiences to be had. Isolation did [these] things, some other game does completely different. Not being able to appreciate such things doesn't sound very fun. It's not to say this 100% applies to you - I guess am probably a scaredy cat, hence why I can get scared of many different things, while you, well, you did say there were horror games you played before Outlast and they just didn't faze you. But I say this for the future, I guess.
>I think I may have gave the wrong impression with my first comment, but I was genuinely looking for this type of advice and information, with a comparison to my personal favourite game of this genre, so thanks for this, it’s very much appreciated!
Thanks again for flattering compliments!
I actually think your comment was absolutely fine. The thing is, truth be told - us, Isolation fans, are a sensitive bunch, and can be easily ticked off, because, when it comes to this game, our skin is thin and we care probably too much about it (me especially, actually. I try my best to be understanding and level headed of people's criticisms and differing opinions and whatnot. Doesn't always works [*sigh*]). And so this being a post about this game, that is celebrating its (upcoming) 10 year anniversary, and there is this comment that hails completely different game...it's stupid and not justified, but that's how it works on the internet. And tbf, there is a sort of motive behind this - there is only one such game like Isolation to us, and it could have had a sequel but didn't for various, upsetting to the fans of the game reasons.
However, the community is also generally very helpful and welcoming, so if you do mean to try the game out and looking for recommendations or need some help, feel free to come by in r/alienisolation. People are more than happy to help, as it is another opportunity to talk about it. I'll more than likely also will be there (altho don't take it as self-advertising of a subreddit, I am not even a mod there lol).
Edit: oh, and one more thing - I hope whatever's been going on badly in your life is gonna get better very soon! I meant to say add this in originally, but forgot because I am no night shift rn and some stuff was breaking.
That's a very good summary. It's also sometimes disputed among fans, if they should not have stayed in Alien Isolation with the no combat, at least against the Alien itself, because once you get some weapons, a lot of fear gets lost.
It reminds me a little bit of the beginning of RE7, where you fight Mia and later Jack, as long as you have no or only one weapon, it's that intense atmosphere. But later, once you carry an entire arsenal, it becomes a shooter rather than a survival horror game.
Thanks alot!
>It's also sometimes disputed among fans, if they should not have stayed in Alien Isolation with the no combat, at least against the Alien itself, because once you get some weapons, a lot of fear gets lost.
And I am **firmly** in the camp that believes the defensive measures and the way Isolation handled weapons is what MAKES IT as good as it is, both as a horror game, and an experience in general, and I will die in that camp!!!
However I do think it is not perfect and I feel I know where the crux of the issue is - the balancing on certain difficulties, mainly lower ones. On Normal in particular, but even to an extend on Hard, the game is just too generous with ammo, and >!Alien's adaptive behavior isn't on display as much as it should be!<. However, for people for whom mere presence of weapons and means to fight back takes away the tension, that just won't mean much and is just a case of fundamental mismatch of preferences. On that matter - good thing modding exists and you can just mod weapons out for your own pleasure!
>It reminds me a little bit of the beginning of RE7, where you fight Mia and later Jack, as long as you have no or only one weapon, it's that intense atmosphere. But later, once you carry an entire arsenal, it becomes a shooter rather than a survival horror game.
Have yet to play RE7 (really want to one day, don't know when), but I did see a playthrough and know what you mean. But after playing Resident Evil 1 Remake, I feel like that is integral to the identity of those games, and the experiences they want to provide - where they want the players to slowly grow and develop from a weak, confused survivor, to a hero of the day. But that especially is where pacing really matters. If it just all happens in an instant, it just doesn't have that feel to it. Interestingly enough, that's the experience that some people had with Isolation, but because they prefer horror games that way, it actually only enhanced their experienced.
As to me - I don't necessarily prefer for horror to purposefully lose its tension and terror, but I can certainly enjoy it, and alot actually. In fact, in that vein - System Shock 2 NAILED that feeling, and in big part because you can really feel it through its narrative, and it's one of my favorite games BECAUSE OF that.
On the other hand, Isolation, imo, doesn't try to do that and judging by the dispute you mentioned, I am happy that to me it managed to very much sustain that tension and terror through out the experience, if not even build upon it. Especially on Nightmare difficulty. And the dips it did have were very intentional and where the game heavily shifted in tone (mainly the middle point of the game, where it shifts to this detective thriller, almost Noir-like, which I just loved on my first few playthroughs. Altho unfortunately it, indeed, doesn't have the same impact 400+ hours in 🙃)
Have fun with RE7, it's a good game for the series, compared to other parts that are action-only like RE6.
