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Revisiting Alien Isolation in 2024

 Many years ago my girlfriend at the time surprised me with a gift copy of Alien Isolation for the Playstation 4. We ended up playing it together (meaning I played it and she watched) and I remember liking the experience and feeling very immersed into the world that Alien Isolation created. It was almost as if we were smack dab in the world that Ridley Scott had created with his film Alien back from 1979. The retro-futuristic steam punk style with checkerboard patterns, clean white hallways decked out with pipes, valves, wiring panels and industrial food coolers etc. really lend to Alien Isolation becoming a truly immersive video game that I would argue rivals many video games today. 


 Now if you remember for those of you out there that did read or watch IGN reviews you know or heard that IGN found the game frustrating, some of course disregarded those statements as ridiculous but after having playing a few hours these last couple of days to be in the spook season mood, I can understand why they would have called it frustrating. 


The problem is not that the game is a buggy mess, not having a stable framework in order for players to work with or a OP enemy that cannot be overcome or too many game breaking bugs. The graphics even by today's standards are very good and on my current gaming PC rig that does have some outdated components it still holds up very well today. If you told someone this game launched yesterday they would believe you just in the graphical quality alone. 


The problem is not the stability of the game but the problem is what the game asks of you in order to survive in the game. The Xenmorph as a Mr.X like stalker in the game is a brilliant choice and it  offers many a chilling moment when you hear it's hiss as it starts to walk the corridors of the Sevastapol Spacestation. It's footsteps thumping down the hall as you quickly hide away in a locker, under a desk or behind some cargo crates is chilling. 


But that's where the problem lies. Having to constantly stop and hide, stop and hide or often using a flamethrower or molotov to scare off the Xenomorph (or as my girlfriend at the time called it, Billy Bo Jangles). As I am writing this I am playing the game and just now I hid from Billy to only then surprisingly find him in a hallway despite the fact that not a minute before I heard Billy jump into the ventilation system because he could not find me. Scared him away with the flamethrower and then immediately he came back down a vent ahead of where I needed to go to scare him off once more. Now it is a small issue but the fact I have to do it almost consistently is annoying and it really ruins the flow of the experience. 


Now I understand that many would argue with this kind of enemy in this kind of game that is par for the course and that is the whole point of having to face as something as iconic as the Xenomorph but after awhile it just drags the experience down. 

Resident Evil did not have this problem as you could run or juke your Mr.X, Nemesis or Lady Dimitrescu, this is not the case with Billy Bo Jangles. 

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