RPS:
"This is the first entry in a new column called The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites a developer to help him put their game up on blocks and take a wrench to hack out its best feature, just to see how it works. It’s about the sweat, grease and genius behind the little things that make games special."
If you've got an Alien itch you can't quite scratch until Alien: Rolumus releases, GameSpew has rounded up the best Alien games to tide you over.
Fans (myself included) are clamouring for a direct sequel to this fantastic game and hope for an Alien: Isolation 2. But will this great game ever get another instalment?
tbh it doesn’t need a sequel. Fantastic game but not something to make into a long running series.
Also included are Alien: Isolation, Dead Island Definitive Edition, Outlast 2, and more.
Good month imo. I'll play Gotham Knights and House of Ashes. I'm finishing up Disco E on Steam right now - that's a superb game.
I think another interesting mechanic that should be discussed, as it was used in this game in a really interesting way: ventilation shafts.
It affords you the ability to take shortcuts, but the second the alien notices you diving into what would seem like a "safe haven", it too will dive in right after you. I'll never forget seeing an alien, and toying with it's intelligence, trying to understand how it thinks and operates, and just when I think I've understood it, it does something no other game does: it knows how you play better then any other AI antagonist I've ever seen. It learns.
The ventilation area, for example, has several qualifiers. First, you must travel slow, make too much noise, and it will come in after you (and it's very fast), bang your weapon against the sides of the shaft, or against any wall or door, and it will come running. Another thing it will do is actually wait on the other side of the shaft that you are making an exit for. I actually got stuck in one section where the Alien actively pursued me by either climbing in the shaft near the exit, or running around an L shaped corridor to jump in behind me.
The fact that the thing was unpredictable, yet not "random" made the game that much more special to play.
If anyone has not played the game already. Do it now. If not for the outright tension/horror, then for the spectacular AI and atmosphere.