![]() Players need to understand that Alien: Isolation is a horror game, not an FPS. You can tell already which game ended up being truer to the franchise, despite both Gearbox and Creative Assembly promising to respect the legacy. Alien: Isolation is a first person horror game with only one intelligent, nigh invulnerable alien that is constantly hunting a physically outmatched, but incredibly resourceful female heroine. Gearbox 0, Creative Assembly 1Īliens: Colonial Marines was a first person shooter that threw hordes of mindless disposable aliens at typical, near invincible FPS military heroes, with practically unlimited amounts of ammunition. Whether it’s the “ping” of the motion detector indicating you really need to stop and look at it, like right now, or the thumps the alien makes as it scuttles over you through the ventilation ducts, the soundstage of Alien: Isolation is a master class in directional audio. The most impressive thing the sound does, however, is become absolutely critical to your survival. Strains of Jerry Goldsmith’s original Alien score are invoked at appropriately gloomy or spooky moments, while the clicks of old, mechanical computers and the opening and closing of iris vent covers are taken straight from the iconic sound effects of the original film. It’s absolutely crucial to play the game with either a decent pair of headphones or a surround sound theater system to appreciate how immersive the soundstage is. While the voice acting is competent, the sound design is brilliant. Then there’s the audio, which really deserves to come forward and take a bow. There are plenty of joysticks, but not a single mouse or mouse pad in sight. CRT monochrome computers are in abundance, typical 70s typeface and graphic design adorn illustrated posters, and everything in the world smacks of a future where the digital revolution didn’t occur and big, clunky analog machines got tougher, faster and more advanced. They took all the sets from the Nostromo in the 1979 Alien film, and applied that modular, industrial, retro-70s-future to Sevastopol station. The art team has to be commended for what is some frighteningly obsessive attention to detail. It was only during cutscenes that there were VERY noticeable framerate dips and lip synching issues, but during gameplay everything was smooth. The PS4 version we reviewed had a solid 30 frames per second, no screen tearing, and gorgeous real time lighting. ![]() Still, as far as plots for a story in the Alien franchise go, this is certainly no worse than the worst entries in the film series. ![]() The bad news is they don’t address the ramifications of a witness to an alien encounter and why the Weyland-Yutani corporation let their bio-weapons ambitions languish for another 42 years until the original Ripley makes her return. The good news is, Amanda Ripley’s alien encounter and the rationale for why one of these creatures is on the rampage smacks of decent logic, and makes sense. For people worried about how Creative Assembly was going to handle the continuity gymnastics required to get Ellen Ripley’s daughter to face off against an alien, this is a good news/bad news scenario. Now she and her teammates are caught up in the fight against other survivors and, of course, the eponymous alien itself. Instead, on arrival, she’s greeted with a space station in anarchy and the infamous Alien slaughtering people wherever it can. When a company rep informs her that the flight recorder of her mother’s missing ship has been recovered at a backwater space station, Amanda is invited to join the retrieval team for some much needed closure. 15 years after the events of the first Alien film, Amanda is now an engineer with the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Amanda Ripley is the daughter of Ellen Ripley, the famous heroine of the Alien movies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |