Alien: isolation
| Alien: isolation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Alien logo: Isolation | |||
| Studio |
 Creative Assembly Feral Interactive (macOS and Linux port)
|
||
| Publisher |
 Sega
|
||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Windows , PS4 , PS3 , Xbox One , Xbox 360 October 7, 2014 macOS , Linux October 27, 2015 Switch December 5, 2019 |
||
| platform | Windows , macOS , Linux , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 3 , Xbox One , Xbox 360 | ||
| genre | Survival horror , stealth | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
|
||
| language | English , German | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
Alien: Isolation is a survival horror computer game released in 2014 by the British game developer Creative Assembly . It is based on the science fiction horror film Alien - The uncanny creature from an alien world from 1979 and continues its story.
action
The action takes place in the year 2137, 15 years after the events of the first Alien film. Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, now works for the Weyland Yutani Corporation and receives information from an android named Samuels that her mother may still be alive. The flight recorder of the Nostromo , the ship with which Amanda's mother disappeared, was found and is now said to be on the Seegson Corporation's Sevastopol space station . Samuels offers Ripley to fly with him and Weyland-Yutani representative Nina Taylor, to which she agrees.
Ripley's team reached Sevastopol a few weeks later on board the courier ship Torrens , which is commanded by Captain Diane Verlaine . However, it turns out that the radio connection to the station is disturbed and the docking system is damaged. When Ripley, Samuels and Taylor try to get to the station by spacewalk, an explosion occurs, separating the three. Ripley reached the airlock, but was left on his own. Inside the Sevastopol , a catastrophe is revealed to her: the station has been devastated, corpses are lying around everywhere, civil society has collapsed and strange noises can be heard in the ventilation shafts. Desperate, Ripley looks for a way to the station's communications center to contact Verlaine on the Torrens . In the process, she meets a survivor named Axel in the space terminal, who tells her about a "monster" that is up to mischief on Sevastopol and kills the residents. Ripley convinces Axel to help her aboard the Torrens in exchange for an escape from the station . He leads them past a group of hostile survivors to the station's transit system, but is suddenly impaled by the tail of an extraterrestrial being - an alien - and dragged into a shaft.
Frightened, Ripley flees via the transit that takes her to the SysTech tower, where the communications center is said to be. There she finds weapons, a motion detector and an electronic access generator that helps her bypass locked systems and open doors. Eventually she discovers the Nostromo flight recorder, but is dismayed to discover that the data appears to be corrupted and illegible. Shortly afterwards the alien reappears. Ripley escapes and gains access to the communications center, which is monitored by Seegson androids. When Ripley watches one of these androids kill a survivor for trespassing, she is forced to sneak past quietly. Your attempt to contact the Torrens fails because APOLLO, the central AI of Sevastopol , has blocked all external communication. However, Ripley succeeds in establishing an internal radio link to Samuels and Taylor. She learns that both survived and are near the infirmary, but that Taylor was injured and needs urgent medical attention.
After the team reunites, Ripley makes his way to get a medipack for Taylor. In the Sevastopol infirmary , Ripley meets Dr. Kuhlman, one of the surviving doctors. He agrees to get her the necessary medication on condition that she get him the access code and the key card to dispense the medicine. In the corridors of the abandoned infirmary, Ripley is confronted again with the alien. After finding the code and key card, she returns to Dr. Kuhlman back; however, the latter is overwhelmed and carried off by the creature. Ripley flees to the dispensary, and after a long search, she manages to collect the necessary medication for Taylor. Since the way out of the infirmary was blocked, Ripley sets off an evacuation alarm, which clears the area again. Shortly before she reaches the exit, she is cornered by the alien that has appeared. However, Ripley is lucky when there is suddenly a violent explosion, driving the creature away.
