Flaws of Isolation

Started by Kradan, Mar 20, 2019, 03:05:09 PM

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Flaws of Isolation (Read 29,510 times)

Kradan

Kradan

So, now we have topics about what's good in Resurrection, AVPR, The Predator and ACM. I think it's time to turn things on their heads a little and actually start to talk about what things considered as masterpieces by majority actually did wrong. I think it will be good to begin with Isolation.

So what the problem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7g9TZwfbPI

I mean particularly 0:26 - 0:32. I think final product really lacks episodes like this. Isolation is definetly full of tension. But horror? Don't know. You can see Alien fully, in bright light, you have clear audio clues of it movements and motion tracker. There's really not much (if any) bits where you totally don't know where Stompy is right now (and that is what make Alien SO scary, isn't it?). Also if Stompy sees you he screams, attacks and kills you straight away like mindless beast. I would love to see Alien actually playing with player as psychopatic serial killer playing with his victim, so you never know whether Alien aware of your presence or not. I think, it would make death moments more sudden and powerful.

And there really not much playing with darkness. I mean, in trailer you see the situation when player forced to use flashlight to navigate in the darkness but the flashlight is the thing that rise Alien attention to you. I would prefer if game would show player only small glimpses of Alien hiding in the dark right till moment of it killing the player.

I understand that developers probably didn' t make these decisions just to avoid massive waves of heart attacks but...

So that's the issue i have with Isolation. Do you have any?

Sabres21768

No

Kradan

Kradan

#2
Come on people. Change your minds for second :)

Still Collating...

I adore the game. I play it often and I think the game is one of the best additions to the franchise in recent years.

Though, not perfect. In-game human facial animations and lip sync are horrible at times. I really wish that was done better.

Not too fond of the pig squeal the alien makes when he starts running. And to not have the option to soften Stompy's stomp is bad. It's too loud sometimes IMO.

I would've loved to have the option to calibrate his senses. He does seem completely blind sometimes and it breaks the immersion for me. I should not be able to hide when his head is turned towards me and should see/smell me. Stompy shouldn't act like the Rex from Jurassic Park, with piss poor vision.

And having two aliens show up was great. I love that in the salvage mode especially because we spend more time with them than in the campaign. On higher difficulties we should have the option for more time with them, or even more of them. Imagine having the option to face off of three aliens. Though that's really getting nitpicky...

Having said that, those things are so minor (yet still noticeable) compared to the rest of the things I appreciate that was done. That's all the problems I can think of.

Kradan

Kradan

#4
That's better.


Huggs

Huggs

#5
It has one glaring flaw near the end.

Spoiler
It ends. Seriously, it's flawless to me.
[close]

Samhain13

Samhain13

#6
I never liked the idea of Ripley's daughter or other family members fighting aliens, also having it set between ALIEN and ALIENS. But due to how good it was as a game I dealt with it.

Predator@Alien

Good idea this topic !

Of course the game is not perfect and like Samhain13, I don't like the fact that it's about Ripley's daughter. Okay Amanda can be here, it's explain and it's logical. But why she became a survivor just like her mother ? Coincidence is almost ridiculous.

After have doing the game about thirty times, I'm agree that it's not so terrifying. We can lean every tips and now the Xeno does not see me anymore.

Overall it's a really good game but like A:CM he has its defects.


PsyKore

PsyKore

#8
Too long, too padded, feels like a door simulator at times, the silly little elementary computer puzzles, androids become annoying and a chore after a while, alien sounds like a dinosaur and stomps loudly around (wrong sound effects used).

The Old One

The Old One

#9
The length and the original/default version's Director A.I.

The Alien always is noisy.

If the player is unaware of the Alien films or is unattached regarding Ellen Ripley-
The characteristation of the protagonist is shallow.

Near perfect though.

newbeing

newbeing

#10
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 25, 2019, 09:56:44 PM
The length and the original/default version's Director A.I.

The Alien always is noisy.

If the player is unaware of the Alien films or is unattached regarding Ellen Ripley-
The characteristation of the protagonist is shallow.

Near perfect though.

The length and the crappy cliffhanger ending were my biggest complaints. I think if it had been maybe cut down by 4 or 5 hours it would have felt a little better paced.

The DLC while adding some extra play time, felt very shallow. I think I would have preferred that the effort that went into those were allocated to a separate story based DLC.

Still Collating...

I really enjoyed all of the DLCs but I do agree that if we had more story instead of them, it might've been even better. More separate story pieces is definitely something I wouldn't say no to.

Vertigo

Vertigo

#12

  • The alien's sounds don't match the movie-authenticity of everything else in the game. It never roars and snarls like that in the film, the game's sound design makes it seem too animalistic. In the movie you often hear a weird hissing and gurgling when the alien is close, which is a key part of why it's so weird. When it does vocalise, it's an unnaturally high-pitched shriek... again, amplifying the weird factor. I wish we'd had that in the game instead, maybe with the occasional Aliens-style hiss when it hears a potential target. And to give an audio signal to the alien's movement, maybe it would have been better to use the harsh scraping of its tail dragging over metal, rather than the more Jurassic Park-esque stomping.

    Generally the sound in Isolation is amazing, but the alien itself left room for improvement IMO.


  • There's a weird balance of power in the game, with the flamethrower being too effective, but the player being excessively vulnerable before acquiring it. This means that the difficulty curve is effectively backwards in Isolation.

    One way of tackling this would be to make it easier to escape from the alien after it's detected you. Make the alien move more slowly (as it does in the film!), make more of the doors sealable - this way you can find somewhere to hide before it finds another route into the room. When you have a flamethrower, make the alien more aggressive and faster moving, as it sees you as a genuine threat rather than something to toy with. Currently, wielding the flamethrower makes it cautious, which only compounds your advantage in the second half of the game.

  • Extend the alien's 'leash', allowing it to roam further away from the player, but improve its hearing so the leash shortens if it detects you shuffling around. The leash feels a bit cheaty IMO - the game plays better when you mod it away, but ideally we still need SOME mechanism to keep the alien on your tail.


  • Aesthetically, I'd rather the alien was darker-coloured and a lot wetter. Keep its lips sealed until it's game time. And the movement, again, feels a bit too animalistic in the game. I'd rather it moved upright, stiffly and slowly with weird arm movements, like it does in the film. That all-important weird factor.


  • The kill sequences leave a bit of room for improvement too. The only time the game looks less than amazing is when the alien's right up in your face, because the mouthparts need more detail when you see them so close. Aside from adding more detail, I'd also bring the alien's head even closer to the camera, filling your view and making it look massive.

    I'd also like some Dallas-style kill sequences when you're caught from behind - quickly whip the camera round and catch a momentary glimpse of the alien before the screen abruptly cuts with a high-pitched noise. Adding a jumpscare to the death sequence seems like a good way of further increasing the player's fear of dying.


  • Last thing, I disagree with the initial post, regarding the jumpscare in 0.26-0.32 of the trailer. What makes Isolation great is that it doesn't rely on scripted jumpscares to generate fear, they're not effective for replay value. I've now played through Isolation several times, and a lot of that is because it relies on adaptive AI rather than scripted scares.

These are all nitpitcks though. It's easily my favourite game of the last few years, an immense achievement by everyone involved.

The Old One

The Old One

#13
Agreed Vertigo.

Kradan

Kradan

#14
I think it also will be good to say that admiting flaws of something not necessarily automaticaly turn it into "bad". It still can be a masterpiece

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