Recent reviews by DeltoidsMcGee

Finally a AAA game worth everything I paid for it. There are many options and routes to complete each objective. At times it feels like you are almost cheating the game becuase you are so free to get to the objective the way you want to. It makes for great problem solving.

Your choices actually matter. The atmosphere, music, and lore are great. The story is good and not predictable. The looting/crafting does not feel tedious like it eventually feels in Fallout 4.

My only complaint is it doesn't let you know when you are triggering the final mission. This prevents you from completing any unfinished side missions.

Bugs:

Black/shiny surfaces. Can't see anything. Turn off reflections to fix.

Missing/stuck dialogue. Go to a previous save to fix.

Some missions say failed when they were not failed. A certain mission continually came up as "Completed" anytime I loaded a save.

Better writing than Frictional's previous games. Even though many of the choices don't affect the ending, they are difficult to make and the story will leave you thinking about them.

Great game. Loved the level design. I hope they turn this into a full game.

You may hear about the fact that the second half of the game has some "issues", but I did not find this to be as bad as others may lead you to believe.

The build up to the first enemy encounter is done very well. It doesn't just throw you into the action (which would make you too comfortable with the enemies). Up to Mission 10, your encounters with the alien will be reminiscent of Amnesia. You won't have very effective deterrents and you will need to hide a lot. Sometimes the Alien will pin down your location and begin to take a relatively repetitive pattern. In these situations you need to use a Pipe Bomb, Noisemaker, Molotov and possibly the Flare to disrupt it and escape.

A lot of the complaints you will hear come from Missions 11 and 12. At this point you will already have the Flamethrower and you will receive an excessive amount of supplies while fighting the relatively easy to beat Working Joes. I don't agree with people's complaints here. These missions make you begin to feel comfortable and make you let your guard down. (Personally, I thought it was nice to take a sort of intermission and enjoy the atmosphere for a few levels.) Then in Mission #13 you are thrown into an area with Raincoat Working Joes (invulnerable to everything except the Shotgun and Bolt Gun). This brings the difficulty level back up, but it's arguably less intense because they do not insta-kill.

For the last five Missions of the game, you will be thrown back into the intense Alien Survival Horror gameplay, but this time you will really need the items you collected through the last few levels. This last segment of the game is a blend of Survival Horror and Action. It fits well at this point due to the amount of different enemies you have to deal with.

I honestly enjoyed the change of pace after Missions 3 - 10. The Survival Horror style gameplay, admittedly, can get long and tedious. I don't mind the game stepping back from that style at times (rather than trying to be absolutely 100% non-stop Amnesia, which would have been increasingly repetitive for a game of this length).

Those who want more of that Survival Horror style gameplay should look at the Corporate Lockdown, Safe Haven, and Lost Contact DLC.

In summary, you should expect (in this order):

• 2 Missions of simply eerie atmosphere.
  
• 6 Missions with a healthy amount of Survival Horror.
  
• 1 Mission of back story that Alien fans should enjoy.
  
• 3 Missions of respite from the Survival Horror, replaced with Action elements.
  
• 5 Missions of Survival Horror, but with some Action blended in due to an excess of items (depending on how much you have collected through the game) and more enemies.
  
  
  
  Graphics:
  They do not disappoint. Particle effects, lighting, and textures all looked great. My only complaint is some of the 3rd person character animations looked a bit “uncomfortable”.
  
  There are several .ini edits that can be done to enhance Shadow Maps, Planar Reflections (floor), and Level of Detail. See here[forums.alienisolation.com] and here.
  
  
  Length:
  It took me about 26 hours to beat on Hard.
  
  
  Atmosphere:
  This game has all the creepiness and retro-futuristic feel of Alien, but with the added uncertainty of a large derelict space-station built and run by an off-brand corporation. Great attention to detail was taken to make everything, including the UI, have an authentic Alien Franchise feel to it.
  
  
  Optimization:
  The game ran constantly well above 60FPS on Max Settings (with enhanced Shadows, Reflections and LOD. See "Graphics") on a GTX 970 G1 and i5 4690K @ 4.4ghz. I had no frame drops or any noticeable performance problems.
  
  
  Other thoughts:
  The voice acting done for Amanda Ripley was wonderfully done. You can hear the fear, sarcasm, and bravery in her voice depending on the circumstance. At points where events get very intense, the panic in her voice is noticeable and authentic.
  
  Similar to Bioshock, there are recordings scattered around through the levels. Many of these add to the story at just the right time, but some of them are just filler.
  
  The majority of the game has a “wild ride” style story (survival through non-stop adversity and such), but I found the ending to be weak. It is reminiscent to the ending of the film “All is Lost”, except not executed nearly as well.
  
  The music has complements the game well, playing dynamically at just the right times. It ranges from high-tension strings, to space synth scores.
  
  
  Final Verdict:
  I thoroughly enjoyed this game from start to finish. The gameplay does change as the game progresses, but I found it to be for the better. The theme and atmosphere of the game are executed well.
  
  I give it a 9/10
  
  
  Bug Notes:
  • Slow animations after cut-scenes.
    
  • Solution: Wait for about 30 seconds and it should return to normal.
  
  
  • Flamethrower constantly play a "sloshing" noise after reloading.
    
  • Solution: ADS usually fixes it.
  
  
  • Significantly longer load times than usual.
    
  • Solution: Load a previous save. This only happened to me once. I believe this to be a save corruption issue.

It's fun and is optimized well. Don't trust games media.

The game is not pay to win. Everything can be unlocked by playing the game.

I have not had much trouble with cheaters aside from 2-3 matches. The auto cheat was just re-hauled in the last patch and I have not seen any cheaters since. I have been in many a game full of people yelling "hacker, aimbot, wallhacks". Yet those people for the most part were terrible at the game and crying about it. (I didn't notice any hackers in those matches)

The devs are constantly updating the game and listening to the community's ideas.

I would like to see a some better differentiation between some of the weopons. For example, right now there is no reason to use the 880 shotgun over the other pump action. Why not balance it so the 880 fires slugs or something interesting becuase at the moment it serves no purpose other than to troll me when I get a new card with the 880.

Fantastic game with sudden death elements similar to those found in Hotline Miami. Great sound track and atmosphere as well.

Took about 4hrs for me to finish the campaign, but there are a lot of community maps available.

A simplistic, calming game that gets your brain thinking.