MovieChat Forums > Alien: Isolation (2014) Discussion > One of the most unfair games I've ever p...

One of the most unfair games I've ever played....

posted 8 years ago by moviefool09
12 replies | jump to latest

I want to stress that this is mostly a great game, filled with lots of tension and good missions. But in varying points of the game (and near the end, where I am now), the alien AI is unreasonably perfect and godlike, no matter WHAT you do as a player. And yes, I am playing on Survivor Mode, because I was told this is the most "thrilling" way to play the game.

Here's some of the highlights of the cheap kills, mainly near the end but throughout:

1. I hid in a vent when the alien was in another room and did NOT MOVE. About 30 seconds later, the alien entered the room and then ran into the vent, where I was still completely motionless, and killed me. And no, I was not using the motion tracker, which sometimes gives you away to the alien.

2. I left the alien in the level behind me and used the tram car to transport to a new level. As soon as the tram door opened, the alien was there waiting for me at the new location as well and killed me. Apparently it has a twin or is able to be in two places at once. Nifty.

3. I was crouching very slowly down a hall and saw the alien in the very far distance slowly turn a corner away from me. Within barely a second, it descended from the vent above me and killed me, despite my crouching at the slowest speed the game allows.

4. During the final section of the game where you have to find an alternate escape route, very loud and suspenseful music kicks in. That's great except now you can't hear visual cues of whether the alien is approaching or if it's in the vicinity. This makes things virtually impossible.

Kudo's to whoever solved the game. I'm about to give up (so close to the end) and sell it online.

UPDATE: I finally beat the game, due to a miracle. Still very unfair game. And (SPOILERS, I guess)......I suppose the alien does indeed have twins. THAT was a big surprise at the end, I must admit.

"This is dead air, Barry....dead air."

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jawsfan007 8 years ago

I take it you finished the game and learned why the Alien could appear everywhere?

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] moviefool09 8 years ago

I'm the OP...yes, I finally completed the game and now I know there were multiple aliens (I edited my original post to reflect this a few days ago). At the time, I thought the game was just cheating.

"This is dead air, Barry....dead air."

[–] nicolas28 8 years ago

1. I hid in a vent when the alien was in another room and did NOT MOVE. About 30 seconds later, the alien entered the room and then ran into the vent, where I was still completely motionless, and killed me. And no, I was not using the motion tracker, which sometimes gives you away to the alien.

It could happen the vent noise alerted him. He probably was checking other vents to find you.

The AI is not that stupid as "ok, after 5 seconds I don't see what I saw 5 seconds ago, I will go away". At some point, if you don't distract him, will keep coming after you no matter what.

2. I left the alien in the level behind me and used the tram car to transport to a new level. As soon as the tram door opened, the alien was there waiting for me at the new location as well and killed me. Apparently it has a twin or is able to be in two places at once. Nifty.

Some said there were more than 1 alien in the game......still.....I don't think that tram had different paths everytime you use it. It's likely the alien knows where you are heading if it saw you getting in the tram in the first place.

3. I was crouching very slowly down a hall and saw the alien in the very far distance slowly turn a corner away from me. Within barely a second, it descended from the vent above me and killed me, despite my crouching at the slowest speed the game allows.

Same problem as point 1

4. During the final section of the game where you have to find an alternate escape route, very loud and suspenseful music kicks in. That's great except now you can't hear visual cues of whether the alien is approaching or if it's in the vicinity. This makes things virtually impossible.

Awesome, right? You can still reduce difficulty level in that part. Is not like you will discover new things at this point.

[–] moviefool09 8 years ago

I did not reduce the difficulty based on principle. If the game was unfair, so be it. I played by its rules and finally beat it due to sheer luck and nothing I did. That's ridiculous, for a game.

