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Sonance posted:I suspect this is the main reason behind some of the poor reviews the game received. When playing games is no longer something you do in your spare time for fun but something you grind through for a living, having to play Alien: Isolation for 8-10 hours a day, with only the occasional coffee break or lunch break, to meet an editor's deadline, then I can understand how the pacing and thus the player's response to the tension would be all shot to hell. And that's pretty much all the negative (or lukewarm) reviews focused on: "it's too long", "the save station system sucks" and "the pacing is off". Most players seem to be pretty good at self-regulating the time they spend with the game based on their response to the tension, and thus they're able to dictate their own pace. Reviewers don't normally have that luxury. Well put. I think the save station system actually adds to the tension and the quality of the experience. Whenever I find one I abuse the poo poo out of it like a 4th grader who's reached "base". Craft item, save. Run into other room and grab poo poo, save. I'll even backtrack out of my way to save if I feel I've gotten enough done in a session. It reminds of WAY back to the first Resident Evil game where you were freaking out trying to find typewriters and ink ribbons. That might be a good mechanic to add for the I:O sequel actually. Have "data drives" or whatever and make them limited in storage, like 5 saves per drive. Instead of spreading the save stations out so much so you can only save 5 times until you find another save drive. It would make you really value them if you were down to your last one or two save slots.
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Jan 20, 2015 16:14
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BiggerBoat posted:It reminds of WAY back to the first Resident Evil game where you were freaking out trying to find typewriters and ink ribbons. That might be a good mechanic to add for the I:O sequel actually. Have "data drives" or whatever and make them limited in storage, like 5 saves per drive. Instead of spreading the save stations out so much so you can only save 5 times until you find another save drive. It would make you really value them if you were down to your last one or two save slots. I think it's a step too far. It's tense enough that it really does need the ability to let the player dictate when they can take a break.
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Jan 20, 2015 16:17
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On the other hand a reviewer's job is exactly to tell if a game is good no matter the circumstances, that's the whole point of his/her work. You could find justification for every idiot behavior in any field like that: 'well they need to work for 8 hours a day under pressure so it's understandable they hosed up the actual one thing they're hired for'. Well, no, not really and seeing reviews like IGN's 5/10 or Red Letter Media's laughable wankfest only tells so much about their competence. Not that it matters much as the game review 'industry' as a whole is a joke anyway so I'm not even sure why I'm even arguing here.
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Jan 20, 2015 16:25
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I think it's a step too far. It's tense enough that it really does need the ability to let the player dictate when they can take a break.
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Jan 20, 2015 16:28
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Pierson posted:Isn't it alreasdy a mechanic that after you use a save station it's disabled for a small amount of time? That's already tense enough I think the RE method would be going too far. It is but it's usually not too hard to hide and wait for them to re-charge and they're spaced so far apart it's generally not even an issue. I think it takes like 2 minutes or something. It may not work but if you had more save areas but fewer save opportunities I could see it adding to the tension in a different way by giving the illusion of safety but with a greater gambling/risk vs. reward element. Do I save now or make one more run for it? It make searching more deliberate, immediate and frantic too if you were out of data drives and desperate for one.
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Jan 20, 2015 17:45
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^^^^^^ They can save that kind of thing for the super hard modes, so that way its optional. Dead space had its own nightmare mode where you only could save once or twice for the entire game and you couldn't die. I found the save system added tension and made me play differently. With quick save and manual save options in games I often retried sections, or even brief moments, until I was satisfied in how well I did it. With the save stations only at certain points, and how back tracking meant evading the same enemies again I might have just used my last item distracting, I felt compelled to keep moving forward to the next save point. The keycard hunt at the medical center was particular tense because of that. In most stealth games I reloaded a save if I am even spotted, but in this game I was more likely just to try hiding and evading if I am being chased. The fact the game doesn't pause while saving adds some tension too. I got impaled by the alien while in the middle of a save before. Playing the second time through it isn't very hard to keep saving regularly, so I agree during second play through messing with the save system could add to the tension.