Via detours through ventilation shafts and the Seegson android production, Ripley returns to Samuels and Taylor. However, she was preceded by two space station security officers, Marshal Waits and his deputy Ricardo, who are currently interrogating them. After Ripley has cleared up the situation and reactivated the transit system, the group heads to the Habitat Tower, the only safe area on Sevastopol . In the Marshal office, where Taylor is receiving medical attention, Waits explains that the alien was apparently brought into the space station by the Anesidora , the ship that recovered the Nostromo flight recorder. For more information, Ripley interrogates the Anesidora's captain , Marlow, who is being held in a cell in the Marshal's office.
In a flashback, one learns that after the flight recorder was recovered, Marlow's crew evaluated the data it contained and thus a little later caught an emergency signal in space. Assuming it was from Nostromo , the crew followed the signal. The trail led to the inhospitable planet LV-426, where, while exploring the surface, instead of the Nostromo, she discovered the wreck of an alien spaceship. Marlow was able to locate the source of the misleading signal and disable it to be on the safe side. When the crew examined the wreck more closely, they came across a huge room full of egg-shaped structures. Foster, Marlow's wife, was attacked on closer inspection of one of these eggs by a foreign organism (facehugger) shooting out and put into a coma. She was then taken to Sevastopol for treatment , where the alien that had lodged in Foster's body was unintentionally released. Foster himself was killed as a result.
The Anesidora is since this incident in a parking orbit around the Sevastopol circled the gas giant KG-348th Since there was an escape route from the station with this ship, Ripley asked Marlow to hand over the operating codes for the autopilot. However, this requires his release as a condition, which Ripley refuses. Waits forges a plan to trap the alien in an area of the space station that can be completely cordoned off. Armed with a flamethrower, Ripley goes to the server hub in the SysTech tower, where she and Ricardo make the necessary preparations. The plan goes awry, however, when Ripley is accidentally locked up with the creature and Ricardo is forced to unlock. Waits then moves on to plan B: Ripley lures the alien into the Gemini labs as bait, so that it can be captured and then the entire module can be thrown into space. She succeeds in executing the plan, but is betrayed by Waits, who separates the laboratory with Ripley and the creature inside from the station. Ripley manages to slip into a spacesuit and return to Sevastopol with a risky jump . Behind her, the separated module falls into the gas giant, destroying it along with the alien.
Now that the creature's threat has been eliminated, the situation in the space station seems to be under control again for the time being. However, the Seegson androids begin killing the remaining survivors in the station, including Waits, for no apparent reason. When Ripley reaches the marshal's office, all she finds there is bodies; Marlow and Taylor have disappeared without a trace. Only Ricardo survived the attack by the androids. Ripley then meets with Samuels in the Seegson android factory to end the massacre with his help, while Ricardo holds the position in the marshal office. Samuels tries to establish a connection to APOLLO and thus instruct the computer to deactivate the enemy androids. However, despite Ripley's rescue attempt, he is killed by defensive countermeasures; but with the last of his strength he manages to give Ripley access to the APOLLO system kernel. There she manages to get access to the main computer after avoiding several androids.
It turns out that Sevastopol had been bought two days after Ripley's departure for the Weyland-Yutani station, and that APOLLO had been programmed with special order 939 to protect the alien at all costs so that it could be marketed as a biological weapon on Earth can be brought. APOLLO apparently viewed the survivors of the space station as a threat to the creature and therefore instructed the Seegson androids to kill them and block external radio links. Outraged by this plot, Ripley orders the computer to cancel Special Order 939 and shut down the androids because the creature is no longer on board. However, APOLLO refuses this order and gives the reason for an unidentified presence that was detected in the station's reactor system. To get to the bottom of the matter, Ripley descends to the engine room. When she reached the reactor facility a little later, she discovers an alien nest in the lower area, in which numerous people are woven, who serve as hosts for even more aliens. Ripley then initiates a reactor cleanup in order to destroy the nest with the help of the electrical discharge. However, several aliens manage to escape and flee everywhere in the space station. The cleaning up of the reactor also means that all systems are reset to Sevastopol , which means that external communication channels are released again for a short time.
