Things you would change about the game

[Sagit]

...actually let the player pause the game to read notes and lore building journals.

You can, opening the archive logs in the pause menu pauses the game.

Then I'd just trim the game's length down to about 7 hours instead of 20 hours.

It kind of annoys me when people complain about this. I hate how video games are so short and easy to finish these days. Most of the time you can polish off the campaign in a few hours. I'm not paying £40-50 for a few hours of game. Isolation really gave me my money's worth. I loved that it was so long.

Totally agree. Hell I wanted it to be even longer!

[Corporal Hicks]

Indeed. For a single player game with no real multiplayer, if it was a 7 hour stretch I'd feel cheated. I'm really happy it was long. It could have done with being tightened up a little but not trimmed by over half.

[newbeing]

...actually let the player pause the game to read notes and lore building journals.

You can, opening the archive logs in the pause menu pauses the game.

Then I'd just trim the game's length down to about 7 hours instead of 20 hours.

It kind of annoys me when people complain about this. I hate how video games are so short and easy to finish these days. Most of the time you can polish off the campaign in a few hours. I'm not paying £40-50 for a few hours of game. Isolation really gave me my money's worth. I loved that it was so long.

Totally agree. Hell I wanted it to be even longer!

Maybe a good compromise would have been to have sort of optional side quests or missions? They would add more time and risk to the overall game, but would allow those who took them to receive more supplies or weapon upgrades.

My major issues that I wanted changed are:

Option to turn off HUD in all difficulties.
Remove having to press a button to enter a vent.
Reduce the time it takes to get into and leave hacking, and rewiring stations.
Give both the player and NPC to jump over obstacles. This includes the Alien.
More dramatic facehugger related deaths.
Smarter NPC human AI. They should use lockers, hide under beds, use stealth, crawl in vents.
More interaction with NPC humans/androids friendly or otherwise.
More random human NPC spawning in levels.
Instead of hostile humans killing you maybe you can just reason or trade valuables with them.
As stated already a quicker way of switching gadgets.
Allow for more objects to be interacted with or moved. This could allow for more on the fly avoidance/ hiding.
Allow the ability to select maps of areas you've already explored. Player can mark off areas they might want to revisit and/or allow players to put down custom markers that would show up as a separate directional pointer on the motion tracker.
Giving Ripley the ability to sneak up to and maybe knock out human enemies.
More clever uses of the Rewiring stations.Luring then locking androids in a small room was probably one of the best things I've done in the game.
The ability to pick up and throw small objects like cans to use as momentary distractions.
Allow supplies to be removed from an object that isn't fully crafted yet.
Chestbursters

[predxeno]

Some thing about the story I would also like to change is rewriting it so not all of the minor characters die.  IMO, a story starts to become too predictable when the player knows which character dies.  Designating someone as an expendable character and then expending him when he is no longer of any use isn't a unique story-writing technique, it's simply called "following the cliche".

[Son Of Kane]

Some thing about the story I would also like to change is rewriting it so not all of the minor characters die.  IMO, a story starts to become too predictable when the player knows which character dies.  Designating someone as an expendable character and then expending him when he is no longer of any use isn't a unique story-writing technique, it's simply called "following the cliche".

Alien: ISOLATION

It's literally the name of the game, and no one gets to be happy in the Alien universe in my book anyway.

[HuDaFuK]

I actually started to think Ricardo was gonna make it

[Son Of Kane]

I actually started to think Ricardo was gonna make it

As did I, first Facehugger in the game was a shocker moment.

[predxeno]

Alien Isolation's gameplay was pretty phenomenal, however its storyline wasn't particularly outstanding.   If one looks closely enough, one could see that many of the scenes in the game were pulled right from Alien (if not copied entirely); these include the discovery of the Derelict, a failed attempt at ejecting the entire Alien threat out of the Nostromo's/Sevastopol's airlock, Ripley contacting the ship's computer Mother/Apollo, Ripley finding the Hive, Ripley activating some sort of self-destruct/release device, an Alien sneaking onboard the escape vehicle Narcissus/Torrens, and at the end of the original film the Alien gets ejected into space however in the game it is Ripley who get ejected instead (I felt this was a nice touch even if it copied from the movie). 

Long story short, the cat-mouse dynamic between Ripley and the Alien was AMAZING, but the fact that much of the game's narrative relies on copying the original film or utilizing cliches doesn't help it match up.  The fact that the game's DLC is supposed to tell a story without actually telling a story doesn't help much either.