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Jan 20, 2015 18:08
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New feature: booby-trapped save stations
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Jan 20, 2015 19:23
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InsanityIsCrazy posted:New feature: booby-trapped save stations I was honestly expecting this to happen, similar to how I expected an insta-kill suit-changing machine in Dead Space.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:32
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Gestalt Intellect posted:The problem is the fact that literally everyone else on sevastopol and the torrens is dead, while the aliens are obviously still around, which makes everything that happened over the course of the game basically worthless. The ending (besides how incredibly half-assed and unsatisfying it is compared to the rest of the game's fabulous presentation) just invalidates everything you do over the course of the story. You could take any time I died, said "and then amanda got killed," ended the story there, and it would have mattered exactly as much as that ending. Well, if Ripley had never intervened, the station would have been taken over and the company would theoretically have come to pick up a specimen, thus bringing the alien back to earth. So yeah, Amanda did prevent the end of the world, though it's not neatly tied in a bow for the player. BottledBodhisvata posted:Well, for one thing you have killed all the Aliens, by burning their Hive and ejecting the one on the Torrens into space with you. You sir chose the wrong ending for Dark Souls.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:34
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Brackhar posted:Well, if Ripley had never intervened, the station would have been taken over and the company would theoretically have come to pick up a specimen, thus bringing the alien back to earth. So yeah, Amanda did prevent the end of the world, though it's not neatly tied in a bow for the player. Except The Alien is likely still on the Torrens. We never see it pulled into space. This is where I think the setup for Isolation 2 will come from.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:45
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Lately, my pace in the game has grinded to a halt due to a mix of tension and tedium. I'm still in the San Cristobal section of Medical with the explosion blocking the nearest exit on Normal difficulty. Oy.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:50
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The Repo Man posted:Except The Alien is likely still on the Torrens. We never see it pulled into space. This is where I think the setup for Isolation 2 will come from. It's hard to imagine the Alien didn't get sucked out as well. Even if they CAN breathe in space. Has...has that always been the case? I didn't think the Aliens could breathe in space but in this game they seem just fine.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:51
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They probably just don't need to breathe period. They're bio weapons so it's not... Completely unreasonable. They've always been able to be in vacuum though, though I don't think it's ever specified how long. At the end of Alien Ripley blows it out an airlock, but it seems fine, and takes cover in one of the engines. She has to put the engines on full burn to knock it away, and even then there's no confirmation that this kills it, or how long it can survive out there.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:57
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I remember the novelization of Alien had Ash remark on how, in an extremely cold environment like space, the alien could create a chemical reaction that would heat up the acid in its system to keep it from freezing.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:19
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The aliens have pretty consistently been shown in variety of medias to be resistant to the effects of the vacuum of space. The original AvP alien campaign ended with the alien hanging out on the exterior of an earthbound ship, for example. One thing that I'm surprised was never touched upon in the game was the acid blood. It makes sense that it isn't as prominent as in other games since you a) can't kill the alien and b) it is bad news for the integrity of the station, but is such an iconic trait that I would expected the devs to find a way to show it off somewhere anyway, besides the subtle drip when get a good shot in on the alien.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:33
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MeatwadIsGod posted:Lately, my pace in the game has grinded to a halt due to a mix of tension and tedium. I'm still in the San Cristobal section of Medical with the explosion blocking the nearest exit on Normal difficulty. Oy. Just keep your radar up and follow the waypoint marker. Don't bother hiding unless the alien is RIGHT THERE, and when you hide don't bother with lockers. Just crouch behind a chair or table and keep your distance. The alien will leave after like 10 seconds. The key to normal difficulty is to be bold and brave, not slow and careful. Bass Bottles fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 20:33
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MeatwadIsGod posted:Lately, my pace in the game has grinded to a halt due to a mix of tension and tedium. I'm still in the San Cristobal section of Medical with the explosion blocking the nearest exit on Normal difficulty. Oy. Posting this again: http://youtu.be/DbtLvpAJcPY?t=6m23s. Skip to 6:23 to see the section you are having trouble with if the time code doesn't work on the link (at least I THINK it's the section you are having trouble with).
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Jan 20, 2015 20:45
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BottledBodhisvata posted:It's hard to imagine the Alien didn't get sucked out as well. Even if they CAN breathe in space. Has...has that always been the case? I didn't think the Aliens could breathe in space but in this game they seem just fine. I got killed for the first time in Isolation last night.  Encountered hostile survivors just after Axel got murdered by the Alien, tried to be clever and hack a panel to distract them or something, got my head blown off. Whoops!
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Jan 20, 2015 22:38
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RE: a sequel I sincerely hope Amanda isn't the protagonist if there is a sequel. It becomes silly and jarring when a main character goes through similar extreme events over and over again. The Alien series already has that problem to some extent with Ellen already anyway. Heck, another incident where WY fail to get their hands on the Xenomorph starts to stretch credibility too.Slashrat posted:One thing that I'm surprised was never touched upon in the game was the acid blood. It makes sense that it isn't as prominent as in other games since you a) can't kill the alien and b) it is bad news for the integrity of the station, but is such an iconic trait that I would expected the devs to find a way to show it off somewhere anyway, besides the subtle drip when get a good shot in on the alien. In an interview with pcgamer the creative lead Alistair Hope said they had acid blood that damaged the environment in at one point but it was leading them off in weird directions so they left it out. He claimed that was the only bit of creative license they allowed themselves. In the same interview he also makes a point about how untrustworthy Burke is regarding Amanda's fate. Sadly it isn't on the website as far as I can tell, just in the print/digital edition.