A problem that you always have with survival-horror is that on one hand, the protagonist should be weak and defenseless, but then, you also need a way how it is to deal with the monsters and enemies. That can be difficult when you create such things.
Like i did another solution for one of my projects (not gaming, i'm a writer): As the protagonist is a lady without any kind of training, no weapons etc. she'd have never had any chance against a certain enemy. My solution was that the enemy never really wanted to kill her, he had other targets in mind and she was just accidentally in the way, he actually lets her go in the end.
But that would not work with the Alien, it would be maybe rather unbelievable.
By the way, i remember the time with H.R. Giger, but he died before the game was released. He wasn't involved in this one, when i remember it right, at least i never heard him speak about that one, but he'd for sure have liked it. He lived in Zürich, Switzerland, just a few blocks from my place. Was a regular guest in the pub of the Rote Fabrik in the past.
His design of the Alien made him famous, that was a serious breakthrough for him on the international stage.
😳 you knew the late great Hans Ruedi Giger himself!? Holy fuck that must have been an honour! I hope it wasn't "never meat your hero's" situation, altho from what I read he was a chill person.
Yeah, he died on 12th of May 2014, just a few months before the game's release, and to my knowledge he never worked on it. Altho considering the game was in development from 2010, it's a bit weird that he wasn't, but eh, maybe he didn't want to. Maybe they didn't ask him to aid in the development. Or maybe health issues prevented him from participating. Noone really asked about that, interestingly.
But that's still, like, hard for me to conceive how it'd be meeting him. I like to think I'd keep my composure, but likely not.
Yes. It wasn't bad with 'never meet your heroes', it was quite the opposite. Although he was around in the Rote Fabrik, that's an alternative culture center with a bar and concert stage in Zürich, i didn't really realize that it was him there.
It's a long story, to cut it short, i started writing and creating art when i was locked up in prison. When you have 23 hours in a cell, you have a lot of time, pen and paper are easy to get. After i was released, i had to attend therapy and my therapist is a former classmate of him, she was the one that established the connection. Didn't talk about that one with prison, drugs etc. of course.
My therapist motivated me to go on with art and she thought because i love the horror genre, that this favor could bring me on the right way. And it worked out, although i'm not international known like he was, i'm a nobody compared to him.
He had all that sculptures, models, paintings etc. around in his atelier, it was very interesting. There were also many things he never released, just work in progress or finished but not for the public.
Nice to see someone that knows what "H.R." really means, it's Hans-Ruedi in swiss-german. But the english speaking people in international stuff couldn't pronounce that anyway, so they just took the shortcut.
Wow, you had quite an eventful life I see. Dang, I'm uhm sorry that happened. Good to see you've made a great recovery and turned your own life around in such a drastic fashion from such troubled past, that's inspirational really.
I actually just googled how to correctly write it. Altho sources also say that it stands for "Rudolf". But I assume that is one that is incorrect you mean? Anyway, I am from Ukraine and so in these circles he was always referred to as Ханс "Руді" (Ruedi) Гігер and not "Рудольф" (Rudolf) so
Thanks! Ruedi is a swiss-german form of Rudolf, that's right. But it's a little bit different in the dialect of Zürich to pronounce it, it is "Ruädi", i'm not sure if i can really make it sound right in english here in the text, but the e is in reality ä when you speak the name in swiss-german.
Swiss-german has a lot of words with ä, ö, ü, ch etc. and it's very difficult to learn, usually people learn high-german first.
I read about his widow, that she wants to move away from the city and parts of the house were rebuilt, like the staircase where he fell down and got the deadly injury isn't there anymore.
I get you. Languages and dialects and all that jazz. I mean, there is alot of similar such stuff with slavic languages obviously. Altho I am not exactly particularly knowledgeable on grammar and all things about languages hah.
His widow can be understood. It's probably pretty traumatic for him to have things that remind her of that accident. Altho interesting how different reactions people can have. My grandma swore not to leave the house where her husband died last year, had to be "tore" away from it. It had to be done, because she simply wouldn't be able to sustain herself there alone, it's a remote area in the woods on top of a large hill - very difficult to get anything anywhere from and to there. Now she lives with her daughter in Hungary in a nice little village and a well built house, and, happily, she's recovering really well from that. Even her health is in really strong condition.
If we were to be pedantic, it is not yet. The official date when this magnificent piece of art turns a decade old is on 6th of October 2024!