Ricardo informs Ripley over the radio that, according to a sound recording, Taylor released Marlow from custody in return for his betrayal of the coordinates of the planet LV-426. However, he took her hostage and ran away with her. On the occasion when external communication is temporarily open, Marlow succeeds in sending the autopilot codes to the Anesidora so that his ship can be brought close to the space station and he and Taylor can flee there via a short-range shuttle. In the hope of still being able to use the ship as an escape from the station, Ripley grabs one of the shuttles and follows them. On board the Anesidora , she discovers a personal message from her mother, extracted from the Nostromo flight recorder, in which she explains that she had destroyed her ship to kill the same alien creature that Amanda is now confronted with on Sevastopol . Marlow, who appears in his power shortly afterwards with Taylor, explains to Ripley that he wants to detonate the Anesidora's fusion reactor in order to destroy the space station. By doing this, he wants to ensure that the aliens do not come into contact with the rest of humanity. Taylor can overwhelm Marlow, but she and Ripley fail to prevent the reactor overload. Ripley barely escapes from the ship before it explodes, while Taylor and Marlow do not survive.
Thanks to Ripley and Taylor's intervention, the explosion of the Anesidora is not strong enough to destroy the Sevastopol , but it damages the orbital stabilizers, so that the whole station begins to drift towards the gas giant. Ripley and Ricardo now see the Torrens as a last resort to get away from here. You will find a way to bypass APOLLO's blockade by Ripley manually aligning the communication system outside the space station. With that she finally succeeds in contacting Torrens and sending a cry for help. Verlaine instructs Ripley to go to the station's tug platform to prepare for the ship to dock. However, since Ricardo is attacked by a facehugger shortly afterwards, Ripley has to fight his way through the increasingly unstable space station on his own. After several arguments with the aliens, she reaches the tug platform and, with Verlaine's help, brings the Torrens to dock. Just before Ripley can put on a spacesuit, she is suddenly grabbed by an alien and pulled into the ventilation shafts. She wakes up a few moments later in a new alien nest, but is able to break free. As the Sevastopol falls faster and faster and begins to break apart, she finds her way back to the airlock and slips into her spacesuit. Due to the gravitational forces, however, the Torrens has become wedged on the docking device and you are in danger of being torn into the planet with the station. Ripley therefore activates the emergency release mechanism outside when several aliens appear and surround them. At the last moment, however, the ship breaks away from the Sevastopol , which shortly afterwards burns in the atmosphere of KG-348.
Ripley, who made it to the Torrens in time, is now safe. Just as she is about to go to the bridge, an alien suddenly stands in her way, which has sneaked on board unnoticed. Before the creature can deal the fatal blow, Ripley, still in her spacesuit, activates the emergency release of the airlock and shoots both the alien and himself into space. The game ends when Ripley, who is floating in the room, is spotted by a searchlight and wakes up.
Gameplay
The player takes control of Amanda Ripley from the first person perspective . On the way through the Sevastopol , Ripley repeatedly encounters survivors and androids with sometimes hostile intentions, as well as the alien. This cannot be killed by the player, but it can be driven away or distracted using improvised devices. In order to avoid a direct confrontation with the creature, the player can hide, for example in a cupboard or in a ventilation shaft. The alien's AI usually does not follow any given scripts, which means that it always takes different paths and its behavior is largely unpredictable. There are save points at important game sections .
development
After Sega acquired the exclusive rights to an alien game in 2006, Creative Assembly developed a prototype of the game in 2008. Work on Alien: Isolation began around 2011. 20th Century Fox gave developers access to the Alien filmmaking archive , which helped them recreate the design of the film. The spaceship architecture of the film is reflected in the game, and the technology on board the Sevastopol is also determined by switches, rotary controls, buttons, lightbulbs and tube screens. The lighting plan of the original film with color temperature and gradation was also adopted, as was the film grain of the analog film material. The music for the game was composed from existing, unpublished soundtrack material.
