Alien: Isolation
Review
In space, no one can hear you scream
by Johnathan Irwin
reviewed on PC
Not before you’re allowed (cntd)
Then there are a series of glitches both major, and minor. Sometimes items had a tendency to float, sometimes because of this I couldn’t pick them up as they weren’t registering as being on a surface. A few times I was denied ammo, or in a more dire situation, was unable to obtain fuel for the one thing that helped keep the Xenomorph at bay for a few seconds. The worst glitch I had occur however was in regards to the “Working Joe” androids who, a time or two, without any prompt what so ever, suddenly tore open a hiding spot I was in despite not searching for me.
Chaos In Crisis
While we’re on the subject of “Working Joe”, let me tell you about the two times they almost successfully assassinated the fun of the game and put it in a huge instance of an identity crisis. In small doses, the addition of homicidal androids are great. Just like the human enemies, in small doses, are great. But twice, TWICE, the game decided it wanted to try to become a First Person Shooter with a severe lack of firepower rather than a first person horror experience. In these moments, you’re put into situations that have walking machines of death slowly approaching you in their lifeless glory. The first time isn’t nearly as bad, because you can actually hide. The one towards the end? I felt a fury in my veins I hadn’t felt towards a game for years. I found myself yelling profanity, taking hour long breaks at a time, before I finally made it through.
At that point, I was relieved yes, but I was so sour after that I was praying for the return of the invincible Xenomorph. Fighting them individually was already a chore, it was better to just sneak around them. Fighting small armies? Not what anyone asked for, and certainly not what anyone asked for with almost no ammo to spare. Throughout the game smaller moments of identity crisis were seen here and there, but those were gone as quickly as they came and left me scratching my head at how randomly they appeared.
Graphically, the game nails it on a lot of things. The filter on the camera view brings the vintage sci-fi horror look, how we once thought the future might look shining through with nostalgic and awkward style. What doesn’t look great however, are the character models. It’s not that they look awful, but in comparison to the work put into the Xenomorph (which looks amazing and moves fluidly), the other character models are visibly rigid, with even the non-android encounters having almost robotic movements to them.
Final Report
Despite the mistakes and errors seen in the game, the overall horror experience was something of grandeur. When it works, it works, and when it doesn’t; it shows, and it undoes much of the tension experienced beforehand. Make no mistake, Alien: Isolation is several steps in the right direction for both the Alien franchise, and horror games in general.
With unpredictable scares and a length far surpassing most other current horror titles, the reliance on save points rather than auto-saving checkpoints, all these things equal out to what could have been the best horror game ever. So it comes as a shame that the few moments of identity crisis, the two major ones and the several smaller ones, pull away so much from the experience of what is otherwise a fantastic game. Throw in the glitches as well, it pulls this game down further making it overall good, but not great.
7.5
fun score
Pros
Unpredictable Xenomorph provides a new level in horror, setting stays true to the retro-sci fi feel of the original Alien film, several more hours of gameplay than your normal horror title.
Cons
Several noticeable major and minor glitches, the title suffers an identity crisis several times where it can’t decide if it wants to be a horror or first person shooter title.
