Flaws of Isolation

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

Author
Flaws of Isolation (Read 29,505 times)

PsyKore

PsyKore

#15
Quote from: Kradan on Mar 31, 2019, 12:52:39 AM
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

Definitely. I'm pretty hard on most Alien/s games but I still love them all. Isolation is still fantastic.

Sagit

Sagit

#16
Being not only Alien fan but also WH40K I must say: This thread is a heresy!

But on the serious note: Every game has its flaws but for me Isolation is a masterpiece and one of the best and most important games in my 33 years of life. Right next to UFO Defence, Master of Orion 2 and WH40k Dawn of War.

The Alien might be more sneaky though and rewiring more useful.

D88M

D88M

#17
The game has several flaws, i cannot remember all them well, but:

-The story was mediocre and anti climatic, it starts pretty good and engaging, then it goes nowhere.
-The game is too long, it drags and is not justified by anything within the game to be like that, at the end you just wanna get over it.

-The AI of the Alien is broken, i get what they were going for, making it as relentless as in the movies, but they forgot to make it fair:
For it to be realistic, the Alien should be hunting everyone at the station, not just your character.
It is constantly above you and always gets you and knows where you are, it makes zero sense, it would have been harder and more suspensful if it was extremely smart and aggresive but not omnipotent, that turns the Alien from a threat to an annoyance really fast.

Anyway, the game is good, is decent, but with some tweaks it could have been great.

lost dragon

I'm currently on my second play through. ...this time on Playstation 4 (yes, i have purchased it twice now and 'new' each time, rather than used)..having previously completed it on Playstation 3.


Now I know what to expect vs all the hype which i went into my original play through with, i am more forgiving of the game than i was originally,  but it's still very reminiscent of my experience with The Thing game on the original Xbox, which i so wanted to love.


Whilst i cannot fault the ambition, the actual play mechanics sadly fall way short for my liking, far too often.

With The Thing..It was the trust mechanic..great in principle,  weak in practice...

With Alien Isolation. .it's the Alien A.I for starters that let's the game down and to be fair, i had the same with titles like:Soma,  Evil Within and Outlast,  so I'm not singling Isolation out.

It's just too scripted to live up to expectations built by the hype...

I have no idea if using a Playstation camera and having the microphone pick up noises in your room effects it, but under normal conditions,  i have had the Xeno and human characters, literally walk straight past me at point blank range...then in other areas have an almost 6th sense and know exactly where i am, even in full stealth mode.

Turning systems like air purification. .alarm systems on as a means of drawing attention away from me, never seemed to work and thus became pointless.

I have actually flat out ran to next checkpoint, knowing game would consider me safe and anything. ...human..Xenomorph or Synthetic pursuing me, would simply abandon the chase.

It's still an area in games that needs working on, to be far more believable for myself.


Other minor gripes...bodies occasionally dissappear as soon as i took them out..so couldn't be searched and I hate QTE's in modern games..


I'm a gamer from the 1980's and thought i had seen button prompts dissappear during the Sega Mega CD era of Laser Disc conversions. ..

The Old One

The Old One

#19
The A.I isn't scripted, whatsoever.

It's directed.

lost dragon

lost dragon

#20
Ok so it's directed,  but it has not made for a playing experience anything radically different to the other games from these generation i listed earlier...Soma,  Evil Within and Outlast.


The same principle of ensuring the player will always be safe if they reach a checkpoint in time, has fundamental flaws.

On my PS3 play through , the game had an internal conflict with itself. .having originally triggered the player death sequence, it then decided i was safe and ended the death sequence and let me progress.

Even the video you kindly put up, admits the A.I is still "fake"..the Alien does not evolve or learn as the game progresses,  skills are just unlocked the further into the game you reach.

It was also curious to hear the narrator saying the Alien is trigger by noises like:Gunshots. .The Motion Tracker and the players footsteps.

Nothing said about the environmental systems,  which do appear to make the rewiring subgame elements obsolete. .if it's not going to be drawn to a new event in the environment or you can't use an alarm klaxon to mask the sound of your own movement,  seems pointless to have the ability to turn systems on/off other than to juggle power resources.

At least the designers are honest enough to admit it they have to have the Xenomorph effictively "teleport" twice during the game.


