On Thursday I decided that since I got past those androids it was time to continue onto mission five. This mission is all about sneaking around an Alien and trying to find a passcode and a key card to get down an elevator. There were some moments that I would spend about 20 minutes in a locker or a small box just to hide from this rampaging Alien. Trust me, he was out for my blood. But I was being super patient. After playing for about an hour and a half, I was finally found in a locker by the Alien and killed. Really I had NO chance since right before the Alien looked into the locker I was in, the game told me to use LS to lean back. Before I even had a chance to try this and hide from the Alien, I was pulled out and killed. Plus, I never found a save point…an hour and a half of progress, all gone… Just saying game, it would have been nice to know this method before I was in this situation so I could have lived. I did quit playing after that on Thursday since it was late, but I was not very happy. I am glad to say that I beat mission five last night and even got a stealth achievement! See, I did learn something!
Quicktime Events and Lacking Information
This sort of game play made me think of other games that put you in this situation or that have quicktime event which this game does have a good many of thought so far they only seem to be ones with minor importance, like removing blocks from doors and the like. Resident Evil 4 is one of the major games that pops into my mind that thrived on quicktime events. I remember the first time I hit a quicktime event in that game I died since it caught me off guard and I was too busy looking at the beautiful graphics. Many of these events determined life or death and of course the one I miss was a certain death for me. God of War is another series that has a lot of quicktime events.
Now I really wouldn’t call the action given to me in Alien:Isolation a quicktime event since once you learn it you can do it automatically and it was really just informing you how to hide from Aliens. Or the time it tell you how to hold your breath when you are in a locker. I didn’t get the button in time and was killed by an android. But the moment that it tells you that you can perform this action is very untimely and feels like a quicktime event for me the first time it happens. In fact, it made me wish that I was given more of a tutorial in the beginning. I know this is a survival horror game, but I hate feeling like I was set up to fail. There is a high possibility that the user manual might have said these in it and I didnt read it, which then it would be my fault entirely. However, I feel that the best time to teach a player to hold there breath at least would have been in the cut scene where you see the Alien for the first time. There could have been a better quicktime event to show you the ropes since you did have a moment when you were staggering breathe and the Alien PROBABLY heard you…just saying.
Surprisingly Cool Mechanic
Like I said earlier, Alien: Isolation allows you to hold your breath in a locker or other object where you can hide so the Alien doesn’t hear you. What you do not notice at first is that as you hold your breath you start to die. The screen flashes red around your edges, and then there are heartbeat noises and what looks like veins. I really enjoy this aspect of the game. Though I wish that I could see my health while I am hiding. This has almost caused my death a few times as I get too low in health!
All in all I am still enjoying this game so much! I cannot wait to play more tonight, though it will have to be after the Game of Thrones premier!!! So excited!
The Geeky Mom 