Stop hiding in the lockers of Alien: Isolation

I've been going to write another post about Alien: Isolation for a while. Considering the game just had its 10th anniversary and a sequel was announced by the original game director Alistair Hope at Creative Assembly, now is the perfect time. The year I first played the game, I didn't place Isolation even in the top tier on my annual round-up post but the game has since then become one of my all time favorites with numerous playthroughs. The frustration a first run often comes with is gone on revisits: nothing will pull you away from the marvelous immersion of this scifi horror experience.

First of all: install Alias Isolation

The game's graphics hold up amazingly well 10 years later but one flaw it has always had is the poorly implemented anti-aliasing that creates very noticeable shimmering on the edges of lit surfaces. The Alias Isolation mod fixes this. It has been around awhile but some Steam update in the past made the mod's injection a bit fiddly. Fortunately the mod was updated just few weeks ago for the anniversary and now you can launch the game from Steam normally, the mod applying itself without the need of a separate launcher.

Also: turn off film grain and chromatic aberration to have the clearest visuals. Motion blur needs to be on for the mod to work but I can't perceive any blurring actually happening. Maybe the sharpening removes it.

Another point of interest in the visuals is field of view -- which I did mention on my original post too. Isolation does have a slider which for whatever reason is setup backwards in the options menu: left is wider, right is narrower. The degrees are also in vertical so the number appears small if you're used to seeing a horizontal value. When the FOV is set above 55, Amanda's lower body disappears -- as in, it's not visible when you look down. It's either a glitch or intentional to avoid possible clipping. I believe 55 vertical corresponds to around 85 horizontal degrees, which is just about tolerable in this game. So take that into consideration.

Walk confidently through the Sevastopol station

The most common criticism of Alien: Isolation by far is that the game is too long. Some of that is probably from people being baited by the game's constant fake-outs: about nothing ever works on the first attempt. But if you expected the game to end on Mission 10, I feel you're a bit too easily mislead. Even I, frustrated on my first run, was aware there was still unresolved stuff.

I'm glad that the game is as long as it is because it is not actually that long at all: you just spend so much time hiding in a locker, scared, not progressing the game. My first run, on the game's recommended Hard difficulty, took around 24 hours which is in the upper marginal of a thorough playthrough. However, now a casual replay on Nightmare takes me less than 9 hours.

Isolation provides the most enjoyable time when you move confidently forward. That sounds like an oxymoron for a first playthrough -- how can you do that when you don't know where to go and what to expect -- and that's because it is an oxymoron. A first run is bound to be difficult and challenging -- and unfortunately likely aggravating as well. But one thing you can do -- if you can manage it from the desire to hide -- is to avoid lockers. Unlike in titles like Outlast or Amnesia: The Dark Descent, hiding in a locker isn't a guaranteed way to progress; there is no similar hard check for a locker evasion to open the way forward.

Lockers should be your final resort. They're such dead-ends that take a (relatively) long animation to leave as well. Eventually the alien's adaptive behavior will even start checking the lockers. It's better to hide under desks and hospital beds from where you can leave with more ease. But the best hiding place in the game is a pool table in the middle of a room. While crouched behind one, you can see the alien clearly but it can't see you. You can circle the table until the alien decides to leave and then take off yourself, even straight into full sprint. Although, the only times you're safe to actually dash is when there's a cutscene trigger to rush into or you know you can make it to an elevator in time.

The quicker your pace through the game, the less time you spend teaching the alien your tricks. Over my many playthroughs, I have figured out strategies that work every time for the majority of the game. The last part of the medical bay first visit can be troublesome due to the randomness of the human placement: them noticing you can affect the alien's aggressiveness. Sometimes in Mission 10, the alien really doesn't want to let me into the Project KG-348. And then there's the reactor level -- which surprisingly tends to be very straightforward most of the time, alien face-to-face encounters being few in number when you keep walking confidently.

Mission 17 end is the most difficult part of the game. I always try to save my resources to be used there; namely flamethrower fuel, molotovs, and pipe bombs. If you don't have any of those, the section will mostly likely be vexing to the mega. I have watched a good dozen streamers play this game for the first time and a couple of them had nothing left to use there. You can only hope for repeated streaks of good luck when going back and forth that long hallway.

I have yet to see a colorblind person play Isolation but I'd imagine the section In Mission 12 where you have to disable transmitters might be troublesome. You're told to follow cables of different colors, and if you can't distinguish, say, red and green from each other, you can easily make a mistake. At least the order is the same (and simple) every time, so you can look it up if the task proves to be impossible.

New players struggle mostly with early parts of Isolation, mainly Mission 3 and 5. I know those struggles well as I went through them too. I even recorded a video -- mostly for the Steam pillar of community badge -- of how to get past Lorenz Systech Lobby effortlessly.

