Wow! I saw a cg trailer for Alien: Isolation and it looked great. It was meant to convey the idea that, as Amanda Ripley (daughter of Ellen Ripley), you have to run around trying to scrounge, hack, and sneak your way through an eerie space station, all the while trying to stay two steps ahead of the Alien. While the trailer looked great, and the game has received tons of pre-release accolades, there is something else that snapped my attention to this title....due out October 7th: "Crew Expendable": an add on campaign that allows you to play as Ripley, Parker, or Dallas aboard the USCSS Nostromo. I guess it might be a way to allow you to alter history, and see if you can help the crew of the Nostromo survive its vicious passenger. While the likenesses of each cg character are astonishing....the real kicker is that they actually managed to get 5 of the 7 original actors to reprise their roles for the add on campaign. Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, and Harry Dean Stanton have returned to the Nostromo as the voices of Ripley, Dallas, Parker, Lambert, and Brett. What little I've seen of the set pieces and sets look stunning! If the game play is everything that folks have been reported as saying at PAX14, then this could finally be the ALIEN interactive experience we've been waiting for. Alien: Isolation launches October 7, 2014 on PS4, PS3, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. In (Cyber)Space, No One Can Hear You Scream.
Given how bad the last Aliens game was I'm keeping my expectations as measured as possible. It isn't by the same devs, but I'll still be waiting until I read a number of post-release reviews before I decide to buy.
How quickly one forgets the last Aliens game that Sega published. The developer for this game is The Creative Assembly. They've only worked on the Total War games since 2001 with the exception of a Sonic compilation for the DS and a poorly reviewed RTS game Stormrise. They have no experience with FPS games, so I wouldn't expect their first one to be good.
This game is not an FPS game though. While it is in first person, it is not a shooter.. It is supposed to be first person survival horror. So expect it to not have the pace of your average twitch game. Yes, I remember how Gearbox took Sega's money and scrood the pooch by outsourcing Colonial Marines to an inferior company, but I still found the game pretty fun, even if it did fall short of its mark. The poochscroo was Gearbox Software's fault, for taking Sega's money, meant for the production of A:CM, and instead repurposed for Borderlands 2, while outsourcing A:CM to an inferior developer. Randy Pitchford's cheerleading did nothing to help the ire the game caught when it finally got into consumers' hands. However, it did seem to sell quite a bit. Hopefully this company doing Isolation will do ALIEN proud. As long as games are enjoyable, that's all that matters.
Not touching it until the (credible) reviews are in, for two reasons: - 1) Bullshit pre-order DLC is bullshit 2) Aliens: Colonial Marines. I don't care how good pre-release footage looks or how much so-called "professional" game journalists squee with delight about a 30 second gameplay demo they saw while inebriated at some gaming press conference, experience has taught me to steer clear of over-hyped releases. Quadruply so for licensed titles.
Preach it, Rev. Believe me, I'm sketchy about pre-orders too....to the point that I swore I'd never get another pre-order again after ACM. The only pre-order I had around that time was "The Last of Us" and it was worth every penny. I'd love to get the Nostromo Edition of A:I, but, the content will be out on their respective services soon enough.
Honestly I tend to wait for games to get down to steam sale prices before I bother and I have no shortage of unplayed games on my steam account to keep me entertained in the meantime. The only games I've bought new in recent years have been the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games because....well....everyone has a weakness. So yeah, I will almost certainly pre-order DAI.
I hear ya' there, Rev. My weakness may well be Alien: Isolation...should I decide to break my "no more pre-order" rule again. For those who might be interested: http://alienisolation.com
As I said, in this case I really wouldn't risk it. It's one thing to buy a new instalment in an established and successful series on release day, it's quite another to pre-order a game that's effectively new IP (license notwithstanding.) Now while Creative Assembly have a reasonably good reputation, keep in mind that so did Gearbox. Also, CA are best known for making strategy RTS games and as far as I know, they've never even attempted suspense or survival horror before.
It does look pretty hot though. I get the reservations but if the gameplay is decent this looks like a real winner. Everything seems to suggest that the developers "get it" regarding Alien.
^That was *exactly* the thinking after the 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' footage was released. As the saying goes "fool me once...."
Yeah....that skepticism is what keeps me in check too...but, I am also reminded that this company is different from Gearbox and its cheerleader, Randy Pitchford. The thing to remember is that that was entirely Gearbox's fault. They were supposed to develop the game. Not TimeGate. Sega invested in good faith with Gearbox, and Gearbox outsourced to TimeGate, and GB took the money Sega gave them for A:CM and used it on Borderlands 2....which is why I won't be getting anymore Borderlands games. Whereas GB scrood the pooch by mishandling everything about A:CM, it seems to me that at least this game (Alien: Isolation) is being carried through to final release by the original developers. So, at least if the game bombs, it can likely be said that the devs gave it a good, honest effort, unlike Gearbox with A:CM.
Like I said though, the developers of this game don't appear to have *any* experience in this genre or anything like the gameplay mechanics involved. They're mostly a strategy game company and this is clearly way outside their usual comfort zone. With that in mind I really wouldn't risk a pre-order on this and just wait for the reviews. It's not naysaying, it's just prudence and realism based on experience. I *hope* the game is great, but I'm not about to roll the dice on it, nor in good conscience will I encourage someone to do so. Honestly I'm increasingly of the opinion that gamers should basically boycott *all* pre-orders as a matter of course, as it seems to be encouraging some very anti-consumer practices in a lot of companies. Just ask yourself, of what value is a pre-order to the consumer in an age of digital distribution?
^Those have little to do with pre-orders specifically. Special-uber-limited-collector's-editions with all the over priced goodies are a tangential issue at most. What I'm talking about is digital pre-orders, which make no sense for a consumer. Any perceived value in little in-game extras are just that. Perceived. For the most part it's content that would be present in full game, but has be artificially put behind a paywall by the devs to create the illusion of added worth.
Not to mention, the publisher, Sega, is not the company of quality that they were back in the 80's and 90's. Sometimes they release some good games, but I take a "guilty until proven innocent" approach with their games these days. And this game is a licensed game, and those are almost never good. Has there been a single good Aliens game ever? Alien vs. Predator is probably the best, and even that wasn't great. Anyway, sorry to be all negative here. Of course, the game could be good. Retro Studios was a horribly dysfunctional company and their first game ever was the sublime Metroid Prime.
If I decide to pre-order this game, I might do it by trading in some games that I hardly ever play anymore. That way, I won't be losing any money if I feel that somehow it wasn't worth it. But again....that's if I decide to.
But why pre-order at all? Are you afraid it'll go out of stock, because I can pretty much guarantee that won't happen. Will waiting an extra day to check the reviews really be that difficult?
Wait, are you planning to put some money down when you pre-order? Like at a Gamestop? Because that's stupid, you're giving the retailer an interest-free loan. Why do it? You gain nothing from such a transaction.