Alien: Isolation Collection

I am a huge fan of the first two Alien movies but when it comes to video game spin-offs, I've never found one I truly liked. When this game launched, it seemed like it would be a faithful recreation of the original movie and in reality, it really is. The graphics are exceptional; the authentic look and feel was spot on. Where this game utterly fails is with the Alien itself and the type of gameplay you have to play with. Once I had progressed deeply into the game, I found it to be an annoying and repetitive hide-and-seek, jump-scare game. The Alien always finds you if you hide too long, stomps around in circles so you have to time yourself and jump from one box or cabinet/locker to another. The Alien never acted at all like it should have and no matter what weapon you found, it was always invincible and only gave damage without taking any. I progressed a fair amount into the game and simply ran out of patience. The levels are too large and the Alien was a frustrating mess that never operated convincingly so I added a mod that immobilized the Alien on each level so I could complete the game. Sure, it's a cheat but I wanted to get through the game without having to hide from the Alien AND the annoying androids that are also trying to kill you. I did play through battling the androids which was more of a game than fleeing from the Alien and got to the end. The main game ends in a very unsatisfying finale that sealed my opinion of this game. I have never tried out any of the expansion packs at this point so I can't comment on if they are any good.

I love the Alien IP and really wanted to like this game, but I can't. First impressions were strong, thanks to the faithfully crafted assets: Your surroundings, the equipment etc. are a perfect fit for the franchise. There's a lot of cute fan service in here, too. Unfortunately neither the level design nor the gameplay hold up. Not only are rooms constantly re-used with only minor alterations, the entire progression is painfully linear with lots of backtracking through already visited areas. It's basically a never-ending corridor leading you from button to button, from contrived problem to script trigger. The entire game feels artificially lengthened to obscene degrees. The main gameplay loop is about stealth and sometimes combat, although neither are particularly interesting. There are some tools for distracting, stunning or killing enemies, but mostly it's just a waiting game. The vaunted xenomorphs are disappointing: A few scripted sequences can't plaster over the fact that these creatures are not really hunting you nor laying traps or ambushes, but simply patrolling an area, spawning from vents when there's too much noise (like gunfire or machinery) and de-spawning again when they get bored (or torched). Their AI seems to be surprisingly basic and path-finding is poor. They usually kill you by starting an instakill animation from a rather long distance, "sucking" you in, so timing is important for sending them away. Also, they aren't scary so much as annoying - especially when they cause you to lose progress since the last save-point, adding to the game's runtime and my annoyance. The same deal with unavoidable animations also happens with the android enemies (and the constantly repeated door-opening or tool-using animations). All of this gets old quick. The story is basic but serviceable. Honestly, I had far more fun with the rightfully panned Aliens: Colonial Marines. But if you want my actual recommendation, I'd say go play Aliens vs. Predator 2.

Let's get this out of the way first: the "horror" element of this game is seriously overrated. The game is really tense in some parts, but mostly it falls into a pattern where it is basically a game of hide-and-seek with an unkillable alien (or quite killable androids and humans, depending on the area). Apparently the Alien is supposed to be driven by some kind of reactive AI that learns and adapts and whatnot. I didn't notice anything special. To me it seems like it always follows the same pattern: stomp around for a while, hide in the vents, pop out somewhere else. Rinse, lather, repeat. The Alien is kinda the whole deal of the game, but since it is so tame, you quickly lose any sense of dread and just start treating the game as another stealth game. And once you get a flamethrower, you can just act goofy because you have a "get out of jail free" card. The story is ok, but not innovative or surprising. There way too many instances of "We killed the alien, oops, nope, we didn't", but the real insult is the ending: it was so lame. That said, the game is still good for what it is. AI patterns aside, there is a good "stealth" component that isn't too gimmicky, with real risk involved (basically dying costs you game progress, so you really want to avoid dying). You need to move methodically and carefully, and look around corners and sometimes take a few risks. There isn't an abundance of hiding places, which means that you are often very exposed. I enjoyed exploring the station. It looks "believable" and I enjoyed the little bits of storytelling spread all over the station. The visuals are good and the audio is excellent. The game was pretty long too, and it didn't feel boring. The game didn't surprise or "wow" me, and if I am honest, it doesn't exactly bring anything new or exciting to the table. It's "average", but I had fun. I would recommend it if it was discounted, otherwise pass it.

Pros: difficulty, graphism, ambience Cons: a rather bad story, DLCs are almost a scam, and once you get the flamethrower the game becomes too easy and mecanics too visible (2 flamethrower farts at the xenomorph's face, he runs away for a few minutes and you can just rush until he comes back and you do it again.) Regarding Alien games, I prefer AvP from 2011, or even the AvP 2. Regarding horror games, Amnesia Dark Descent and SOMA were better.

The game is really cool. Graphics are just amazing. Atmosphere, even more. Production quality and overall gameplay, fantastic. Immersion in the Alien universe, just unbelivable. Every single detail is just painstakinly correct and inspired. The main problem with the game is just the alien itself. Let me explain. The alien behave, most of the time, quite convincingly. It search for you, without knowing you location. You have various ways of escaping the creature with different tricks to which, after a certain amount of time, because harder to exploit. It move convincingly and, overall, is quite scaring. It is... immortal. And here is the thing: the game is overly long, especially, with various expansions and... the alien is constantly on top of you. Watching you. Monitoring you. You can escape for some time but it will came back over and over and over. And even the convincing movements and behaviour will become tedios and overly repetitive (I don't want to say boring). On the long run the alien hamper the game instead of pushing it forward. Being immortal doesn't matter what you do, you know it will be back to annoy you more and more. Relentlessly. Unless script otherwise. Luckily there is a patch to disabled the alien altogether and, with that patch on, it becomes totally fantastic game that allow you to explore and enjoy the best Alien game to date.