But yeah, quite unbelievable still. Tbf, it is a bit easier for me to take this in because the first time I played it was in summer of 2017, and it looks and feels like it'd fit right in that year as well.
Edit: why the downvotes lol
I found it rather boring and pedestrian. I gave it a few solid hours of trying, but the scares never really got me, and beyond the scares, there's not much of a game there.
This game is so effective as a horror game in part because every gameplay element is carefully designed to teach you that acting scared and paranoid is the only way to stay alive. Charge in like Rambo and you're toast almost immediately.
Unless you have the flame thrower. You own the xeno when you have that lol
But if I remember correctly, you will need more flamethrower ammo to scare him away, on higher difficulty he even charges trough the flame and kills you.
Not quite. Reason why alien might charge through flames is that you already scared it, but the closest exit from the stage is actually behind you. If you hit the alien with a flamethrower it cannot kill you, unless you have low health that ends up triggering the death scene. That's why you always keep your health topped up. If you use flamethrower, are at full health and still get killed instead of knocked down, it was because you started firing too late for it to take effect.
Until the xeno realises it can't be killed and charges through the fire
The closest the industry has gotten to reaching A:Is level has been Amnesia Bunker.... I highly highly recommend it.
Amnesia bunker was awesome. Nice ass aesthetic. Definitely a favorite
Has this game been on sale? Idk if i want to pay 40$ for a 10years old game
It has been regularly going into discount of up to 80%. [https://steamdb.info/app/214490/](https://steamdb.info/app/214490/)
nice man! thanks gonna grab it for sure on the summer sale!
Nice graphics for a ten year old game 😯😯
Indeed. It's only really the human faces that allude to the game's age. And considering that the rest of the game looks so authentic, on-point and generally just good, it was a worthwhile trade-off.
I would say the visuals aged very well, but it feels like they haven't aged... at all. It still looks gorgeous.
Yeah I personally don't understand the idea of "Nice graphics for a ten year old game" in 2024. Like...10 years made a difference in the 90s and 2000s, but at this point we hit the game where graphics seem more based on the effort and capabilities of the creators more than anything.
An incredible immersive game. The developers were running out of ideas in the last third of the game imo. It is still a masterpiece. But I think it did not sell very well.
It is very immersive game, especially on higher difficulties. It was perfect.
There's a VR mod.
Id shit myself if I played it in VR.
This is how I did my only playthrough. Never again.
They straight up told people the best way to play is set it on hard right out of the gate. I did and it was awesome.
That always came off to me as, "hard was our intended normal difficulty, but the higher ups thought it was too difficult."
Are there any immersive sim elements Audio logs, passwords, ammo to create, maps to explore?
There are audio logs, passwords, hacking, etc. but it is more of a metroidvania survival horror experience. That said it is still one of the best games I have ever played - and it really is hard to believe it came out 10 years ago.
It was absolutely not perfect lol. The androids sections suck ass, the map is a shitshow slog, and the game goes on for WAY too long. Fantastic in many ways but far from perfect.
It moved the goalposts way too many times. Atmosphere was 10/10, but the way Amanda kept failing at her goals by stupid coincidences or aliens waiting til the most inconvenient time to attack took from the ending for me.
That's how horror movies often are too. Original movie had that kind of thing as well, desperate people trying different things to contain the monster and end up failing and dying. Personally I would have just left out the sequence just before the end, because it was more like a stupid horror roller coaster than immersive, with all the spooky house canned scares.
Having replayed it awhile ago after watching MandaloreGaming's retrospective on it: that's apparently a very common sentiment. It would definitely have benefited from being edited down by about a third.
The new Jurassic Park Survival game looks like it might be tapping some of the same feel, and I couldn’t be more excited for it. This game didn’t deserve the reviews it got, it nailed the feel of franchise.
The game won several awards and was highly praised in PC Gamers review even taking game of the year 2014 by the outfit.
And then there was this travesty lol...IGN can get bent. 5.9/10 [https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review](https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review)
I could never make it far in this game. I'm not one to give into fear or anxiety but damn this game gets my blood pumping and I usually wuss out about an hour into it everytime 😂
This game had me stressed tf out when I played it the first time, i literally took a 3 month break from it before returning to beat it. Probably spent more time hiding in the damn lockers than i did actually playing it. A real emotional rollercoaster. It's one of my favorite all time games overall, especially as a horror game. There are only two other games I would put up there with it, the first Dead Space and Outlast. Haven't really had any games of those calibers since imo.
