I just started re-watching the Alien movie for the first time in 10-15 years in preparation for playing this game and the film still holds up really well. I actually cannot believe it is 35 years old this year. One of the more interesting aspects is the working-class theme that pervades the sets, the dialogue, and some of the character motivations…you don’t get that a lot in science fiction stories. A good portion of the dialogue involves the crew arguing about fair distribution of company shares. The other piece I forgot is that the crew uses a rudimentary motion tracker, a cattle prod, and a rope net when trying to catch the xenomorph loose in their ship! That both suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the alien and the very low-tech, practical, 20th-century-industrial technology that still has a place on a commercial towing vessel. There are no magical transporters and phasers here.
Yup, it’s definitely a classic. I’ve first watched the movie when I was around 6 years old (father forgot it in the VCR) and I remember being terrified of it, for weeks I couldn’t go to sleep without checking every corner of the room, under the bed, etc. What’s interesting is that 25 years later A:I managed to bring back those same memories, I’m genuinely terrified as I play the game, which is an absolutely amazing feeling. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this immersed in a game.
The worst part of this game for me was when I died multiple times in one area because Ripley couldn’t get out of a 2-foot recessed floor area. I’m not exaggerating. She literally would not lift her knee to step up. Apparently, she can only get out of that space by walking up the tiny two-step staircase in one part of the recess. Oh no! Better to face death by android clubbing than walk up the goddamned step!
Ha, I bet I know the very step you’re talking about! Fortunately, I don’t recall a lot of boners like that one, but it was definitely conspicuous. I thought at that point I was going to be in for a long game of hung corners and impassable ledges.
It makes me wonder how much of this game’s effectiveness – and long stretches of it are indeed effective – has do to with being a certain age. When Alien came out, I was 12 and utterly thrilled/traumatized. Would a twentysomething appreciate Sevastopol Station the way we do?
I got hung up an a couple of corners as well, usually when trying to run from a murderous android. I was okay with that. I figured that with the amount of times I’ve run into countertop corners in real life, odds are good that it would be the death of me if I were being chased by a killer.
I doubt it. For me Alien is the horror experience that all other horror media is measured up to, because it was the first one I had. I imagine another movie of this kind would have been similarly effective back in the day, but I’m glad it was Alien.
Once I had a cool moment, I hide behind a desk counter, the alien got super close (at the other side of the counter), and in fact he hit a box and it fall to my feet. It was tense as hell!
The comments are great and basically claim Tom is clearly shit at the game, that’s the only possible reason he hates re-loading. Also this comment is GOLD, so much so that I think it’s poe’s law level.
Guest tomchick • 2 hours ago
So what you are saying is, that just like your Age of Wonders 3 review, you are giving a game a very low score because YOU do not wanna leave your comfort shell and find some patience for a well done mechanic that follows the movie depiction of the alien quite well. Huzzah for instant gratification and the death of objectivism I guess.
Here’s an idea, never score your review’s again. Just have an ending paragraph, it will get the point across much better (“The game is really creepy and atmospheric but I found it very tedious to hide and wait for the alien to go away” for ex) and make you sound a lot less like the absolutist you are. Not everything has to be to your liking and not everything is bad for that reason.
What is wrong with that comment other than the “death to objectivism” part? It’s clear that this site’s review scale is different from most other sites’, so it does seem strange that its scores are listed on Metacritic (where a 40 generally equals “mechanically broken”). Just because Metacritic voluntarily lists the score, or because this site has a right to review how it wants, does not mean it’s unreasonable for people to be upset by the dramatic disparity in score scales listed on Metacritic. I’m assuming obviously that that commenter came from Metacritic, which is a safe guess.
Just because Metacritic voluntarily lists the score, or because this site has a right to review how it wants, does not mean it’s unreasonable for people to be upset by the dramatic disparity in score scales listed on Metacritic.
Yes, it is unreasonable. Opinions differ, dramatically. This is a good thing. Also, Alien did not consist mostly of Ripley hiding in a locker and reloading when the Alien killed her anyway.
NB, I’m still only a couple hours into the game and enjoying the atmosphere a lot still.
