izigame.me

I played through this originally on the PS4. I think it's a masterpiece - if you love the original Alien films I can't recommend it enough. Graphically it still holds up (aside from the cutscenes), and the sound design is exceptional. The voice acting is pretty solid too, with Amanda and Samuels being particularly good.

But, it's not without its flaws which some might find off putting. First and foremost, the game takes several hours to really get going. This is deliberately done to build tension and slowly introduce you to the game's stealth mechanics, but I've watched people literally bounce off the game one or two rooms before the first real encounter with Xenomorph. If you're thinking about streaming your first playthrough of isolation, keep in mind that things aren't going to kick off for the first 3 hours or so -- if you're just doing a one-off stream, one of the dlc levels might be a better choice.

Second, mission objectives can often be a little unclear, which is compounded by the game's confusing UI. Again, this is sort of on purpose to make the game more immersive and give the alien more opportunities to ambush you, but expect to get stuck and a bit confused in places. To give you an example, there's a puzzle about two thirds of the way into the game where you have to activate a cleaning robot to access to a new area. The problem is that it's not obviously interactive and the button you need to trigger doesn't stand out particularly (it does flash but is still quite easy to miss). Also when you approach it, there are enemies nearby which will start shooting at you, causing most people to instinctively retreat and hide because of the alien.

There's fair few puzzles like that which should be simple on paper, but end up being slightly more confusing than they ought to be. While there's nothing insurmountable (or can't be quickly googled on your phone), often you need to solve them while actively being hunted by the alien, which, combined with a confusing UI, might be too frustrating for some people. The best advice I can give is trust the compass built into the motion tracker - it's usually right, even when it looks like you have to go a different way.

Overall though, this game has become something of a cult classic and for a good reason - it's scary as f**k and once it properly gets going it's an incredible experience. There are some set pieces towards the end that I won't spoil, but if you're an Aliens fan are absolutely worth persevering for. Not only that, but it truly feels like a worthy addition to the original films - not many game adaptations can say that.

Over the decades game developers have tried many, many times to recreate the space marines experience from Aliens, some better than others, but this one of the few games that puts you in Ripley's shoes and successfully captures the terror and dread of the original film. This game is special and worth experiencing, and I think people will keep coming back to it for years to come. But it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea and will absolutely test your patience and nerve in places.