I blame Damon Lindelof. Or as I like to call him, brain cancer for scripts.
It's hard to even blame him, as he was brought in specifically to excise portions of the plot to "make it more mysterious"
they literally brought in a ringer to ruin the script, having seen his work on Lost.
Oh brilliant
+1
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
Rewatched Prometheus today.
With the deleted/alternate scenes in there, it seems like a better (though longer) movie. Some of them do explain some of the more bizarre character decisions, at least.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
+2
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Yeh. It's not the night n' day difference between Alien3 and it's Assembly Cut though. That's a whole different (better) movie when you watch the extended one.
Oh brilliant
+1
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Alright trophy n' cheevo hounds, I can confirm that for the One Shot trophy, complete the game without dying, you can Reload Current Save if the alien grabs you and you hit pause before he has a chance to kill you, otherwise if you see the checkpoint screen, Load Previous Save works fine too. I had to Load Previous after a couple of those late game insta-kills, and still got it.
Only thing left for me is a trophy for being killed 100 times by the alien. Gonna go farm it. Anyone wanna pool how many times I've died so far? I'm gonna say... 70.
Yeh. It's not the night n' day difference between Alien3 and it's Assembly Cut though. That's a whole different (better) movie when you watch the extended one.
Yeah, I'm hoping for an assembly-cut style edition of Prometheus sometime. Mine has the deleted/alternate scenes, but no option to watch the movie with them.
Also, I can't get over how much HARDER Crew Expendable is than the main game. It's AMAZING.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
+2
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Oh god, the section with Lambert guiding you through the vents
I was not as calm as Dallas was about it
I was yelling at her
Oh brilliant
+1
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
The main point I took from it is that maybe we should cut some of those early reviewers some slack. Maybe it was just The System, Man. Maybe they had to play a consistently tense experience in one big chunk, when most of us are talking about giving up on this game for a day or two, and then returning when our nerves are settled. Personally, I've spent the last two days paralysed by
the Alien nest in the reactor. There is almost no hiding, but I don't want to run around pissing off that thing, flamethrower blazing.
It's tense and nerve-shattering. I don't want to play that section again, but I do want to finish it. I can't imagine how much this game might frustrate me if I had to finish it to a deadline.
And kudos to the game: I've never felt such a push-pull before - like I could stay in this locker forever and fuck this station and everyone on it who keeps asking me to dive headfirst into this monster's arms. This game is an achievement, but it's a marathon experience to play, and like a marathon the runner needs to pace themselves.
I could see that making a difference. Even if you're not scared or that tense, playing that many concurrent instances on Hard where things (especially the alien) put you moments away from instant death could become grating over a 12-18 hour period. Especially since you'd probably spend 1-4 hours on medbay near the start.
I usually played after work for 2-4 hours usually up to needing to go to sleep, but that's still a break from the alien being a jerk trying to kill you. And it's easy to get frustrated at yourself of potential faults of the game when a death can lead to lots of attempts. Even so, died a lot less playing this over 17 hours than I do playing any of the Call of Duty or Modern Warfare games on Hard or Veteran with their hyper-frustrating, ultra-accurate enemies and (in more recent instances) QTEs. I found myself looking forward to playing it while I was at work, which hasn't been especially common with many games.
The main point I took from it is that maybe we should cut some of those early reviewers some slack. Maybe it was just The System, Man. Maybe they had to play a consistently tense experience in one big chunk, when most of us are talking about giving up on this game for a day or two, and then returning when our nerves are settled. Personally, I've spent the last two days paralysed by
the Alien nest in the reactor. There is almost no hiding, but I don't want to run around pissing off that thing, flamethrower blazing.
It's tense and nerve-shattering. I don't want to play that section again, but I do want to finish it. I can't imagine how much this game might frustrate me if I had to finish it to a deadline.
And kudos to the game: I've never felt such a push-pull before - like I could stay in this locker forever and fuck this station and everyone on it who keeps asking me to dive headfirst into this monster's arms. This game is an achievement, but it's a marathon experience to play, and like a marathon the runner needs to pace themselves.
I totally need a roomie for this locker I refuse to leave.
That xenomorph sure gets mad when you set him on fire.
I've noticed he pops up far more frequently than normal when you do that.
It's useful for an emergency "holy crap I'm gonna die and my last save was an hour ago" but if you can avoid it, you should.
The first time I used the flamethrower I ended up using it 4-5 times in about 3 minutes. On hard at least, setting him on fire gets rid of him for about 10 seconds and he comes back with a vengeance. If I get careless at the start of a mission now I just let myself die because it's far worse to piss him off when you still have so far to go.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
That xenomorph sure gets mad when you set him on fire.
I've noticed he pops up far more frequently than normal when you do that.
It's useful for an emergency "holy crap I'm gonna die and my last save was an hour ago" but if you can avoid it, you should.
Yeah I started hearing that vent-plop-snarl sound a ton after using the flamethrower, and then half the time seconds later I'd hear him scramble back up into the vent, all in some adjacent room. I like to think that in the same way I was jumping at little steam hisses and machine noises, the alien was popping out every time he heard a sound like "Oh I BET it's that bitch with the flamethrower, I've got her this time". And then just looking around disappointed.
So kinda like the principle in Ferris Buellers Day Off
FakefauxCóiste BodharDriving John McCain to meet some Iraqis who'd very much like to make his acquaintanceRegistered Userregular
I've heard that if the alien gets mad enough he'll just power through the flames and kill you anyway, but I've only noticed him doing that if you're at very close range, so close that you can barely even get a spurt of fire off before he's started killing you. Is there a threshold for how mad he has to be before he just starts ignoring the flamethrower? Or is that just a range/timing thing?
It's hard to tell exactly. It'll get to the point where it actually backs off if it even sees you pointing the flamethrower, and it'll try to edge in and smack you. It seems like if it's charging to do a hit and run attack no amount of flame can make it back off, but the attack isn't lethal unless you're at low health.
Oddly enough, sometimes if you don't even HIT it with the flames it'll do one of its' cautious attacks, knocking you down without killing you.
I got spotted leaving the big comms room on the way to the elevator. Backing away from the alien with the flamethrower raised but not firing while it followed, edging closer and closer as we went. Got inside, one tiny puff of flame to back it up just enough and hit the button quick enough for the doors to close just in time.
+5
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I swear dat motherfucker learns.
After the mid game reveal of there being multiple aliens, it kinda helps alleviate the complaint of "why is it everywhere I go?" because obviously it isn't, there's just an alien in each section.
But then that reveal also hurts the whole accrued knowledge aspect.
And in fairness, there does seem to be one main alien that pursues you in the latter half of the game - that summbitch that chases you through the rec room when the power fails. I hate that alien so much
Also also, I got my Platinum trophy last night. I had to farm about 20 deaths, so the alien killed me 80 times on my first run. :P
After the mid game reveal of there being multiple aliens, it kinda helps alleviate the complaint of "why is it everywhere I go?" because obviously it isn't, there's just an alien in each section.
But then that reveal also hurts the whole accrued knowledge aspect.
And in fairness, there does seem to be one main alien that pursues you in the latter half of the game - that summbitch that chases you through the rec room when the power fails. I hate that alien so much
Also also, I got my Platinum trophy last night. I had to farm about 20 deaths, so the alien killed me 80 times on my first run. :P
I think that it really was just one alien hunting during the first part of the game, with the other aliens still growing and defending the hive.
The same applies for the last third of the game - I think that just one came out after you, the others were working at setting up a new hive.
Playing on easy, the rec room encounter was one of the easiest in the game. I entered the rec room, it dropped out of the vents. I hit in the face with a Molatov from across the room. I hadn't used items much in the early part of the game, and so it might not have known what to make of getting hit by a Molatov at a distance. It ran away, and it didn't come back while I was in the Rec room. The next time I saw it was when I reached the door that makes you go back and turn on the generator for. When I came back, it was basically standing directly in my way up ahead, just outside the door to the room with the door I wanted. I threw a flare and a noisemaker down the hall and it scampered off after them.
Throughout the game, my stock of flamethrower fuel looked like a sine wave. But by the end I was most of the way full again. IMO, the end of the game was made a lot easier than the middle of the game.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
I was like, they should reset the alien AI halfway through because Waits throws the first one into the gas giant. But then I realized, nah, that alien was probably telling all his buddies what was up.
I think that it really was just one alien hunting during the first part of the game, with the other aliens still growing and defending the hive.
The same applies for the last third of the game - I think that just one came out after you, the others were working at setting up a new hive.
