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Why does Alien Isolation suck so bad


Ranger03

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Now, i'm going to get comments ranging from get good to you are not playing it right. Well, I'm currently on hard mode, in the spaceflight terminal. I keep getting murdered, or ambushed by vents and it really hurts that the developers made you go across the hall twice, as if the level wasn't hard enough. This is why i detest achievements for harder difficulties, it's not worth it and it ruins the replay value for me. I wish Microsoft had made them optional.

 

To be fair, i enjoy the alien series, just saw covenant (can't unsee it, with the idiocy of some of the cast be particularly bad) but this game is just...i give up. I'll play Colonial marines or AVP, at least i get to murder the object of my aggression.

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Alien: Isolation was an awesome game, easily one of the most genuinely unsettling horror games I've ever played. The catch was that on Normal difficulty it was way too hard, and by the 20th time you've died just trying to get through one area it stops being fun or scary and starts feeling just plain frustrating. My best advice is to turn down the difficulty to Very Easy and have fun playing through the rest of the game with a reasonable difficulty level. Very Easy in Alien: Isolation is the equivalent of Hard in most games.

Edited by Jin
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I look at it as a simulation game. In the Alien universe, it's cold, indifferent, and just brutal at times. Even without all that and ignoring the fact it's a hard game by nature and design, you're playing a game on hard mode and you're complaining it's hard. Hard mode tends to be hard in games. Besides, achievements I can't think are too rewarding if it's such a pain to get them. I honestly don't think too many people would miss them if they went away.

Edited by xenomorpher
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I hate achievements/trophies with a passion most the time too. I don't blame you, don't need a game heckling me and holding some lame crap over my head for a digital pat on the back. They got annoying on PS3/4 but could have the popups disabled, Steam does this too so I have that entirely shut off. If I want to feel good about myself playing, I'll do it on MY TERMS as i have since the 80s, it's better that way and not cheap, hollow and artificial.

 

That said, Alien games, even the earlier ones like the solid title on PS1 aren't easy even on easy/normal levels. The fact you're letting some digital trolling garbage from the developers/testers of the game set you off is pretty weak. I would think since other systems allow you to disable the harassment, it would be pretty dumb if MS didn't allow it too. Look into it, remove it from your life, and never sync up your achievement data so it's not some noose around your neck. Just wish it away if MS allows it as it's crap that's making you miserable and is entirely pointless to allow it to do so.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry for the bump, but I had to chime in. Alien: Isolation is probably my favorite game of the last decade. The tension is unprecedented in gaming. Yes, it takes a few liberties with the franchise, most notably how noisy the Alien is. But it all works so well. The atmosphere is fantastic, and the attention to detail stunning. We're so used to Alien games taking inspiration from the second movie that having one directly inspired by Alien just seems so fresh.

 

I didn't play the game on Hard mode. I played through it on Normal, then started up a second game on Nightmare but stopped about a third of the way through. Nightmare wasn't too difficult, but losing the function of the motion detector took a lot of the fun out of the game for me.

 

I don't think it's fair to say Normal mode is way too hard. It takes awhile to learn what the game expects of you. But once you do, you should be able to play for long stretches on Normal without dying. You just have to be very cautious at times and take things slowly.

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I'm an Alien nut, and I mostly enjoyed the game and the tension it gave me, but this is far from my type of game otherwise, it was the masterfully crafted universe recreation that pulled me into it to finish it on Nightmare as well as the DLCs.

 

The game is very flawed from the rubberband AI, excessive robot enemies, humans pitted against each other for no reason, firearms that don't do anything to the alien, unfair deaths, and the freaking long animations and button presses for everything.

 

It's only for Alien fans who can overlook the game part, or for people who like that kind of game in the first place.

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I'm an Alien nut, and I mostly enjoyed the game and the tension it gave me, but this is far from my type of game otherwise, it was the masterfully crafted universe recreation that pulled me into it to finish it on Nightmare as well as the DLCs.

The game is very flawed from the rubberband AI, excessive robot enemies, humans pitted against each other for no reason, firearms that don't do anything to the alien, unfair deaths, and the freaking long animations and button presses for everything.

It's only for Alien fans who can overlook the game part, or for people who like that kind of game in the first place.

In it's defence,it's pretty much established in the Dark Horse comics that the Xenomorph's shell if you like,is so tough,only armour piercing rounds would penetrate, soft slugs by comparison would simply flatten on impact.

 

Various Aliens/AVP titles before Alien Isolation had sadly done an awful lot to reduce the Xenomorph's potential as the ultimate enemy..

 

Alien Trilogy had them milling around like sheep.

 

 

AVP II on PC had them run straight are you.

 

Rebellion's AVP on PS3/360/PC let you knock them away with your rifle butt..

 

Can't even bring myself to talk about Aliens C.M..

 

So if nothing else it was good to see a game treating the Xenomorph's with respect in terms of threat.

 

Pity the implementation didn't match the ambition.

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Achievements are good for bragging rights with friends that have the same game.
Some achievements are basically participation trophies, but I don't see why they should all be like that.
You have to acknowledge that some achievements are ridiculously hard for a reason.
If they were easy, everyone would have them all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's funny you mention only armor piercing rounds damaging it. Dan O'Bannon, the late original writer that came up with Alien, insisted on not having the typical "bullets won't kill it!" cliché. He wanted the monster to be just like any other animal in that if you shoot it, it will die. The acid blood was made up by Ron Cobb, one of the artists, to counter the option of the crew to simply shoot the thing.

 

Then again, the space jockey was originally an alien that looked nothing like humans, and here we are...people will change things all the time.

 

Other alien games may have them as tough as wet paper, but Isolation made them too tough. I think Alien Resurrection on PS1 was a great mix of tension and still being able to kill them, even if it was too hard.

Edited by AtticGamer
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  • 2 weeks later...

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