Reviews - KBN1988

Firstly, IGN and Gamespot reviewers should be ashamed. This game deserved a far better score than it got from them. In fact IGN and Gamespot were some of the only ones that gave this game a mediocre score. Nearly all other groups and publications gave it positive reviews of 8 out of 10 or higher.

Now while most would say that the length of the game is an issue, even those who reviewed it positively. I can understand why they'd say that, but frankly I would have been disappointed if Alien Isolation had finished at the point they likely meant. It only took me eighteen hours to complete the game on the Medium difficulty setting and much of the intrigue and a very clever reference to a deleted scene from Alien occur after the point where some thought it should have ended.

The story is well thought out and the whole cause of how the Alien came aboard Sevastopol is very plausible, and ties in well with the original Alien movie. One thing people have to remember when playing this game is to disregard any lore that wasn't in the very first film. So disregard what happened in any of the sequels, the Alien in the first movie is an altogether different creature than the sequels.

The gameplay is excellent, with a preference to stealth and resource gathering much like The Last of Us. Combat should only be a last resort when there's no other way out of a difficult situation. Throughout my playthrough of the game, I was only forced to actually fight enemies off around a dozen times or so. Mind you I played the game very cautiously. Even then I died roughly a dozen times, give or take. Once by an Android, four or five times by The Alien and the rest I believe were due to facehuggers. Don't be upset about dying, as it is all part of the experience of the game.

There were some people who have moaned about instances of backtracking to areas previously visited. Firstly this happened very rarely if you follow only the story and not decide to return to previous areas to explore yourself. Backtracking only occurred in the last quarter of the game and doesn't comprise that much of it. Whenever the player has to backtrack, your equipment has improved allowing the player to explore new areas, and even environments have changed due to the players actions in earlier missions.

Then there is the sound and level design which to put it shortly is absolutely amazing, otherwise I would go on about the effort put into it without end.

The only issue I had is that the cutscenes and voice acting could have been done better. I've heard some talk about glitches ruining other players experiences, but have yet to experience any other than the rare minor one on my PC.

Overall I'd give Alien Isolation a 9/10. I loved the game myself and is an excellent return to the old survival horror genre, where every action can have a consequence. I will admit that the game isn't for everyone, but for players who enjoy a slower game and have the patience to wait and plan out their next move to outwit the Alien will love this game and fully recommend it.