Once you get the access tuner fixed after that part, you're supposed to go back to the elevator where you found it. The way is sealed, however, and many experience trouble at lifting the lockdown: your map isn't helpful at showing what you're looking for. You go round and round the place, not spotting that one keyboard that can be interacted with.

Fun story: until my third run, I thought the alien will not come after you until it has made a proper appearance in a cutscene in this mission. So while waiting for the tram at the end of the previous mission (with that stressful heartbeat playing) I was running around without care: I thought it was completely safe to do so. Thus my heart skipped a beat or two when the alien actually dropped from the vent right then and there. I have heard it can do that there only on Hard and Nightmare. Sure was a "nice" surprise.

Isolation is a terrifying game, and it remained at least intense for many replays for me. Even now, the immersion gets strong when I try to inch quietly towards something, hoping the alien isn't hungrily eyeing up by back.

One trick I had heard about and only tried myself on my recent run, is properly trapping the alien in Mission 10. By luring the alien with a flare and a noisemaker into a dead-end, you can then drop a stutter down right behind it. And the angry xenomorph actually stays there. Unfortunately, not for very long: already after the next objective it was out. Once I could leave the server farm, I went to check and saw the shutter having been lifted. So I'm not sure if there's a script to teleport the alien or if it had just walked out once the obstacle was gone.

For fun, I recorded another video, of finding Dr. Morley's passcode and keycard in Mission 5. It was another absolute nightmare experience for me on the first run. However, as shown, it can be done without even really seeing the alien. In the video, I collect the pipe bomb V.1 blueprint on the way but I've later noticed that it isn't necessary because you can reach over the counter at the lobby, where Kuhlman first talks to you, to grab the pipe bomb V.3 blueprint earlier than intended.

It took me many runs to realize that, like Samuels, Kuhlman is voiced (uncredited) by Anthony Howell. Like, you have talked to Samuels barely a minute ago, why did it take me so long to notice it's the same voice?

I don't quite get why EMP V.3 blueprint is found at the very end of Mission 17 where there are no androids left to use it against. I suppose the V.3 placement sound lure could be used for distraction but I'm yet to find that feature useful on any of the throwables/mines.

Nightmare truly is the best difficulty to play Isolation. However, it can't be recommended for a first run due to the complete lack of map, barely working motion tracker, and nigh existent HUD. One would be so lost. But on Nightmare resources are finally scarce enough to not have inventory always full -- unlike even on Hard. You really have to consider what to craft and when. The flamethrower also eats fuel extremely fast, being best saved for absolute emergencies.

While Isolation isn't too long in my opinion, I think Marlow's flashback should be skippable when replaying the game. Likewise, the spacewalk in Mission 16 takes too long. Together they're not even 30 minutes but they're still dull walking simulator sections I would rather jump over.

Low expectations from the sequel

Due to people being so loud about the length of Alien: Isolation, I predict the sequel to be much shorter. But who knows how similar it will be -- nothing is known about the project currently. So much stuff is turning shit these days that it's not worth being hyped about anything. And while the original game director may be back, the team was scattered to the wind, ending up in places such as No Code.

What intrigues me most, is the story: where will it go and if it will still fit Aliens without retcons. In the extended edition of the second movie, Amanda Ripley-McClaren is shown to have died at the age of 66 without children. The 2014 novel Alien: Sea of Sorrows changed the spelling of her second last name to McLaren and apparently the 2022 novel Alien: Colony War claims Amanda's death to have been faked to keep her safe. I suppose anything is possible as long as it affects nothing that has been actually shown. Weyland-Yutani could be keeping all manner of secrets.

Nov 27 Addendum

I forgot one topic I wanted to write about: the game's DLC -- which are frankly barely worth mentioning. They're not worth buying even. I reckon most of the 20% of players who have managed to beat the main game are so exhausted afterwards that they don't want any more. I watched a couple of streamers start one of the DLC missions and it was obvious that neither was feeling it. One of them even straight up saying "fuck it" and quitting before finishing it.

I myself have played through all of the DLC once to never revisit them. Without the aspect of beating a continuous full game with a bigger narrative, the gameplay isn't enjoyable enough on its own.

Two of the DLC, Crew Expendable and Last Survivor, have some fan service value as they take place in the first film with the original actors voicing their respective characters. The rest of the DLC are score attacks -- as I recall. I think Safe Haven was a bit lengthier -- having saving between tasks -- while Corporate Lockdown, Trauma, Lost Contact, and The Trigger consisted of three shorter maps each.

In them you play as various different characters on Sevastopol. But as you already got a good picture of what happened to them in the main game via all the text and audio logs; playing their stories doesn't add to the experience.