If the game was at least consistent in defeating you, that would be one thing. But it's not. It's largely arbitrary. Case in point- the final section of the game where you escape, loud music playing, etc. I tried about 40-50 times, crawling and moving at the minimum speed the game allowed. Died every time. Finally, I said "F it". I walked back at a normal gait during my escape. I died a couple of times but the 3rd or 4th time, I made it. That was a head-scratcher. This alien, that can supposedly hear you from a mile away, did not react to my walking but did react to my crawling in ultra-stealth mode. Ridiculous. I only made it out of sheer luck. The alien was simply not placed in my area that 52nd random time or whatever. It had nothing to do with what I did....nothing.

That's not how a game should be. A game should reward good play.

I'm sure you know this but several websites and critics have commented on the ridiculously high AI level of the alien. Many more convincing examples of the unfair gameplay than mine have been posted in many places online. Some of them are pretty hilarious in just how wildly unfair the gameplay was, contrasting with how playing carelessly often resulted in success.

"This is dead air, Barry....dead air."

[–] rikkiriotgrrrl 8 years ago

I was thinking the same thing before throwing my game controller across the room after trying about 50 times to get through a level. The Alien "baby guards" and magically appears right in my path after I made several sneaky attempts to avoid it...
This game should be called Alien: Die Around Every Corner. I get that some gamers want a challenge and all, but I am playing on Easy Mode and have been the victim of cheap kills while hacking or reading a log entry. It is soooooo not fair!

I am a huge fan of the movies and I think the game's music and visuals are wonderful, but I don't want to play a game that frustrates me this much, especially when playing on easy level. Consequently, it makes me want to quit playing the game altogether and definitely NOT buy dlc or future releases.

I wish the gaming industry would stop catering to the gamers that can sit there all day and play & complain that video games are too easy. There are older people who have day jobs that just want to play & have fun & enjoy the experience without having to be some video game God....

Alien Isolation is just bumming me out because I guess I'm not good enough to play it, even on easy mode. Sheesh....

[–] moviefool09 8 years ago

Yeah, it is an incredibly unfair game. The funny thing, as I described, is that I sometimes played very carelessly and succeeded and other times very cautiously, and failed. The logic of the game is very twisted. Doesn't always make sense. To be frank, the game cheats sometimes and the kills are ridiculous.

Still, I give it a passing grade because of the atmosphere and the story. If there is ever a sequel, they really need to shore up the enemy AI.

"This is dead air, Barry....dead air."

[–] jpssteveshanahan (400) 9 months ago

Loved it! But that was one my few issues with the game. The Alien was OP as fuck! 😁

[–] Heisenberg (6286) 9 months ago

Loved it?
I hated the alien cheating every 5 minutes, but the worse part of the game is how the game developes into....backtrack, fetch quests, stuffed story etc.
Seriously, if it was a movie it would be like a short blown up to a feature lenght without actually adding ideas.
This game should have lasted about HALF of its final lenght.
Either that, or add new ideas for the story, levels, gameplay etc.
That "final" sequence was like half the game long, it competes with LOTR for worse multiple ending compilation.
Who came up with that?

I liked the atmosphere, graphics, references to the movie etc. That's all well done, like anybody can see.
The GAME overall as an experience is quite crappy.

[–] jpssteveshanahan (400) 9 months ago

"if it was a movie it would be like a short blown up to a feature length without actually adding ideas".

That's a good way of explaining it. The game was probably just meant to be a straight up homage to it's forefather. Hence why no "new ideas" were implemented.

I think the points you made are subjective. I don't necessarily feel the backtracking was that big of an issue (not nearly as bad as Resident Evil). As mentioned. My main gripe is that the Alien was unfairly OP. An almost guaranteed "insta kill" if it saw you. And the flamethrower only works 50% of the time. It sometimes manages to startle the creature and force it to retreat. Other times, it just eats the flames and goes straight for the jugular. As my brother would say "he tanks it" 😁

[–] jpssteveshanahan (400) 9 months ago

I didn't even know LOTR had multiple endings 🤔