You know, I think from the Nest onward they could have gotten away with taking the flamethrower away from you and making the alien just barely killable with the shotgun/bolt gun, and then having a small amount of time pass before another xeno finds you. The flamethrower just ends up being too easy to use, but the bolt gun is tricky. I'm thinking that a headshot against the alien with the bolt gun could do it, and it's so hard to use against a moving target that most of the time you'd just opt not to bother with it.
Killing the xeno might have diminished the fear you get from it, but with the flamethrower I felt more like a lion tamer than someone being hunted. Using the guns would make you feel more like a lion hunter, where you know you kind of deserve it if the alien kills you because you ambushed it and missed
I think that it really was just one alien hunting during the first part of the game, with the other aliens still growing and defending the hive.
The same applies for the last third of the game - I think that just one came out after you, the others were working at setting up a new hive.
You know, I think from the Nest onward they could have gotten away with taking the flamethrower away from you and making the alien just barely killable with the shotgun/bolt gun, and then having a small amount of time pass before another xeno finds you. The flamethrower just ends up being too easy to use, but the bolt gun is tricky. I'm thinking that a headshot against the alien with the bolt gun could do it, and it's so hard to use against a moving target that most of the time you'd just opt not to bother with it.
Killing the xeno might have diminished the fear you get from it, but with the flamethrower I felt more like a lion tamer than someone being hunted. Using the guns would make you feel more like a lion hunter, where you know you kind of deserve it if the alien kills you because you ambushed it and missed
But then I couldn't flamethrower seegson security guys and have their screams distract the alien.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I think that it really was just one alien hunting during the first part of the game, with the other aliens still growing and defending the hive.
The same applies for the last third of the game - I think that just one came out after you, the others were working at setting up a new hive.
You know, I think from the Nest onward they could have gotten away with taking the flamethrower away from you and making the alien just barely killable with the shotgun/bolt gun, and then having a small amount of time pass before another xeno finds you. The flamethrower just ends up being too easy to use, but the bolt gun is tricky. I'm thinking that a headshot against the alien with the bolt gun could do it, and it's so hard to use against a moving target that most of the time you'd just opt not to bother with it.
Killing the xeno might have diminished the fear you get from it, but with the flamethrower I felt more like a lion tamer than someone being hunted. Using the guns would make you feel more like a lion hunter, where you know you kind of deserve it if the alien kills you because you ambushed it and missed
Hah, I actually tried this when farming my 100 deaths. It DOES slow it down more than any other weapon. Sadly, can't kill it.
Since you get both weapons AFTER finding out there's multiple aliens, I don't think it woulda hurt to have the bolt gun and maybe shottie kill it. There'd need to be severe consequences tho - like 2 aliens show up to investigate.
I think that it really was just one alien hunting during the first part of the game, with the other aliens still growing and defending the hive.
The same applies for the last third of the game - I think that just one came out after you, the others were working at setting up a new hive.
You know, I think from the Nest onward they could have gotten away with taking the flamethrower away from you and making the alien just barely killable with the shotgun/bolt gun, and then having a small amount of time pass before another xeno finds you. The flamethrower just ends up being too easy to use, but the bolt gun is tricky. I'm thinking that a headshot against the alien with the bolt gun could do it, and it's so hard to use against a moving target that most of the time you'd just opt not to bother with it.
Killing the xeno might have diminished the fear you get from it, but with the flamethrower I felt more like a lion tamer than someone being hunted. Using the guns would make you feel more like a lion hunter, where you know you kind of deserve it if the alien kills you because you ambushed it and missed
Hah, I actually tried this when farming my 100 deaths. It DOES slow it down more than any other weapon. Sadly, can't kill it.
Since you get both weapons AFTER finding out there's multiple aliens, I don't think it woulda hurt to have the bolt gun and maybe shottie kill it. There'd need to be severe consequences tho - like 2 aliens show up to investigate.
That would be the greatest pyrrhic victory ever! "I can't believe I actually killed the alien!" Th-thunk HISSS "Aw, here comes a replacement" Th-thunk HISSS "Oh dear God"
IMO, acid blood that can eat through the deck is the biggest deterent from killing the alien.
Yeah, that should be the big twist.
If you are super great, you CAN actually kill the alien. And then you immediately get sucked out into space and die because the acid eats through the hull.
This game is a *slog*. You move forward, die, learn something and then respawn, do it all over again until you make it to the next save box.
