Alien Isolation - The nightmare of Milky Joe

[kaputt]

To people playing: how scary do you think it is (even though this is completely subjective)?

I watched the first alien movie only a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed it, so I like how the aesthetics of this game reminds the first one.

The problem is that I'm afraid to be afraid, never been a big fan of horror games to be honest.

[sclpls]

I will say that the horror in this game is different from other horror games that I have experienced. It's like this sense of dread that builds up in the environment rather than set piece jump scares, horrifying imagery, and the like. I don't know whether that would make it more or less appealing to you.

[radaxian]

The Giant Bomb Quick Look gives a pretty good introduction to the game from what I can tell without having played it. I recommend anyone unsure about the game sets aside an hour to check it out before buying.

[Murdoc]

It is something I plan on picking up and was just telling a friend today, maybe I'll get it when I eventually grab a rift. Then I was told this doesn't have rift support... didn't they let people preview it at E3 on an occulus rift? Why the hell wouldn't they have shipped with it, even if it was an extra little download with a warning for "jank". 

 

Perplexing or I am miss remembering reports from E3.

[tegan]

They're probably waiting to rerelease it when a consumer version of the Rift is available.

[Brannigan]

There's some ini editing or something you can do to.enable the rift mode, not really supported of course

[Dewar]

The Giant Bomb folks made it sound like the developers were seriously worried it might scare someone so bad they'd faint or have a heart attack or something.

[bakelite]

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2iirut/help_break_alien_isolation_open_and_enable/

 

I had to delete the second line and set my rift as the primary display for it to work. It's the most terrifying thing ever, I actually quit the game the first time the alien spotted me cowering under a table and was about to pull me out. Fortunately the nausea-inducing stuttering which doesn't seem to be affected by lowering graphics settings and the camera constantly clipping trough my body gives me a less shameful excuse to go back to 2D.

 

Regarding the lack of official VR support, they'll probably just patch it in once the consumer version of the Rift is out, it doesn't make sense to support a device that almost no one owns yet. And if they had VR as an in-game option on release people would be complaining about the currently less than optimal experience, if it's perceived as a hack people will take what they can get.

[Arthur]

It sounds like I'm in the same place as other people here- a few hours in, only seen the alien a couple of times. Saw some Milky Joes, creeped about, cacked my pants constantly.

I'm not a big horror person but I love and am terrified by the first Alien movie. The game really nails the look and tone, which is wonderful. I guess time will tell if they can keep up the horror and immersion all the way through.

I try to play games like this as realistically as possible, and try not to think about the systems at work behind the scenes, so it's been fun to creep very slowly and peek around every corner. I was very tense for the entire time I spent playing, and let out a few very loud sighs of relief when I got to checkpoints.

If a game can make me feel as on edge and thrilled as the first few hours of this one did, it's got to be worth experiencing. Even if it ends up being too long or I don't get scared by the alien after a time, I'm sure it will have been worth it.

[Codicier]

quick question more related to the whole franchise than the game specifically:

 

what colour do people consider a Alien to be?

 

I know the canonical answer but I'm wondering about the perception, a lot of the people I've talked to give a answer which seems to be informed as much by the lighting of the sets and the choices in the graphic design as the monster itself.

[sclpls]

I played a little more late at night, and I'm liking the game even more now. I am starting to see the merits in a bunch of design decisions they made. I really do feel like they basically solved a ton of problems people have had with stealth games for forever. You can't choke out dudes and clear a room. The alien patrol routes are mostly, but not entirely, predictable so the game constantly involves improvisation instead of a set number of solutions, but also doesn't fall into the trap of feeling completely arbitrary whether you succeed or fail.

 

I guess the one thing I'm not crazy about is the save point system, although I've never felt as strongly about this stuff as a lot of people seem to, especially in cases like this where save points appear frequently.

 

I had two amazing experiences last night:

 

1. I was wandering around an area, and eventually realized (when I finally checked the map) that I actually was supposed to be in a completely different section, and needed to head back and call the transport. Shortly after calling the transport the alarm went off, and I was like, "oh shit, did I just trigger a trap?" I placed myself up against a wall where there were stairs to my left and right where people would presumably be coming from, and so I would have a reasonable means of escape so long as they didn't come down along both sets of stairs. The transport arrives, but I also see my motion detector going crazy because something is behind me. And sure enough, as I turn around I see the alien, and the transport entrance between us. I desperately run to it, and as I get inside I hear it shrieking, and hit the button to close the door and take off just in time.

