ColinHeico

The game has a lot going for it visually, and does a very competent job of setting tension through details. However I was only able to get 4 or 5 chapters in before I was annoyed into quitting. The game had devolved into one long stealth mission. Which can be good when done right, I loved the Thief and Hitman franchises and the accomplishment of working through your surroundings to accomplish your goals. But in Alien there really wasn't much to DO other than creep from one side of the room to the other to go to the next macguffin. By the time I quit, the opponents were cyborgs and the namesake Alien. Cyborgs are slow and slow-witted, more an annoyance than a proper enemy. I spent a lot of time sneaking past them, but realized it's just more effective to run past them and get to your objective. They have very uneven levels of intelligence, sometimes you can duck under an open table and they can't find you sitting right in front of them, sometimes you can hide inside of a closet after losing them around several turns and they just b-line straight to your closet, open it up then beat you. Just... so annoying and dumb. So maybe I'll try and take one out? Oh, I unloaded all six shots of this revolver into your face and it didn't matter? That's great. Why do they even give you the pretence of holding a weapon? Then there's the Alien. Once he joins in, the never-ending stealth mission now has frequent random losses where he appears from nothing and stabs you for instant death. So you end up creeping along very slowly to make less noise which helps a small amount, except now you're moving so slowly he'll just wander over you and kill you because apparently he wants to kill you more than everyone else combined. So it's a slower, more boring death that takes way more time to get to. Despite the hugeness of the station there's never a moment where this #*(@ is more than a room or two away from you. Why is he camping my character specifically? How is he able to always be around me even if he can't find me while sitting under a desk the same room? Do I have some sort of Ripley connection to the monster that makes him so much more interested in me than everyone else? What was I supposed to know to avoid these obnoxious instant lose surprises? Why do all doors open automatically if you're on their half of the room, announcing to the Alien that here you are, please kill me now? How is any of this avoided? How long does it take for him to leave a room when you're hiding in a locker? 5 minutes? 10? He just endlessly keeps pacing back and forth in front of you, prolonging this failed attempt.... ugh. So between dumb, slow and pointless or dumb, fast, magnetically attracted to your location and instantly game ending, the enemies are not satisfying to work against. Tension gives way to frustration which gives way to annoyance. Plus the game ONLY saves when you specifically go to a save terminal. You will have all your progress rewound to the previous zone if they don't give you a save point in a sensible location before your next alien one shot death. If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be "annoying". Lots of potential, lots of atmosphere, but the game just isn't fun or satisfying to play.

Simply the most frightening game I've ever played. It presents a shockingly well polished game for a budget title price, and has become my favorite surprise hit of 2013. Outlast masters both the art of pop out scares and a slow burn tense atmosphere, made much more compelling by music that reacts to the situation and dozens of small touches like seeing your hands as you clutch to the edge of a corridor to peek around the next hallway or the heavy ragged breathing of the player's character exerted from fleeing for his life but desperately trying to keep quiet in his hiding place to escape the horrors chasing him. Also effective in building the tension is that the player's only way to see in the dark is through the night vision of the camera... which gives the world a very limited distance green/black view and also will quickly drain the batteries. You force yourself to creep through darkness and use up every bit of electricity from each set of batteries even though your vision is failing just to save those precious batteries for when you can't make it without them. As the song by Radiohead goes "You do it to yourself, you do, and that's what really hurts (or in this case, scares!)" It's not a long game, the designers seem to know better than to wear out their welcome and at 8 hours of play time I feel I've more than gotten my money's worth for a lifetime memorable experience. Thankfully I'm old and moved out because I'd owe my mother's "swear jar" a sock full of nickles for the outbursts I've had while fleeing in this game. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good scary story.

I normally love the top down shooter genre, and this game shows a lot of promise. But on the whole the experience is very lacking. The game tells you levels are procedurally generated, but the variation they do have is far more limited than you would think. Each level has the same rooms, just arranged into different places with some awkward hallways stringing them together. Other reviewers have commented that it's hard, but most any game can be made just as hard by removing any save functions. The overall effect of removing save points and deleting saves when you die was more tedious and frustrating that I have to slog through the same areas again. And again. And again. If that's your idea of fun I can only imagine what kind of abusive household you must have grown up in. Another frustration, the knife (which you will have to use a ridiculous amount for a top down "shooter") does not automatically keep attacking. I had to download an auto-clicker just to spam left clicks for me because you will wear out your index finger and mouse in short order otherwise. If that sounds too technical for you or if you plan on playing on a console without a turbo button controller you should not buy this game. The painfully low resolution makes it hard to even know what you're looking at, which in later levels when enemies start carrying guns will regularly prove fatal. The flavor text you pick up from terminals is probably my favorite part, but if I wanted to indulge my bookish side I'd be better served by ordering a book. At $15 it's hard to say it's not worth the price, but it certainly isn't worth the time.