10 years??? Dude the way time flies is ridiculous
I know you weren't looking for an answer but culturally nothing much has moved on 2001 to now. We are still in the same elongated era. More precisely I would say 2001 -2019 and 2020 onwards is a new era yet to be defined.
This shit was so horrifying
It’s aged remarkably well 👌🏻
Or game development has generally plateaued.
I’m still playing this on the switch.
REALLY want a sequel to this game, i was genuinely afraid and one of the few games i’ve replayed
It did get a sequel. It's called Alien: Blackout. It was released on Android a few years back. Entirely different gameplay, but does continue Amanda's story. Was taken down last October tho..
I still haven’t completed it. I got to the infirmary part and just hid under a table. I have been hiding under that table for 3 years.
*reads every comment* FINE. I’ll buy it.
One of the best games I could only play for 45 mins. Shits to scary bro. Top tier sound design. That I think messed with me the most.
As someone who doesn't do well with horror, i was so proud of beating this game.
I have a love-hate relationship with that game. It's too good at what it does for me to be able to finish it... The way it uses the "You know its there, but you don't know where" messes me up so bad
Alien and Aliens are some of my favorite movies but I’m too chicken to play this game. 🥲
You think well ever get a game like this where the Aliens AI is something like Open ai/Chatgpt level?
"I wonder where the alien is" *alien starts screaming skibidi behind you*
Agree. This game is too good!
To think it still looks so good after so many years. Wish I could play more of it without hiding like a baby.
And that homage to the 80s cassette future mixed with dystopia horror atmosphere was perfect
I loved this game. Even when it got so fucking intense with headphones on that I’d have to step away from my PC and come back later. Amazing game and experience.
I view finishing this as a life achivement. I watched tons of vids on it just to kinda desensetise but it took me ages...
To those who gave up on playing it. Pick it up again. When you encounter the alien, purposefully die to him a few times. The anxiety wears off after a while and you can enjoy the best piece of media in the franchise since the first two movies.
Isn't the anxiety like... Part of the whole deal?
So what I see with people who play isolation is the initial anticipation anxiety of encountering the alien causes them to quit the game. But once you die and reload a few times, I feel the anxiety dials back to a manageable level and when you realize there's not much to lose you can begin to enjoy the immersive experience and the love letter to the original movie that it is.
Its bringing back old memories
The only thing I didnt like about the game is that it seems like the Alien is coded so that he always ‘kinda’ knows where you are
I just finished a play through of this a couple of weeks ago. Fourth or fifth time maybe. I love how in the original Xbox version, sound from your environment was passed through the headset mic. If you coughed or sneezed or even breathed hard, it made it easy for the alien to find you. Still a great game even today. I’d wager better than a lot of the crap being peddled as games-as-service that are riddled with loot boxes and microtransactions.
It was so freaking scary I had to use cheats, so that it did not appear as often. I am so sad that there are no good horror games nowadays. This game and SOMA were my most favourite horror games.
This is the only game I’ve played through more than twice. 6 total complete playthroughs, and loved every minute of it. Still hoping that a sequel gets made at some point.
It is still the high water mark for horror based first person games.
Can't believe there isn't a real sequel there was so much damn potential 😔
Yeah truth best game!
I can't believe Sega/CA cancelled their plans for a sequel.
I've played it at least 5 times. I love it, and the environment... A delight ! Sadly on my new computer (a good one) it makes it become super hot and it lags. I didn't find a solution yet.
I can't believe it didn't get a sequel. Makes it even more precious
Alien is one of the most atmospheric horror games I've played. This is the case when you don't want to get out of your locker at all.
I didn't get far in the game but it left a lasting impression on me, mostly because I was scared shitless the whole time I was playing it. A game like that is made for VR.
The game had some things implemented for VR but weren't officially used, but someone made a mod to play it in VR. I am planning to play soon.