Investigations of the program by modders showed that there were clearly different plans for starting the game, which were discarded for unknown reasons. Assumptions are based on a streamlining of the course of the game and a speedy arrival at the main venue, Sevastopol. In addition to the main storyline, the game also offers the two bonus missions Crew Expendable and Last Survivor . Both play on board the Nostromo , with the crew members being dubbed in the English version by their original actors from the film. Originally, the missions should only be available for pre-orderers. After protests, however, Sega announced that it would make it available as DLC . In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, buyers of the Ripley Edition were given early access to the bonus.
The program code of Alien: Isolation contains an unofficial support for the Oculus Rift , which can be activated by changing an XML file .
reception
| |||||||||||||||
Alien: Isolation received mixed to good reviews. Above all, the atmosphere of the game was praised; A frequent point of criticism is an AI of the alien that is perceived as unfair and the frustration associated with it. The duration of the story campaign of around 14 hours was also criticized several times.
GameStar originally rated the game at 73%. The “atmospheric environment with a wonderfully quirky retro-future look” and a “grandiose staging” were positively highlighted. The GameStar editors saw the main weakness in the aliens' unpredictability, which captured the atmosphere of the first Alien film well, but limited the fun of the game. A few days after publication, the rating was corrected to 80%.
PC Games expressed similar criticism and also emphasized a "low point [s] and sometimes unfair [s] gameplay paired with AI errors, logic holes and bugs ". The rating was rather mediocre at 69%.
Heise online spoke of an "important milestone in the horror genre [...] which marks new playful territory and lets you forget your predecessor ." The "few shortcomings" are easy to forgive given the "intense atmosphere".
Die Süddeutsche wrote: “You feel as if you are playing the lead role in a twenty-hour horror film and cannot press stop, put your hands in front of your face or fast-forward. [...] But at some point the death is acknowledged with a shrug, the escape into the locker to the annoying everyday action, the game gets lost a little in the repetition. The horror subsides at some point - and with it the joy of playing. "
At GBase.ch the game achieved 8 out of 10 points and was described as "an Amnesia: The Dark Descent on Speed". GBase.ch also emphasized that the game offers a varied mix of sneaking, exploring, puzzling, crafting, mini-games, quick-time events and tactical shooting bouts and that the overall package was successful, crowned by the threat of danger in the neck at all times will.
- Awards
-
Game Developers Choice Awards
- Best audio
-
SXSW Gaming Awards
- Excellence in SFX
By the end of March 2015, 2.1 million copies of the game had been sold. Sega was dissatisfied with these numbers, as many copies could often only be sold through discount campaigns. The return on investment for the three-year development was therefore low.
Web links
- Official website
- Alien: Isolation in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8CzioUHog
- ↑ ALIEN: ISOLATION system requirements revealed. PC Games, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Horror thriller "Alien: Isolation" breaks with gaming conventions. Heise Online, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ Sheer panic, frequent deaths. GameStar, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ^ Alien: Isolation's lost intro sequence. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
- ↑ Alien: Isolation - Nostromo crew with original speakers. GameStar, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ Virtual Reality: "Alien: Isolation" on the Oculus Rift. Heise Online, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ Meta-evaluation Alien: Isolation (Windows). In: Metacritic . Retrieved April 21, 2015 .
- ↑ Meta-rating Alien: Isolation (PlayStation 4). In: Metacritic . Retrieved April 21, 2015 .
- ↑ Meta-rating Alien: Isolation (Xbox One). In: Metacritic . Retrieved April 21, 2015 .
- ↑ Alien: Isolation - First test reports: Great atmosphere, inflated story and the overpowering Alien. 4Players, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ ALIEN: ISOLATION IN THE TEST - The unfair being from a strange world. GameStar, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ New rating for Alien: Isolation on GameStar , accessed October 17, 2014
- ↑ ALIEN: ISOLATION Test - Nobody hears you curse in space. PC Games, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ Horror, nothing but horror. Süddeutsche.de, accessed on October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ Alien: Isolation under test. GBase.ch, accessed on October 24, 2014 .
- ↑ Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor takes Game of the Year at GDC Awards 2015
- ↑ Dragon Age Inquisition Wins Another Game of the Year Award
- ↑ Sega laments "weak" game sales even as hard numbers rise