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Jan 21, 2015 01:54
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Xenomrph posted:Yeah, Aliens can survive in the vacuum of space. That particular section was one of the few moments that I found truly frustrating. It seemed like there was only one way to get past it--go upstairs, wait for them to head downstairs to investigate, and then blitz. If you try to sneak around they'll spread out and one of them is bound to spot you.
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Jan 21, 2015 05:18
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il serpente cosmico posted:That particular section was one of the few moments that I found truly frustrating. It seemed like there was only one way to get past it--go upstairs, wait for them to head downstairs to investigate, and then blitz. If you try to sneak around they'll spread out and one of them is bound to spot you. After trying to sneak past them 7 times and getting shot repeatedly every time, I ended up luring them back to the transit hub and murdering 2 of them with the wrench thing, and then bum-rushing the other two and clubbing them to death. So much for the "kill no humans" achievement on this playthrough I guess! 
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Jan 21, 2015 06:14
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As far as sequels go, I'd honestly agree with someone earlier that said they hope it's "XXXX : Isolation" and not "Alien : XXXXX" as a sequel. You could do so many cool things riffing off the Isolation concept but putting it into different IPs.
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Jan 21, 2015 06:35
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I was just thinking about how much Terminator: Isolation could own.
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Jan 21, 2015 06:55
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Xenomrph posted:Yeah, Aliens can survive in the vacuum of space. il serpente cosmico posted:That particular section was one of the few moments that I found truly frustrating. It seemed like there was only one way to get past it--go upstairs, wait for them to head downstairs to investigate, and then blitz. If you try to sneak around they'll spread out and one of them is bound to spot you. Wait, what? You guys are talking about the scene where you save Axel from the guy, only for Axel to shoot him and then you both run away while being shot at? Then Axel tries to calm you down about the killing only to get impaled by the alien. You then run straight to the transit button and have a high tension moment waiting for your ride to appear. If you waste anytime getting inside the alien appears and kills you. Did you guys back track to the room with the other humans so they can shoot at you? Or did you mean the scene that comes later when you are walking up some steps only to have the woman auto-spot you and she shoots you and runs away. Only for her and her friends to come back when you pick up the hacking tool? Speaking of having your head blown off, are there head shots in this game? I swear I've been one-shot by an other survivor before. Brackhar posted:As far as sequels go, I'd honestly agree with someone earlier that said they hope it's "XXXX : Isolation" and not "Alien : XXXXX" as a sequel. You could do so many cool things riffing off the Isolation concept but putting it into different IPs. Wasn't one of the big draws of this game is all the attention to detail regarding the alien series? Wouldn't the next step be that the sequel is based around the movie sequel? Though a isolation game in Jurassic Park would be awesome and would work with the game play really well.
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Jan 21, 2015 13:40
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They're talking about the room where you find the hacking tool. Apparently not getting repeatedly killed there and finding a path to progress is the new true test of being a hardcore gamer.
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Jan 21, 2015 14:21
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Shnag posted:
Yes, there are. According to the dev there's a random chance of enemies getting a headshot on Hard or greater, but I swear I was one-shotted on Normal during that mission where you sneak back to the Marshal Bureau after you jettison the Alien off the station. Quick question: does using the stun baton on a person count as a kill?
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Jan 21, 2015 15:48
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Popular Human posted:Quick question: does using the stun baton on a person count as a kill? Yes, it counts as a kill. I killed a single human in my normal run, and that was with the stun baton.
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Jan 21, 2015 16:49
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The Repo Man posted:Yes, it counts as a kill. I killed a single human in my normal run, and that was with the stun baton. Well goddamnit. I had a human randomly glitch out four or five chapters ago and follow me through the level Oblivion-style, running straight up to me and shooting me in the face even when I broke LoS and snuck somewhere it shouldn't have been able to see me. I ended up breaking down and stun batoning him. Guess I'm not getting the "don't kill any humans" trophy this run. I sort of get why that would be (leaving someone lying around Sevastopol unconscious pretty much means they're Alien-food), but you'd think the STUN baton would only count as STUNNING someone, especially when tossing a Noisemaker at people and letting the Alien eat them is apparently A-OK. Popular Human fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jan 21, 2015 |
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Jan 21, 2015 17:26
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Maybe it's the difference between just leaving them for dead or just letting them defend themselves even if it's a 1% chance of survival
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Jan 21, 2015 17:37
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Popular Human posted:I sort of get why that would be (leaving someone lying around Sevastopol unconscious pretty much means they're Alien-food), but you'd think the STUN baton would only count as STUNNING someone, especially when tossing a Noisemaker at people and letting the Alien eat them is apparently A-OK. I feel like a stun rod that can temporarily overload the systems of an advanced synthetic android has to be able to do a lot of damage to a human's brain stem.