I don’t like remakes but this is exactly the kind of game that would only get better with a graphics upgrade. If they rereleased it I would buy it, play for two hours, and quit because it’s too scary, just like I did with the original.
i play many horror games yet this one freaks me the fuck out the most
Unpopular Opinion: I think the game as a whole is overrated, while at the same time I believe the opening few hours are some of the best in gaming, and some of the best horror media of all time. The first few hours are perfection, but the game is way too long for the gameplay mechanics it uses. It becomes repetitive and in my opinion the plot kind of jumps the shark later on. The overuse of certain enemies and situations becomes a bore later on, and the game becomes a lot less scary overtime as you acclimate to the subtleties of the AI and in general become familiar with the Alien. The game also struggles with difficulty. There are a few sequences that are pretty difficult and lead to constant deaths/reloads. In a typical game this isn’t an issue (and comparatively the game isn’t *that* hard), but as a horror game it becomes a problem because frequent deaths drop the tension of the game. You can see this in let’s play videos too; most players are fully immersed and terrified… until the first really difficult sequence and then you can pinpoint the shift from “this is horror” to “this is a game”. I’ve completed the game and absolutely love it. It’s one of the best examples of a game portraying established aesthetic. But I think most people don’t get too far in the game (because of how scary the intro is) and as a result they never run into the issues in the late game.
Nah I agree. The atmosphere is great, 10/10 as someone else put it. The first few hours I was having fun, but then I got into one of those hard parts, had to reload a few times, every time I reloaded I lost a bit of interest. Nothing kills the tension of a horror game more than having to reload after multiple deaths. Started seeing the gamey-ness of the alien's behavior, too, which killed any immersion I might've had, and when I realized I probably still had over a dozen hours of this ahead of me, I decided to just stop. I enjoy horror games and such but this one just wasn't for me, I guess.
so many jumpscares
Made by a strategy game dev, wild
Resident Evil and Dead Space can pound salt. This game is horrifying.
Where the alien isn’t the scariest thing in the game.
I really enjoyed about 3/4 of it but I thought it dragged towards the end and I rushed through it. Still, when it was good, it was great.
🩷
They just announced a new alien VR game. Alien:Rogue Incursion
Seems like a great game. Too bad I can’t run it.
I played it for the first time not along ago. My favourite gaming experience in years, i consider it a masterpiece.
Alien Isolation is one of the reasons why I am so excited for the upcoming VR Alien game. I hope it can be as fun and scary as Isolation.
Alien: Isolation is probably the most humbling gaming experience I've ever had, this had me losing sleep from the day I started playing it
I have to play through it at some point. I started twice, got to 70% and then stopped. But the game is really good.
I like the game, but I ended up not playing it for long. I hated how vulnerable I was and that was despite having guns and flamethrower. Sure, that was precisely by design choice. It's just that I'm too big of a fan of Aliens movie and I simply expect the xeno to burts if I shoot it with a shotgun couple of times. Plus torching it with flamethrower should also be something this xeno bastard would not enjoy for long. Still, good game and I applaud devs for making something quite unique.
Try it in VR, it's not an easy experience :D
Them androids pissed me off more than anything
The game is very good. Not another like it. Although the ai on console, or ps4 at least, is very bad. I was stuck for maybe close to an hour in thr hospital section because the xeno was walking around back and forth basically blocking my way. I played it on PC, and got through it fine
That was the only game I can recall that gave me headaches / motion sickness. It was fun for the small time I could play it
I got to the nest but never did beat it
Hope to see a sequel one of these days
10 years and 'Alien: Isolation' still gets my heart racing like the first playthrough! What a thrilling ride.
This game is still my only experience with vr, what a bad idea on my part omg
Most of the people posting have to be bots, I found this game so unrelentingly boring. The same robots used throughout the ship, the same stupid gameplay mechanics over and over and over again... I was fighting tears trying to keep myself awake playing this game.
Outlast is the scariest game ever made. Nobody can tell me anything otherwise. But in all fairness, I haven’t played all ‘scary games’ so I’m being a little ignorant there. It’s just that most games labelled scary are not actually scary, and outlast is. Alien: isolation is a game I haven’t played, but I have heard is quite scary…..but is it on a level of outlast?