[Son Of Kane]

Alien Isolation's gameplay was pretty phenomenal, however its storyline wasn't particularly outstanding.   If one looks closely enough, one could see that many of the scenes in the game were pulled right from Alien (if not copied entirely); these include the discovery of the Derelict, a failed attempt at ejecting the entire Alien threat out of the Nostromo's/Sevastopol's airlock, Ripley contacting the ship's computer Mother/Apollo, Ripley finding the Hive, Ripley activating some sort of self-destruct/release device, an Alien sneaking onboard the escape vehicle Narcissus/Torrens, and at the end of the original film the Alien gets ejected into space however in the game it is Ripley who get ejected instead (I felt this was a nice touch even if it copied from the movie). 

Long story short, the cat-mouse dynamic between Ripley and the Alien was AMAZING, but the fact that much of the game's narrative relies on copying the original film or utilizing cliches doesn't help it match up.  The fact that the game's DLC is supposed to tell a story without actually telling a story doesn't help much either.

Aliens in nearly a direct copy of the original in terms of things happening in the plot also, doesn't mean it wasn't great in it's own right- I feel the same sentiment can be applied to Alien: Isolation.

[predxeno]

Aliens' storyline had fewer similarities and the themes in it were quite different (more family-based).  Don't get me wrong, the game was great but I just feel that the story could have been written a little better; for me, knowing which characters were going to die and when they were going to kinda drained the suspense for me.

[Son Of Kane]

Aliens' storyline had fewer similarities and the themes in it were quite different (more family-based).  Don't get me wrong, the game was great but I just feel that the story could have been written a little better; for me, knowing which characters were going to die and when they were going to kinda drained the suspense for me.

How did you know they were going to die?

I didn't, I presumed as much from the start of the game but I can't claim to have known.

[newbeing]

Alien Isolation's gameplay was pretty phenomenal, however its storyline wasn't particularly outstanding.   If one looks closely enough, one could see that many of the scenes in the game were pulled right from Alien (if not copied entirely); these include the discovery of the Derelict, a failed attempt at ejecting the entire Alien threat out of the Nostromo's/Sevastopol's airlock, Ripley contacting the ship's computer Mother/Apollo, Ripley finding the Hive, Ripley activating some sort of self-destruct/release device, an Alien sneaking onboard the escape vehicle Narcissus/Torrens, and at the end of the original film the Alien gets ejected into space however in the game it is Ripley who get ejected instead (I felt this was a nice touch even if it copied from the movie). 

Long story short, the cat-mouse dynamic between Ripley and the Alien was AMAZING, but the fact that much of the game's narrative relies on copying the original film or utilizing cliches doesn't help it match up.  The fact that the game's DLC is supposed to tell a story without actually telling a story doesn't help much either.

I actually kind of liked that the game hit those same beats, while adding a bit of a twist to each element. ALIENS basically did the same thing. Marines and Ripley got to Hadley's Hope (like the derelict), are trapped in a small space, and have to defend themselves (like the nostromo) Burke betrays them (like Ash) Ripley goes back for Newt (like Jonesy) They escape the blast, but find the alien snuck aboard their craft (like the narcissus).

Cameron knew it was pointless to reinvent the wheel so he just gave it some heavy duty armor.

Edit: guess Son of Kane kind of already covered it.

Alien: Isolation feels like a decent mix of elements from both Alien and Aliens.

If anything I think A:I adds more to the universe than any other Alien game or films has in years.

[Corporal Hicks]

I think, with Alien Isolation, it's about the experience. Whilst the story did feature some typical tropes of Alien literature, it was fantastic to be able to experience with the intensity of this game.

[predxeno]

Yeah, I'm not really complaining about the homages the game had as much as the stereotypical way of killing characters off.  If I could change the game, I would at least have given optional side quests to save those characters (I can relate more to minor characters than major ones because they express more vulnerability at not having as much plot armor). 

I also would have written off the cliched ship explosion which is prevalent in practically every old style action movie thus allowing the characters you save to actually live in the end.  For a game where the canon way of playing is not killing humans, saving lives would actually make the experience much more exhilarating knowing that you could potentially fail your objective and lose someone in the process.

[Son Of Kane]

Yeah, I'm not really complaining about the homages the game had as much as the stereotypical way of killing characters off.  If I could change the game, I would at least have given optional side quests to save those characters (I can relate more to minor characters than major ones because they express more vulnerability at not having as much plot armor). 

I also would have written off the cliched ship explosion which is prevalent in practically every old style action movie thus allowing the characters you save to actually live in the end.  For a game where the canon way of playing is not killing humans, saving lives would actually make the experience much more exhilarating knowing that you could potentially fail your objective and lose someone in the process.

I would LOVE if the sequel to Alien: Isolation was part RPG in the manner you describe, or even further down that route.