TL;DR specs:
Overall Score: 8
Cons:
- Facial animations and lip syncing seem to weigh down the game and break immersion
- The tutorial drops off a cliff after the beginning, leaving some situations poorly explained and difficult to figure out.
- Graphics fall short of perfect due to an inability to enable anti-aliasing either from the options or from your graphics card control panel.
- Areas are not as diverse as they could have been
- Game should have ended 7 times before it actually did.
Pros:
- The game fits within the alien environment and storytelling perfectly both with visuals and sound
- Focus remains on evasion and exploration which require steady thought in times where it is incredibly difficult to do so
- The pace is evened out by the switching of enemies from the Alien to paranoid humans and murderously defective androids.
- The graphics are so wonderfully done that it's a treat just to walk around the world and explore.
- Encounters with the alien provide much welcomed dread, particularly in situations where you need to obtain something of importance from an area the alien is currently searching.
- Hiding is effective, but ultimately there is no perfectly safe zone, forcing you to make swift decisions and take dangerous chances.
Recently, the survival horror genre has gone through a bit of a shift. These games are becoming less like the heart-pumping dread-inducing experiences they used to be and are becoming more action-packed, explosion-ridden blockbusters. Alien: Isolation takes us back to the earlier days of Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill. You spend a lot of time hiding, you're supposed to. You have to be conservative with supplies and ammunition, you're supposed to. You have to think quickly in situations where time is a factor, you're SUPPOSED TO!
Many of the bad reviews I've read and watched about this game list the above features as issues that weigh the game down. It seems to me that there is more of an issue of reality not meeting expectation than actual issues with the game. This would be a problem if the developers hadn't explained right from the start that this wasn't going to be a pulse rifle, game over man, action simulator.
The game ramps up the intensity right away. At first I thought that the most scary part of the game would not be the interactions with the alien, but rather the aura of dread created by the possibility of the alien arriving at any moment. This hypothesis was instantly debunked during my first encounter with the alien. The game does a fantastic job of setting the stage and slowly increasing the tension at the beginning. The story doesn't open up as much as it could have however, with a general lack of crew interaction and ship exploration in the beginning. You only spend a few moments aboard your own ship before entering the station, and it seems as though this was a missed opportunity to provide good tutorial segments explaining both the mechanics and the story.
The game juggles the fear of the unknown and the fear of the just evaded incredibly well. Good survival horrors place objective points in places that force you to face the very thing you don't want to face. This is done by showing the player the dangers in an area just before the objective, and forcing the player to backtrack through an area he or she just barely escaped from. This keeps the pace of the game high even though some of the areas may be a bit repetitive.
The crafting system in the game is incredibly simple, yet useful. You very clearly see what goes into making an item and how to do it. Blueprints scattered about the maps makes the game's pace steady and the thrills of finally finding that one tool (for me it was the EMP grenade in an area infested with murderous androids) that will save your life and allow you to reach your goal is unparalleled.
It's the little details that really make this game shine. Your movement detector is a vital tool and you will find yourself wondering how the hell you survived without it, but it is not without its flaws. The motion tracker will at times glitch out, showing a dot where nothing is there, or duplicating dots for one entity. These moments fade quickly, but still manage to speed up your pulse in tense situations.
The game is indeed a bit long, and at some points it can be tiresome, but overall the strategic use of the alien and other threats keep you crawling toward your objective with a tension so reminiscent of the original movie that you will actually feel like you are a part of the lore.
People say this isn't the Alien game we were all hoping for. I struggle to find a way that they could have made better in the fundamental scope. If you are looking for the horrific Alien experience that is suggested in the title "Isolation," this is exactly what you're looking for.