 

2. In the next section of the game I hit a point where I saw the alien emerge from one of the vents in the ceiling, and I had this amazing frozen deer in the headlights moment where I was trying to comprehend what was happening and what to do. Luckily I barely managed to escape into a locker.

[tegan]

  On 10/9/2014 at 12:43 PM, Codicier said:

quick question more related to the whole franchise than the game specifically:

 

what colour do people consider a Alien to be?

 

I know the canonical answer but I'm wondering about the perception, a lot of the people I've talked to give a answer which seems to be informed as much by the lighting of the sets and the choices in the graphic design as the monster itself.

 

mostly Black with some grey elements and silver teeth. They're always lit green in promotional materials or blue in most of the movies though, so I guess I can kind of see that?

[bakelite]

I just had an amazing scare when I suddenly came face to face with the alien and was sure I was about to have an intimate moment with the mouth-in-mouth, but instead it ignored me and jumped into a vent. I guess the AI had decided on that action a few seconds earlier and the code doesn't allow for it to be interrupted.

[mikemariano]

  On 10/9/2014 at 12:43 PM, Codicier said:

what colour do people consider a Alien to be?

 

 

Don't ask Capcom!

[Stuart]

Alien: Isolation is the Far Cry 2 of video games.

 

And I fucking love it.

[Arthur]

I'm so frightened all the time, this is absolutely horrible!

[Stuart]

  On 10/9/2014 at 11:13 PM, Arthur said:

I'm so frightened all the time, this is absolutely horrible!

 

GOOD.

 

[bakelite]

The ending was exactly what I expected. Not bad, just predictable. Might do an Oculus replay when they fix the stuttering issue.

[hedgefield]

I'm a good few hours in now and I'm starting to loosen up and get used to dying. Listening is key, when I hear him bonk around in the vents I can relax a little bit. Before that I spent about two hours getting some keycard from some doctor because it was fucking terrifying and it was like every turn I made the Alien could come stomping down the hall again. I think I spent 15 minutes sitting in a vent while I made a sandwich. Having the motion tracker glitch up in vents is a good choice I think, forces you to peek and slither around like a crazy person. I just have a small heart attack every time Ripley slams a locker door shut when she jumps out.

 

I had my best Alien moment so far in that time I described above where I just went back and forth down the same hallway for hours, until the Alien caught wind of me and I jumped into one of those shutter vents and crawled halfway. Then I thought "wait, but what if the Alien walked around the corridor and is waiting at the other end?" and right then the vent exit opened in front of me, I heard a hiss, and I just closed my eyes and freaked out. I don't think I've ever done that in a horror game (the past five years).

 

The most frustrating was probably

  Reveal hidden contents

escaping the medbay after evacuation was triggered. I kept walking under a drooling vent, or one of the guards was blocking my way. One time I waited under a bed long enough for the Alien to appear and eat him, and I figured I could sprint past. Nope. He was already done with the guy once I stood up. But wow the lighting in that part.

 

The game runs really well for me too on max settings. After Shadow of Mordor I had kind of forgotten what a well-optimized game looked like.

[Architecture]

  On 10/10/2014 at 12:00 AM, Cine said:

GOOD.

 

[Brannigan]

I'm impressed with how well this runs...my cpu BARELY meets the minimum but ive been able to run it with a mix of med/hi settings perfectly fine.

[bakelite]

Same here. I have a fairly nice GPU(GTX 970), but I was still surprised that it never dipped below 60 fps at max settings in 1440p considering how beautiful the game is.

[Vorlonesque]

  On 10/9/2014 at 5:06 PM, tegan said:

tegan, on 09 Oct 2014 - 13:10, said:

mostly Black with some grey elements and silver teeth. They're always lit green in promotional materials or blue in most of the movies though, so I guess I can kind of see that?

I always thought its teeth were clear.

Edit: Kinda like teeth some of these guys have:

http://scienceheathen.com/2014/05/18/deep-sea-fish-black-dragonfish-long-nosed-chimaera-blobfish-hatchet-fish-giant-oarfish-barreleye-fish-sloanes-viperfish-etc/

[tegan]

They're silver. The city I grew up in used to be home to a restaurant/nightclub that also served as a museum of movie props and memorabilia, including an original Xenomorph costume. It was actually my first exposure to the franchise. Sadly the building burned down in 2010 and all the cool stuff inside was destroyed.

[Merus]

I'm assuming this is a Planet Hollywood. Planet Hollywoods don't seem to do very well - the one in Sydney closed down years ago and got converted to a bar.