Ever
since the 1979 film, the Alien franchise has had its ups and downs. The original movie along with the sequel, Aliens,
was the peak of the mountain. Those
films brought out the best of horror sci-fi that anyone has ever seen. And if you think about it, what's better than
the suspenseful feeling of being trapped in a giant tin can, while being chased
by a monster? So after years and years
of more movies trying to capture that magic, the franchise slowly began to
trickle into the gaming world. But can
the feeling of being desperate and alone with a creature breathing down your
neck be replicated in a game for the ultimate experience? In 2013, Gearbox Software attempted a
first-person shooter with Alien: Colonial Marines and they were crucified for
putting out what could be known as pixelated garbage. Then, not more than a year later, Creative
Assembly took their stab at the franchise with something different. They took the idea of being alone and scared and
hunted by a beast, and ran with it. What
better way to capture the 1979 film, then by pitting you against one single
Alien Xenomorph as Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter, and having you run
for your life? But the real question is
does running for your life and pushing buttons still remain fun after numerous
hours?
"Okay, hold that right there and now...smile. Excellent. Alright, now let me see a bit more
of those gorgeous thighs."
THE ATMOSPHERE:
If
there's one thing that can be said about Creative Assembly's trek through the
Alien universe it is this: they nailed the atmosphere perfectly. If their job was to recreate the last scene
of Ellen Ripley's haunting desperation as she scrambles to get on a space suit
and get rid of the creature once and for all, then they knocked that feeling
out of the park. From the aesthetics of
the spaceship to the silence while walking the lonely corridors, Alien:
Isolation grabbed the very essence of the 1979 film and brought it to gamers
everywhere. There are even moments where
you'll just stop and take in the gorgeous sights happening outside the space
station's window. It can be easily said
that between the look and feel and sounds, Alien: Isolation is a home run in
gaming history. But right there is the
problem. The developer's job wasn't to
recreate a five minute scene in movie history.
Their job wasn't to recreate just the look and feel of the 1979 Alien
film. Their job was to create a video
game. Something that above all else,
needs to be fun at heart. Sure a game
can be somewhat scary and give you absolutely no weapons to defend yourself,
but it needs to be fun too (ex: Outlast).
And sadly, this is where Alien: Isolation falls short.
"Hold on Mr. Android, Sir, I have to reload my gun."
*35 minutes later*
"I can hear you sighing over there, ya know? Why don't you go watch Making Mr. Right or
something?"
EXPLORATION AND
OVER-STAYING YOUR WELCOME:
The
beginning of Alien: Isolation sets up the story and allows your character to
get a feel for movement and exploration.
In fact, that's what the game's main objective is…exploration. The developers want you to wander around and
take in each and every pixelated sight that they have created. And as a gamer you're more than willing to do
that for the first couple of hours. You
could even say that not seeing the Alien or interacting with anything frightening
for the first hour can be enjoyable. But
then you'll start to wonder if there really are Aliens in this Alien game. Thankfully, after pushing buttons and
crawling through holes for a while, you finally experience the thrill of having
the Alien drop down in front of you. And
having no weapon to defend yourself, that scene really does bring back the same
feelings from the 1979 film. Right then
and there a video game not only nailed the feeling, look, and sound of a movie,
but a video game heightened the experience by putting you in the shoes of a
pixelated Ripley and letting you decide how the hell you're getting out of that
situation. But then soon after hiding
under your first desk or in your first locker and waiting for the creature to
leave for lunch, you'll start to feel fatigue.
Why? Because the exploration
aspect of pushing buttons and pulling levers and cranking generators and
cutting locks and finding keys and hacking computers and hiding in lockers and
crouching for hours and dying repeatedly because of impatience…never
leaves. The game doesn't change. The exploration and wandering around is still
there even after you see the Alien. It's
there even after you meet your first android.
It’s like you're getting ready to go out and someone hides your car
keys. That starts as a fun game of hot
and cold, right? You may even giggle a
little. But what if you don't find your
keys, but a key to open a door that leads to another room where you have to
push a bunch of random buttons only to learn that that opens yet another door
leading to another search for another key and so on and so forth. And to spice things up the person that hid
your keys might even tell you at some point to wash their car and paint their
house just to get another key that leads to more buttons. This is the problem with Alien: Isolation's
exploration. It needs a change at some
point. Nobody finds pushing buttons for
close to 20 hours fun. And that's the
real secret of creating a game that keeps its entertainment. Fun.
And there's no fun in quick time events over that many hours.
"You need to go back to where you just were and get the locker key."
"But the key for the door we need is in your pocket right now?"
"I know that...but I'm not going anywhere without my porn collection. So go get my locker key."
TheOrder: 1886 received a lot of grief for making the entire game a cutscene
sprinkled with quick time events. But at
least at some point you were shooting things and blowing stuff up. That's called variety, my joystick fondling
friends…variety. As bad as The Order was
at least you had a bit of variety going through. And…it even had one more thing going for it:
it was brief. It didn't stick around
long enough to frustrate and bore you.
Only long enough to disappoint you.
But Alien: Isolation doesn't only stick around to frustrate you; it
sticks around long enough to aggravate you too.