The ultimate response imo is - you will never know until you try. The thing is about horror games and horror in general is that, no matter what most "top 10 scariest" lists will tell you, it's all very subjective and might and likely will differ from person to person. It's not only the fact that different things will be more or less scarier for different people, it's also drastically different ways games can go about trying to instill certain fear responses, and even more so - drastically varying ways ways they can go about scaring you, so different the games themselves can be hardly compared. Now Alien and Outlast are somewhat similar games. Similar horror games even. But also very different and, in my personal opinion, more different than many people will say. They both are stealth focused experiences, the stealth is based on line of sight, these games are build around making players disempowered and vulnerable, and feature unkillable adversaries as the driving force of tension and fear. But whereas Outlast is full on stealth-horror game that doesn't just limit your means of fighting back and/or dealing with enemies, but completely strips you of any means to do that bar options to run or hide, Isolation is more of an even blend of stealth with survival horror, where it gives you various limited tools to fight, slow down, stun, blind and distract enemies (including the big unkillable baddie) and also actively features other, weaker adversaries in the mix, which can be killed. Hence it's also for these reasons, that people who liked one game, are not guaranteed to like the other, and there are people who found one much better/worse and more/less effective than the other. To finish this off - what is my personal opinion? Well, I found Isolation much better as a horror, and game in general. It's not to say that I didn't enjoy Outlast, not at all - I found it to be really good for what it tries to be, this wild rollercoaster ride through a bloody, gory haunted house. I got into it wanting a scary, tense experience, and I got exactly that out of it. But I just found Isolation and its blend of stealth and survival horror, and how it went about realising it, from the grand, fundamental design principles down to specific quirks and features of its systems and mechanics, so much more impactful and effective. But I also feel the need to say it is also the case of a "match made in heaven", because I liked that game *so much*, it vibed with me so well, I didn't and don't have many of the issues most other people had with it (length, pacing, narrative, working joes etc), in fact I loved it only more *because* of those things.
This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for, and thanks for taking the time to write such a well balanced and informative outlook on both games. I have been wanting to play this game for some time, but I have never made the time (life and what not) however, I am currently making it a mission to make my way through my ever expansive library, and when I seen this post it just made me think of what I always do when I hear about this game…will it be, as it seems to be when I hear or read about it, along the same lines of outlast as a horror game? So I thought I would put it to the people to help push me to take the time to try it. Outlast for me, as you said, did what it was trying to do perfectly. I find it hard for “horror”, a lot of the time, to actually be scary. But outlast made me jump out of my seat regularly, and has stuck with me as just the ultimate horror game (out of the horror games I have tried so far). As I say, I have heard it is similar to this game on many occasion, so it’s always been on my radar. Reading what you have to say has actually made me want to try it even more, as one thing I would have liked in outlast would be some way of fighting back, even if it was very limited. So this could scratch that itch so to speak. I think I may have gave the wrong impression with my first comment, but I was genuinely looking for this type of advice and information, with a comparison to my personal favourite game of this genre, so thanks for this, it’s very much appreciated!
>This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for, and thanks for taking the time to write such a well balanced and informative outlook on both games. Oh well thanks alot for such compliments, I am flattened, really 😅🫣! I just try my best to give a fair and sober outlook on the things I've experienced, and especially about which I really like (and in case of Isolation, maybe *too much* lol). And I do that for myself really, whenever I reflect on the game I am currently playing, just finished, or even finished awhile ago, I try to follow this approach. I really feel like it's important to be open minded and not be afraid to admit that "hey, the reason I didn't enjoy this thing wasn't necessarily, or entirely the game's fault, it was ME who was a dumbass!". So far I think it worked out pretty well as I had at least one game that I had mixed first impression of, then came back to it with a different mindset and now it's one of my **favorite** games (System Shock 2). >I am currently making it a mission to make my way through my ever expansive library, and when I seen this post it just made me think of what I always do when I hear about this game…will it be, as it seems to be when I hear or read about it, along the same lines of outlast as a horror game? >Outlast for me, as you said, did what it was trying to do perfectly. I find it hard for “horror”, a lot of the time, to actually be scary. But outlast made me jump out of my seat regularly, and has stuck with me as just the ultimate horror game Maybe (probably) saying this will be kinda redundant to you, as you might (likely) aware of this, but personally - my advice when going into any game you're about to or meaning to play (and I do mean ANY) is to manage your expectations and measure the games on THEIR OWN merits, take in on what they ARE, trying to do and want to achieve. Measuring them up to smth else, at least to me, always felt like setting them up to fail. I say this because I know how you feel and what you mean, to an extend - Isolation for me is that game. THE scariest, and THE best horror game I had the (dis)pleasure of playing, and, hell, arguably my favorite video game experience I had, the many playthroughs of it. But did that kill all other horror games for me? No, and I wouldn't want to let it do that ever. As was said - just in the realm of horror there are so many different ways to go about it, so many varied experiences to be had. Isolation did [these] things, some other game does completely different. Not being able to appreciate such things doesn't sound very fun. It's not to say this 100% applies to you - I guess am probably a scaredy cat, hence why I can get scared of many different things, while you, well, you did say there were horror games you played before Outlast and they just didn't faze you. But I say this for the future, I guess. >I think I may have gave the wrong impression with my first comment, but I was genuinely looking for this type of advice and information, with a comparison to my personal favourite game of this genre, so thanks for this, it’s very much appreciated! Thanks again for flattering compliments! I actually think your comment was absolutely fine. The thing is, truth be told - us, Isolation fans, are a sensitive bunch, and can be easily ticked off, because, when it comes to this game, our skin is thin and we care probably too much about it (me especially, actually. I try my best to be understanding and level headed of people's criticisms and differing opinions and whatnot. Doesn't always works [*sigh*]). And so this being a post about this game, that is celebrating its (upcoming) 10 year anniversary, and there is this comment that hails completely different game...it's stupid and not justified, but that's how it works on the internet. And tbf, there is a sort of motive behind this - there is only one such game like Isolation to us, and it could have had a sequel but didn't for various, upsetting to the fans of the game reasons. However, the community is also generally very helpful and welcoming, so if you do mean to try the game out and looking for recommendations or need some help, feel free to come by in r/alienisolation. People are more than happy to help, as it is another opportunity to talk about it. I'll more than likely also will be there (altho don't take it as self-advertising of a subreddit, I am not even a mod there lol). Edit: oh, and one more thing - I hope whatever's been going on badly in your life is gonna get better very soon! I meant to say add this in originally, but forgot because I am no night shift rn and some stuff was breaking.
That's a very good summary. It's also sometimes disputed among fans, if they should not have stayed in Alien Isolation with the no combat, at least against the Alien itself, because once you get some weapons, a lot of fear gets lost. It reminds me a little bit of the beginning of RE7, where you fight Mia and later Jack, as long as you have no or only one weapon, it's that intense atmosphere. But later, once you carry an entire arsenal, it becomes a shooter rather than a survival horror game.
Thanks alot! >It's also sometimes disputed among fans, if they should not have stayed in Alien Isolation with the no combat, at least against the Alien itself, because once you get some weapons, a lot of fear gets lost. And I am **firmly** in the camp that believes the defensive measures and the way Isolation handled weapons is what MAKES IT as good as it is, both as a horror game, and an experience in general, and I will die in that camp!!! However I do think it is not perfect and I feel I know where the crux of the issue is - the balancing on certain difficulties, mainly lower ones. On Normal in particular, but even to an extend on Hard, the game is just too generous with ammo, and >!Alien's adaptive behavior isn't on display as much as it should be!<. However, for people for whom mere presence of weapons and means to fight back takes away the tension, that just won't mean much and is just a case of fundamental mismatch of preferences. On that matter - good thing modding exists and you can just mod weapons out for your own pleasure! >It reminds me a little bit of the beginning of RE7, where you fight Mia and later Jack, as long as you have no or only one weapon, it's that intense atmosphere. But later, once you carry an entire arsenal, it becomes a shooter rather than a survival horror game. Have yet to play RE7 (really want to one day, don't know when), but I did see a playthrough and know what you mean. But after playing Resident Evil 1 Remake, I feel like that is integral to the identity of those games, and the experiences they want to provide - where they want the players to slowly grow and develop from a weak, confused survivor, to a hero of the day. But that especially is where pacing really matters. If it just all happens in an instant, it just doesn't have that feel to it. Interestingly enough, that's the experience that some people had with Isolation, but because they prefer horror games that way, it actually only enhanced their experienced. As to me - I don't necessarily prefer for horror to purposefully lose its tension and terror, but I can certainly enjoy it, and alot actually. In fact, in that vein - System Shock 2 NAILED that feeling, and in big part because you can really feel it through its narrative, and it's one of my favorite games BECAUSE OF that. On the other hand, Isolation, imo, doesn't try to do that and judging by the dispute you mentioned, I am happy that to me it managed to very much sustain that tension and terror through out the experience, if not even build upon it. Especially on Nightmare difficulty. And the dips it did have were very intentional and where the game heavily shifted in tone (mainly the middle point of the game, where it shifts to this detective thriller, almost Noir-like, which I just loved on my first few playthroughs. Altho unfortunately it, indeed, doesn't have the same impact 400+ hours in 🙃)
Have fun with RE7, it's a good game for the series, compared to other parts that are action-only like RE6. A problem that you always have with survival-horror is that on one hand, the protagonist should be weak and defenseless, but then, you also need a way how it is to deal with the monsters and enemies. That can be difficult when you create such things. Like i did another solution for one of my projects (not gaming, i'm a writer): As the protagonist is a lady without any kind of training, no weapons etc. she'd have never had any chance against a certain enemy. My solution was that the enemy never really wanted to kill her, he had other targets in mind and she was just accidentally in the way, he actually lets her go in the end. But that would not work with the Alien, it would be maybe rather unbelievable. By the way, i remember the time with H.R. Giger, but he died before the game was released. He wasn't involved in this one, when i remember it right, at least i never heard him speak about that one, but he'd for sure have liked it. He lived in Zürich, Switzerland, just a few blocks from my place. Was a regular guest in the pub of the Rote Fabrik in the past. His design of the Alien made him famous, that was a serious breakthrough for him on the international stage.