It's not fun.
I want it to be fun. I like the atmosphere. I like the Alien genre.
I've even dialed it down to easy just before this play through but it doesn't seem to do anything. This game is just exhausting. When I get through an area, it's mostly because I've learned that crossing threshold X triggers Y, which gives me enough time to do A then B then C, which should give me enough lead time to explore a bit farther than I did last time and maybe make it to the next threshold where I can start learning things again.
Just as an example of this, there's this part where you walk along a corridor and it explodes. Slowly, over the course of like 7 attempts I learned that right after the explosion the alien appears on the other side. You have enough time to walk back to a terminal which turns off the fire, peek out and wait for the alien to turn and walk away from you, clockwise around a corridor, which allows you to follow behind him to a room which triggers a cutscene. The alien walks by the room, you keep quiet, then you have a few seconds to calmly walk counterclockwise down the corridor to the next threshold which causes the alien to despawn.
Ugh. I feel like I'm not actually better at getting through the game, I'm just slamming my head into it until I memorize enough to make it to the next part. I'm not learning how to be an awesome alien evader, I'm just gaming the system through infinite respawns like Tom Cruise's character in Edge of Tomorrow.
e: I'm at the end of the medbay mission. I'm considering uninstalling the game actually.
Well, you're past the hardest part, but really it's not a trial-and-error sort of experience once you get the basic skill set down. You have enough tools at your disposal, and usually enough information, to adapt to a situation, which is necessary because the moments where the alien's behavior is scripted are comparatively rare.
Well, you're past the hardest part, but really it's not a trial-and-error sort of experience once you get the basic skill set down. You have enough tools at your disposal, and usually enough information, to adapt to a situation, which is necessary because the moments where the alien's behavior is scripted are comparatively rare.
QFT.
Speaking as someone terrified of the alien, I have managed to get up to mission... 8 or so (almost done with lockdown level) and haven't died yet.
Plenty of terrifying moments and I've had to turn off the game more than once due to mental exhaustion, but even with the occasion trigger point (which honestly are a little too noticeable for my liking) I have always felt that the alien is a tough but avoidable enemy - been using heaps of flares and noise makers and have so far eluded capture.
It's actually got damn poor eye sight and provided you don't try to over extend - pushing too fast has almost gotten me killed several times, which makes me suspicious that the game deliberately tries to pace you in certain sections - you should have a wealth of options in terms of hiding or distraction to avoid an survive any alien encounters.
This game is a *slog*. You move forward, die, learn something and then respawn, do it all over again until you make it to the next save box.
It's not fun.
I want it to be fun. I like the atmosphere. I like the Alien genre.
I've even dialed it down to easy just before this play through but it doesn't seem to do anything. This game is just exhausting. When I get through an area, it's mostly because I've learned that crossing threshold X triggers Y, which gives me enough time to do A then B then C, which should give me enough lead time to explore a bit farther than I did last time and maybe make it to the next threshold where I can start learning things again.
Just as an example of this, there's this part where you walk along a corridor and it explodes. Slowly, over the course of like 7 attempts I learned that right after the explosion the alien appears on the other side. You have enough time to walk back to a terminal which turns off the fire, peek out and wait for the alien to turn and walk away from you, clockwise around a corridor, which allows you to follow behind him to a room which triggers a cutscene. The alien walks by the room, you keep quiet, then you have a few seconds to calmly walk counterclockwise down the corridor to the next threshold which causes the alien to despawn.
Ugh. I feel like I'm not actually better at getting through the game, I'm just slamming my head into it until I memorize enough to make it to the next part. I'm not learning how to be an awesome alien evader, I'm just gaming the system through infinite respawns like Tom Cruise's character in Edge of Tomorrow.
e: I'm at the end of the medbay mission. I'm considering uninstalling the game actually.
If you aren't into it yet there's no sense in continuing. The game offers an amazing atmosphere and level of tension if you can get into it, but it seems like you've gone through a big enough slice to understand what the game is about and aren't enjoying it. The game constantly shifts things around and keeps things interesting throughout (and gets much easier past the medbay) but it's still basically a variation of what you've already played.
I mean, I easily consider this my game of the year and I still don't know if I'd call it "fun". More like "engaging". It's gonna be a divisive title and there's no shame in not playing if you don't like it.