It's like having a friend you haven't seen in a while just pop up at
your front door. You let them in to be
nice and even have a fun, laughable conversation. But when you're ready to get some work done
or maybe go to bed, they just plop themselves on your sofa and ask if you have
any more beer. After several hours that
awesome friend you once had will become the world's biggest pain in the ass, and
you'll do whatever you need to get rid of them as quickly as possible. The same principle with Alien:
Isolation. By about the 10 hour mark,
you'll be running around hitting buttons, pulling levers, and trying to bypass
any exploration, just to get to the end…which seems to never come.
"You look confused, Ripley."
"I...I just don't get it. When I get to the control room, you want me to go through the next door?"
"Yep."
"I don't have to push a button?"
"Nope."
"Pull a lever?"
"No"
"Hack a computer?"
"No. Just--"
"Find a Med kit?"
"Dammit, Ripley. Just open the next door."
"I don't understand."
MAPS AND FEELING
LOST:
Would
it not be fun to pull out a four foot square map while driving, only to
discover the person who gave you directions circled about half the map and said
your destination is somewhere in there?
Doesn't that sound like fun?
Doesn't that sound like the best use of a map ever? Sure it does…if you're an idiot. And that's exactly how Alien: Isolation
presents its map system. There will be
times when almost the entire map is circled with your objective. Say what?
Why? Because the game is still
throwing "exploration" in
your face. But shouldn't the gamer
decide whether or not he or she would like to explore? Take Bloodborne for instance, most gamers do
search every square pixelated inch of that game to obtain gems or shortcuts,
but if you'd like, you could run past everything just to get to your objective. Bloodborne is giving you the choice. Nobody wants to be forced to do
anything. And that's where your patience
with Alien: Isolation will start to fade.
By about the 10 hour mark you've already searched and hacked and pulled
and pushed just about everything in the game and if Isolation gave you the
choice to forgo all that repetition and just move forward, the ending wouldn't
have felt as long as it did. Choice is a
very important aspect of a video game.
It's why gamers love the ability to play as good or as bad. It's why Mass Effect holds a special place in
many gamer’s hearts.
RETREADING AND
OBJECTIVE PLACEMENT:
Have
you ever grabbed everything you needed for a meal, headed into the living room,
and then sat down in your nice comfortable sofa and realized you forgot a
fork? Or a napkin? Or your drink? It's the kind of feeling that makes you want
to either eat with your hands, wipe your mouth on your sleeve or die of
dehydration. Because nobody wants to
retread their steps back to the same area after you've already gotten to your
nice comfortable objective. Well if
you're playing Alien: Isolation, you'd better get used to that. There will be areas where the developers have
you pin-balling all over the map and retracing your steps. Most of the time this is done for two
reasons: either they want the game to be harder or they want it to be
longer. And either reason is just bad
developing. Not to mention boring. If you look at a game like the Last of Us,
not only does it have a tremendous story that sticks with you well after you've
completed it, but it's always moving you forward. You never feel like the game is being cheap
by making you retread through the same level over and over again. And Naughty Dog could have done that
anywhere. Imagine any clicker level in
the game…now imagine having to backtrack in those areas numerous times just to
get to one objective. That would be an instant
story pacing kill, along with boring gameplay and a side of frustration. Why does the Last of Us work so well gaming
wise? Because it continually moves the
story and environment forward, making you want to find out what's coming
next. That's called rewarding the player
for their hard work. How does Alien:
Isolation reward you? By making you
retread the same area again after you've just spent an hour attempting to get
to the other side of the map. This is
just an attempt to make the game longer and more challenging. But in the end, all it does is frustrate and
bore the player.
Can't pick up the 4 guns dropped by the people you just murdered, but this one--the exact same gun
sitting half way across the level--is just waiting for you to fondle it. Game Logic.
FIXING THE
PROBLEMS:
So
you're probably wondering how to fix all of Alien: Isolation's pacing problems.
Easy.
Shorten the game and add more variety.
If Alien: Isolation pulled out all the retreading of the same areas and
removed the numerous objectives just to get one key that only leads to another
key…the game would have paced better and wouldn't have felt so cheap. People would have finished it in less than 10
hours and would have praised it as the most fun they've had in a survival
game. Every new objective should have
taken the player to a new area and should have been something different other
than pull this lever, push this button, or hack this computer. Imagine wandering into a new area each time
you jumped on a transit car and having to deal with the Alien or androids in an
environment you haven't seen before? Wouldn't
you rather have an outstanding six hour game, than have a game that ended up
okay because it added a ton of fluff?
"Oh God yes."
"Ripley?"
"Sorry...I just climaxed after finally hacking the computer we couldn't find for six hours. It's over. We did it."
"How can I say this without you choking me to death? That computer only opens up the
ability to hack another computer which will allow us to open a door, which might eventually lead
to the computer we need. Nailed it."
CONCLUSION:
Alien: Isolation did something that video games
find hard to do. It brought back the
same feeling you had when you watched your favorite movie franchise. The developers took the very essence of the
Alien universe and brought it to life for every gamer to live. It's just too bad they forgot about fun and
entertaining gameplay that rewards the player for completing an objective. Alien: Isolation is not a bad game. In fact, as stated above, it does a lot
right. But it's still just a
steppingstone to the perfect Alien video game.
Hopefully, the developers will take what they've learned here and apply
it to the next game to create the greatest trek through the Alien universe
gamers have ever seen. So here's to
hoping.If you enjoyed this article, you may also like:
The Last of Us: Is Joel a Bad Guy?
What Elements Make a Great Hitman Game?
Watch Dogs: What Went Wrong?
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