I'm still of the belief whilst the A.I in Isolation has been treated with far more respect than countless Alien games before it (Alien Trilogy,  Aliens:C.M, AVP 2 PC..Rebellion's last AVP game...) we still have a way to go before we reach the level where it can induce a feeling of utter horror as the player realises it's facing a creature that is adapting to both the environment it finds itself in and the tactics the player uses and our  reliance on technology won't be enough to save us this time.


It was the pre-release hype about the games A.I that meant i will always have an issue with it.

When Creative Assembly folk were giving out quotes to the press like:


"THE ALIEN IS SYSTEMIC ACROSS THE BOARD. WE CAN JUST DROP THE ALIEN INTO AN AREA AND SEE HOW IT BEHAVES. IT KNOWS WHEN IT SEES SOMETHING AND IT KNOWS WHEN IT JUST SUSPECTS SOMETHING... OBVIOUSLY, WE BOOKEND CERTAIN AREAS TO GIVE YOU AN OBJECTIVE, BUT MOST OF THE TIME THE ALIEN IS IN THE WORLD AND IT'S HUNTING YOU. YOU'LL ACQUIRE SOME ABILITIES YOU CAN USE TO DEFEND YOURSELF FOR A WHILE, BUT THEN SUDDENLY THE ALIEN STOPS ATTACKING YOU. IT STOPS DOING WHAT YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO DO. YOU'RE LOOKING AT THIS ALIEN AND SOMETHING'S CHANGED. IT LEARNS."


Only to now admit it doesn't actually learn at at, it just has further skill sets unlocked to keep the player cautious the deeper into the game they go...it jars a little.


ThE above quote was followed by:


"YES, IT'S A PIECE OF AI AND IT HAS PARAMETERS WE CAN TUNE, BUT THE ALIEN'S NETWORK OF BEHAVIOURS IS SO INSANELY COMPLICATED, THE THING IS ALMOST SENTIENT. THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, WHERE WE KNOW WHAT ITS PARAMETERS AND BEHAVIOURS ARE AT A GLANCE, AND IT BEING SO SENTIENT WE HAVE TO DIG INTO THE CODE JUST TO FIND OUT WHY AND HOW IT DID WHAT IT DID DURING OUR PLAYTESTS."

Again, a bold statement,  almost sentient,  when they've later admitted it's not really anything close, it's very advanced compared to other titles and has been built around tried and tested A.I routines..


It just felt oversold to myself.

Creative Assembly should be proud of what they've achieved, but a little restraint when talking to the press would of been helpful.

For myself, as soon as the feeling of total immersion is shattered, a game has lost so much of what it had painstakingly built up to that moment.

A QTE sequence alone is a real killer...nothing like a big button prompt icon to remind you your very much at the mercy of a development team..


But with directed A.I , i had set my hopes beyond normal Aliens games.


A prime example is when the medial bay evacuation has been triggered...a lot of environmental chaos going on..lights flashing,  klaxons sounded, ideal conditions to mask my actions as the evacuation message, alarm blaring etc would drown out my footsteps,  sound of motion tracker etc. .

Yet the game decides it'll have the Alien perched in 1 set area..an overhead vent and give the player a very clear visual clue...Slime dripping from said vent...as long as i don't trigger the proximity trip but straying too close to the vent, i am in the clear..

There's no sense of fear the Alien will grow impatient or curious (hate to say bored) and decide to drop down and investigate the area...It's waiting to be triggered.


#Disclaimer:I assume this is the same on the higher difficulty levels?

If the game mixed it up somewhat by added a random element to this stage and had the Alien dropping down to investigate why a previously calm environment had suddenly gone to sh#t. ..something trigger that off..It must still be near by and Alien wanted to find it, before it moved on, I'd feel a greater sense of urgency.

The Old One

The Old One

#21
No, the higher the difficulty- the higher the aggression of the Alien. 'Hard" is ideal.
Additional information:
The Alien does learn dynamically, it learns against investigating flares etcetera.
Depending upon the player's item utilisation.