Though if you bought the game and like Alien, I'd at least recommend trying to find some kind of mod or noclip mode to wander around the environment and look at the art. Some of it is staggering
Medical wore down my desire to keep playing quite a lot. I would advise you power through and see how you feel after the next sections, which are much better.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
So I played through the end of the Medical session after reading about a weapon you can use against the alien which means that him seeing you doesn't mean instant death. I put the name of the weapon in a spoiler just in case future readers don't want to know about it but I'd recommend clicking on it anyway.
This would be the molotov cocktail.
I wonder how I would've felt about Medical had I been using it. I also wonder if the game could've done a better job of sort of introducing your character's discovery of its effectiveness? On the one hand, I think that's kind of nitpicky of me, but on the other hand it seems that the Medical section makes even dedicated gamers and Alien franchise lovers like me want to stop playing so.
The explosion in the corridor clues you into it's dislike of fire. I think the description of the item mentions what it's good for. You'd also remember from the Alien movie, of course. And it does give you the blueprint for the item right there, though personally I didn't have the ingredients and it doesn't supply them nearby either which I thought was kinda bad design.
Medical is the point at which I actually learnt how to play the game, and realised that the games tutorial was bad and taught me very little about how to actually play it. More importantly I learnt that you could survive playing ring-a-rosie around a table in the middle of a corridor and it won't actually notice you, which suddenly makes hiding much more viable.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
This game is a *slog*. You move forward, die, learn something and then respawn, do it all over again until you make it to the next save box.
It's not fun.
I want it to be fun. I like the atmosphere. I like the Alien genre.
I've even dialed it down to easy just before this play through but it doesn't seem to do anything. This game is just exhausting. When I get through an area, it's mostly because I've learned that crossing threshold X triggers Y, which gives me enough time to do A then B then C, which should give me enough lead time to explore a bit farther than I did last time and maybe make it to the next threshold where I can start learning things again.
Just as an example of this, there's this part where you walk along a corridor and it explodes. Slowly, over the course of like 7 attempts I learned that right after the explosion the alien appears on the other side. You have enough time to walk back to a terminal which turns off the fire, peek out and wait for the alien to turn and walk away from you, clockwise around a corridor, which allows you to follow behind him to a room which triggers a cutscene. The alien walks by the room, you keep quiet, then you have a few seconds to calmly walk counterclockwise down the corridor to the next threshold which causes the alien to despawn.
Ugh. I feel like I'm not actually better at getting through the game, I'm just slamming my head into it until I memorize enough to make it to the next part. I'm not learning how to be an awesome alien evader, I'm just gaming the system through infinite respawns like Tom Cruise's character in Edge of Tomorrow.
e: I'm at the end of the medbay mission. I'm considering uninstalling the game actually.
While that explosion is scripted the alien's responding to the sound. I had it show up on both sides. I also didn't know you could shut the fire off. That may have made things easier.
As others have said, the game is a bit easier to handle once you're out of the medbay and the game gives you a few more tools to work with. But the trail-and-error-ish deaths in the medbay should teach you a fair amount about evading the alien so you're note quite so harassed.
One of the tooltips also recommends walking (not running, not crouchwalking) when you can. It will not only speed up your gameplay, it will be easier to keep the alien off your tracks. Resort to crouch walking when you have some cover and the alien is actually close by and capable of seeing you.
Other than scripted environmental effects (setting off an alarm, that pipe bursting ...the random room that explodes) and a small handful of scripted points, the alien's behavior is not actually dictated by triggers. It responds to triggers (like the loud noises those environmental factors cause), but I'm not really sure what "Do A then B then C" aspect you're talking about. There are things you have to do to progress, but the alien's actions while you're doing them (other than a few "you escaped, now you don't have to deal with the alien for a bit unless you make noise").
There are a few "one-way" sections (and that part in the medbay is probably the most annoying one) where the game limits your options by significantly limiting where you can go. Those tended to be the most frustrating and annoying sections for me.
Chinchilla Dave is usually immune to video game horror because he's such a goofball
But the alien gets him goooood once he gets into medical
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Chinchilla Dave is usually immune to video game horror because he's such a goofball
But the alien gets him goooood once he gets into medical
How can something be so funny and so terrifying at the same time? Laughed AND jumped out of my chair.
