We had an all-too brief play of Alien Isolation. We had a chance at survival mode, with the aim of getting past the level before our 10 minute time restriction. The demo drops you inside one of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation's ships, with little narrative explanation. You have a few moments in a 'safe' room to pick up various items before you venture out into the main corridors of the ship.
The items included batteries (for your torch), scraps of metal, and other trinkets which, at the time of play, were not clear as to their purpose. Oh, and a flame thrower. This sounds exciting, and if we thought we could rampage through the darkly lit corridors of the spaceship burning xenomorphs in our path, we were wrong. The flamethrower had two shots. Great.
It is obvious Alien Isolation has an emphasis on stealth, skulking and climbing through hatches. The tension of being caught is palpable, especially with the ever present clicking of the motion tracker to essentially shit you up. As you view the motion tracker, your main view becomes blurred, so the balance you have between searching for imminent threats and being able to see your surroundings adds further to the scares. Your destination is also marked on the motion tracker, and it keeps the main view refreshingly HUD free, allowing you to keep an eye out for the big black beastie.
And what of the Alien? 10 minutes wasn't enough to really gauge how good the AI was, but needless to say, once it spots you the fear levels rise exponentially. We were told, in our briefing before the demo, to ensure we break the line of sight between the alien and ourselves, and this worked in some cases, but most of the time we were toast. Ripley we are not. In essence you have to constantly check the range of the Alien, frantically search the area you are in for resources (your torch battery eventually runs out and you don't want to be in the dark with that thing) and make your way towards your destination.
Visually the game is an Alien-fan's wet dream. From the retro-future decor to the 80's chunky, rounded edged CRT modules, big heavy buttons and slightly beige veneer on walls to the oh-so familiar metallic venting and black, green and orange hues from the Aliens films, they've definitely cracked the feel and look of the environment. There are plenty of references to the films, with books and toys strewn around (the japanese robot and the dipping stork) and even photos of the crew stuck to the inside of the doors of the lockers you can hide in. Mind you we were too busy watching a spiky tail burst through our chest...
Alien Isolation comes out on October the 7th.
The items included batteries (for your torch), scraps of metal, and other trinkets which, at the time of play, were not clear as to their purpose. Oh, and a flame thrower. This sounds exciting, and if we thought we could rampage through the darkly lit corridors of the spaceship burning xenomorphs in our path, we were wrong. The flamethrower had two shots. Great.
It is obvious Alien Isolation has an emphasis on stealth, skulking and climbing through hatches. The tension of being caught is palpable, especially with the ever present clicking of the motion tracker to essentially shit you up. As you view the motion tracker, your main view becomes blurred, so the balance you have between searching for imminent threats and being able to see your surroundings adds further to the scares. Your destination is also marked on the motion tracker, and it keeps the main view refreshingly HUD free, allowing you to keep an eye out for the big black beastie.
And what of the Alien? 10 minutes wasn't enough to really gauge how good the AI was, but needless to say, once it spots you the fear levels rise exponentially. We were told, in our briefing before the demo, to ensure we break the line of sight between the alien and ourselves, and this worked in some cases, but most of the time we were toast. Ripley we are not. In essence you have to constantly check the range of the Alien, frantically search the area you are in for resources (your torch battery eventually runs out and you don't want to be in the dark with that thing) and make your way towards your destination.
Visually the game is an Alien-fan's wet dream. From the retro-future decor to the 80's chunky, rounded edged CRT modules, big heavy buttons and slightly beige veneer on walls to the oh-so familiar metallic venting and black, green and orange hues from the Aliens films, they've definitely cracked the feel and look of the environment. There are plenty of references to the films, with books and toys strewn around (the japanese robot and the dipping stork) and even photos of the crew stuck to the inside of the doors of the lockers you can hide in. Mind you we were too busy watching a spiky tail burst through our chest...
Alien Isolation comes out on October the 7th.
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