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Jan 21, 2015 17:43
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I never used the stun baton on a person, I always just clobbered them to death. So I guess they collapse after spazing out? I can see that advantage, though I always found the stun batons better saved for working joes. They don't against the alien though.  Palpek posted:They're talking about the room where you find the hacking tool. Apparently not getting repeatedly killed there and finding a path to progress is the new true test of being a hardcore gamer. Its not that hard if you are fine with killing and using a bunch of items. Trying to get by them with out killing them and without emptying your pockets is tricky. I always end up luring them all away but one that I end up having to beat down. Shnag fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Jan 21, 2015 |
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Jan 21, 2015 17:43
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Shnag posted:I never used the stun baton on a person, I always just clobbered them to death. So I guess they collapse after spazing out? I can see that advantage, though I always found the stun batons better saved for working joes. They don't against the alien though. I got out of there without killing anyone--you need to immediately go up the stairs to your right once you pick up the hacking tool. Hide, allow the survivors to head down the stairs to investigate, and then head directly to the exit. Once they head back upstairs and fan out, it's really difficult to try to sneak through.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:05
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il serpente cosmico posted:I got out of there without killing anyone--you need to immediately go up the stairs to your right once you pick up the hacking tool. Hide, allow the survivors to head down the stairs to investigate, and then head directly to the exit. Once they head back upstairs and fan out, it's really difficult to try to sneak through. That's pretty much what I tried to do. All them end up downstairs but one guy, right in front of the exit, who paces from the exit and the sitting area that has a window over looking the room. I tried distracting him with a flare, but the whole crew ended up coming up to look at it, meaning I couldn't sneak behind him. Maybe he ends up going down too sometimes, but hasn't happened yet when I played.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:17
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It's cool when you leave them all alive because you get a few extra scripted sequences when you leave and return to that area.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:18
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Shnag posted:That's pretty much what I tried to do. All them end up downstairs but one guy, right in front of the exit, who paces from the exit and the sitting area that has a window over looking the room. I tried distracting him with a flare, but the whole crew ended up coming up to look at it, meaning I couldn't sneak behind him. Maybe he ends up going down too sometimes, but hasn't happened yet when I played. When I got to that part, I just immediately went up the left stairs after picking up the hack tool, then went around to the upstairs sitting room. I managed to sneak past the dude patrolling between that room and the exit while he was looking along the gangway leading to the top of the right stairs, but I imagine you could get all of the humans out of the way too if you just threw a flare downstairs before going through the sitting room.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:22
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Apologies if this has been answered before... I met Axel and got to a part shortly after meeting him where I think he's supposed to call an elevator or something, except he just stands around or occasionally paces back and forth. If I go up to the door that I think he's supposed to open it says it needs power, and there's also an invisible "block" right in front of the door (I'm guessing this is supposed to be where Axel stands). Problem is I saved twice before I noticed this, because I saved once when we got to the corridor where that door is, then went back and listened to a voice recording and saved it again afterwards, so my "Previous Save" is actually about 2 minutes before the "Current One". I have an OCD about saving  Is there any fix for this or am I hosed by having to do the whole Sevastopol thing from scratch? (playing on PS4)
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Jan 21, 2015 18:28
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I think you're hosed unfortunately. You should be able to select to start from mission 2, so you can skip the prologue on the Torrens at least.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:56
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il serpente cosmico posted:I was just thinking about how much Terminator: Isolation could own. Oh god yes please. The T-1000 is still one of the most terrifying villains in film history for me, which sucks because the new film looks like it's going to suck dick and has the T-1000 as the main bad guy. 
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Jan 21, 2015 19:05
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Shnag posted:That's pretty much what I tried to do. All them end up downstairs but one guy, right in front of the exit, who paces from the exit and the sitting area that has a window over looking the room. I tried distracting him with a flare, but the whole crew ended up coming up to look at it, meaning I couldn't sneak behind him. Maybe he ends up going down too sometimes, but hasn't happened yet when I played. I think I had to sneak past one dude upstairs near the exit--I may have been lucky and had him facing away from me.
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Jan 21, 2015 19:30
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I ghosted that part my first try on the PS4 after dying nearly a dozen times there on the 360. It's really silly that one strategy (run up and hide behind that ONE cluster of boxes, wait for the main group of looters to walk by you and toss a flare to distract any stragglers) is easy street while doing just about anything else comes down to dumb luck and lots of trial-and-error. That section's a small blemish on an otherwise awesome game.
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Jan 21, 2015 21:32
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