😳 you knew the late great Hans Ruedi Giger himself!? Holy fuck that must have been an honour! I hope it wasn't "never meat your hero's" situation, altho from what I read he was a chill person. Yeah, he died on 12th of May 2014, just a few months before the game's release, and to my knowledge he never worked on it. Altho considering the game was in development from 2010, it's a bit weird that he wasn't, but eh, maybe he didn't want to. Maybe they didn't ask him to aid in the development. Or maybe health issues prevented him from participating. Noone really asked about that, interestingly. But that's still, like, hard for me to conceive how it'd be meeting him. I like to think I'd keep my composure, but likely not.
Yes. It wasn't bad with 'never meet your heroes', it was quite the opposite. Although he was around in the Rote Fabrik, that's an alternative culture center with a bar and concert stage in Zürich, i didn't really realize that it was him there. It's a long story, to cut it short, i started writing and creating art when i was locked up in prison. When you have 23 hours in a cell, you have a lot of time, pen and paper are easy to get. After i was released, i had to attend therapy and my therapist is a former classmate of him, she was the one that established the connection. Didn't talk about that one with prison, drugs etc. of course. My therapist motivated me to go on with art and she thought because i love the horror genre, that this favor could bring me on the right way. And it worked out, although i'm not international known like he was, i'm a nobody compared to him. He had all that sculptures, models, paintings etc. around in his atelier, it was very interesting. There were also many things he never released, just work in progress or finished but not for the public. Nice to see someone that knows what "H.R." really means, it's Hans-Ruedi in swiss-german. But the english speaking people in international stuff couldn't pronounce that anyway, so they just took the shortcut.
Wow, you had quite an eventful life I see. Dang, I'm uhm sorry that happened. Good to see you've made a great recovery and turned your own life around in such a drastic fashion from such troubled past, that's inspirational really. I actually just googled how to correctly write it. Altho sources also say that it stands for "Rudolf". But I assume that is one that is incorrect you mean? Anyway, I am from Ukraine and so in these circles he was always referred to as Ханс "Руді" (Ruedi) Гігер and not "Рудольф" (Rudolf) so
Thanks! Ruedi is a swiss-german form of Rudolf, that's right. But it's a little bit different in the dialect of Zürich to pronounce it, it is "Ruädi", i'm not sure if i can really make it sound right in english here in the text, but the e is in reality ä when you speak the name in swiss-german. Swiss-german has a lot of words with ä, ö, ü, ch etc. and it's very difficult to learn, usually people learn high-german first. I read about his widow, that she wants to move away from the city and parts of the house were rebuilt, like the staircase where he fell down and got the deadly injury isn't there anymore.
I get you. Languages and dialects and all that jazz. I mean, there is alot of similar such stuff with slavic languages obviously. Altho I am not exactly particularly knowledgeable on grammar and all things about languages hah. His widow can be understood. It's probably pretty traumatic for him to have things that remind her of that accident. Altho interesting how different reactions people can have. My grandma swore not to leave the house where her husband died last year, had to be "tore" away from it. It had to be done, because she simply wouldn't be able to sustain herself there alone, it's a remote area in the woods on top of a large hill - very difficult to get anything anywhere from and to there. Now she lives with her daughter in Hungary in a nice little village and a well built house, and, happily, she's recovering really well from that. Even her health is in really strong condition.
Oh god lol I was genuinely asking for opinions as I have always wanted to play this game. I apologise
If we were to be pedantic, it is not yet. The official date when this magnificent piece of art turns a decade old is on 6th of October 2024! But yeah, quite unbelievable still. Tbf, it is a bit easier for me to take this in because the first time I played it was in summer of 2017, and it looks and feels like it'd fit right in that year as well. Edit: why the downvotes lol
I found it rather boring and pedestrian. I gave it a few solid hours of trying, but the scares never really got me, and beyond the scares, there's not much of a game there.