And I recommend;

Unpredictable Alien
https://www.moddb.com/mods/unpredictable-alien-mod/downloads/unpredictable-alien

Realistic Weapon
https://tinyurl.com/Realistic-Weapon

No Lensflare
https://tinyurl.com/No-Lensflare

Arcade Cabinet
https://tinyurl.com/Arcade-Cabinet

Exit Option
https://tinyurl.com/Exit-Option

lost dragon

lost dragon

#22
I'd be interested to see what Creative Assembly could do with a sequel on PlayStation 5,but once again Sony seem to be putting emphasis on visual improvements over existing hardware.

Talk of Ray Tracing and 8K support, more power for advanced A.I just does not seem to be sent for marketing, sadly :'(


Noticed another inconsistency with the game.

The description for the Molotov points out Synthetics are very resistant to fire, yet after the scripted explosion at Lorenz Systech Spire..the game has a Working Joe on fire collapse before even the skin and clothing has burnt away..

Nothing major..just a curio.



Another instance of the game conflicting with itself just occurred..

So, i enter Lorenz Systech Lobby,only to be spotted by a human-Woman, baseball cap, ponytail, packing a shotgun, she shouts that she's seen me and i need to be more careful with my flashlight...

Said flashlight was OFF..

Hmnnn..

So i retreat, re-enter, throw a Mk II noise maker, which draws. Attention of not only her, but her 2 Revolver packing male companions and the Alien.

She legs it,her male friends open fire on the Alien and i swear there's green,acidic blood spurts from the Alien,where bullets impact..yet from early stages of the game, your told via the dialogue you overhear from survivors, it's bullet proof...

So the slugs should just mushroom on impact and be incapable of penetrating the Aliens hide as it were.

It's the little things that are starting to become more noticeable, further in i get.

Monster Man

Monster Man

#23
When I first saw the Alien I thought it was damn near perfect. If they were to have better movie tech in those days of the first Alien, I'd always imagined this being what it'd look like.

However the more I saw it the more something bugged me, as if it was missing a detail. Finally realizing it's mouth has no lips nor cheeks like the original. Always in a constant rictus which is unfortunate because seeing it slowly pull back it's lips and opening it's mouth to reveal the inner jaw has always been a staple to the creature.


Kradan

Kradan

#24
Oh, i used to watch these videos so much. Memories, good ones.

[cancerblack]

Biggest flaw is that it's probably the most faithful recreation of both the environments and the creature itself, but in a comparatively hard to access medium compared to say, a more passive film experience.

Monster Man

Quote from: Kradan on Apr 24, 2019, 11:31:25 PM
Oh, i used to watch these videos so much. Memories, good ones.

They feel like ASMR to me.




Quote from: [cancerblack] on Apr 25, 2019, 08:54:17 AM
Biggest flaw is that it's probably the most faithful recreation of both the environments and the creature itself, but in a comparatively hard to access medium compared to say, a more passive film experience.

What's worse is that some gamers won't even care.

lost dragon

As soon as i started mission 13..The sense of regret buying this again kicked straight in and there's no way i am going to complete it a second time around.


From here on in, it descends into an utter slog fest and i grew bored sh#tless of trudging here..activating this...use of security tuner was overplayed..as was ion torch and despatching Working Joe after Working Joe was a bore.

Get through all that and game wants to strech itself out even further so it has you backtracking to escape the station..oh no..the generator you passed 5 mins ago just failed. .best backtrack and restart it..then trudge all the way back.

All these sections do is show the games flaws up..

Can't out run the Alien game tells you..yet you can do just that...run and reach an elevator in time with Alien hot on your heels? Game decides your safe...


Alien is afraid of fire is it? Seemingly not as it was happy to run past a Working Joe which was on fire and in process of strangling me, to trigger the Alien kill sequence itself. .

Plus..it's happy as Larry to constantly appear and patrol areas of the station which are on fire..

The Old One

The Old One

#28
Yeah, the ending is extraneous.
Yes, the elevator (loading screen) is safe.
Of course it is.
As for fire, it's basically down to Player utilisation.
Use it often enough and there comes a point when it realises fire can't kill the Alien, only hurt it.

Dingbat

Dingbat

#29
For me, the man problem originally was that I installed it on xbox 360, which caused it to freeze during most loading screens which was a highly painful experience, once I unistalled it and kept playing, it worked and it worked well.

Otherwise, there is lots of lag when hitting working joes, otherwise, all's good.


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