ICUb on
Bnet tag: Nermals#11601
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
With that little pipe explosion in medical, I noticed that Amanda has two different "FUCK!" lines recorded, each with a different level of intensity depending on how close you are to it when it blows.
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It's hard to even blame him, as he was brought in specifically to excise portions of the plot to "make it more mysterious"
they literally brought in a ringer to ruin the script, having seen his work on Lost.
With the deleted/alternate scenes in there, it seems like a better (though longer) movie. Some of them do explain some of the more bizarre character decisions, at least.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Only thing left for me is a trophy for being killed 100 times by the alien. Gonna go farm it. Anyone wanna pool how many times I've died so far? I'm gonna say... 70.
Also, I can't get over how much HARDER Crew Expendable is than the main game. It's AMAZING.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
I was not as calm as Dallas was about it
I was yelling at her
WHERE'S MY FLASHLIGHT I WAS RUNNING AROUND IN THE VENTS WITHOUT A FLASHLIGHT
Then I dropped a flare and was greeted to a wonderfully lit set of biomechanical jaws in my FACE.
Turned off the PS3 at that point. TOO MUCH.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
And it's a neat touch that the xbone recrods a clip automatically of your first death from an enemy type.
bnet: moss*1454
The main point I took from it is that maybe we should cut some of those early reviewers some slack. Maybe it was just The System, Man. Maybe they had to play a consistently tense experience in one big chunk, when most of us are talking about giving up on this game for a day or two, and then returning when our nerves are settled. Personally, I've spent the last two days paralysed by
It's tense and nerve-shattering. I don't want to play that section again, but I do want to finish it. I can't imagine how much this game might frustrate me if I had to finish it to a deadline.
And kudos to the game: I've never felt such a push-pull before - like I could stay in this locker forever and fuck this station and everyone on it who keeps asking me to dive headfirst into this monster's arms. This game is an achievement, but it's a marathon experience to play, and like a marathon the runner needs to pace themselves.
hAmmONd IsnT A mAin TAnk
I usually played after work for 2-4 hours usually up to needing to go to sleep, but that's still a break from the alien being a jerk trying to kill you. And it's easy to get frustrated at yourself of potential faults of the game when a death can lead to lots of attempts. Even so, died a lot less playing this over 17 hours than I do playing any of the Call of Duty or Modern Warfare games on Hard or Veteran with their hyper-frustrating, ultra-accurate enemies and (in more recent instances) QTEs. I found myself looking forward to playing it while I was at work, which hasn't been especially common with many games.
I've noticed he pops up far more frequently than normal when you do that.
It's useful for an emergency "holy crap I'm gonna die and my last save was an hour ago" but if you can avoid it, you should.
I totally need a roomie for this locker I refuse to leave.
Bnet tag: Nermals#11601
The first time I used the flamethrower I ended up using it 4-5 times in about 3 minutes. On hard at least, setting him on fire gets rid of him for about 10 seconds and he comes back with a vengeance. If I get careless at the start of a mission now I just let myself die because it's far worse to piss him off when you still have so far to go.
Yeah I started hearing that vent-plop-snarl sound a ton after using the flamethrower, and then half the time seconds later I'd hear him scramble back up into the vent, all in some adjacent room. I like to think that in the same way I was jumping at little steam hisses and machine noises, the alien was popping out every time he heard a sound like "Oh I BET it's that bitch with the flamethrower, I've got her this time". And then just looking around disappointed.
So kinda like the principle in Ferris Buellers Day Off
Portfolio
Oddly enough, sometimes if you don't even HIT it with the flames it'll do one of its' cautious attacks, knocking you down without killing you.
Portfolio
But then that reveal also hurts the whole accrued knowledge aspect.
And in fairness, there does seem to be one main alien that pursues you in the latter half of the game - that summbitch that chases you through the rec room when the power fails. I hate that alien so much
Also also, I got my Platinum trophy last night. I had to farm about 20 deaths, so the alien killed me 80 times on my first run. :P
The same applies for the last third of the game - I think that just one came out after you, the others were working at setting up a new hive.
Playing on easy, the rec room encounter was one of the easiest in the game. I entered the rec room, it dropped out of the vents. I hit in the face with a Molatov from across the room. I hadn't used items much in the early part of the game, and so it might not have known what to make of getting hit by a Molatov at a distance. It ran away, and it didn't come back while I was in the Rec room. The next time I saw it was when I reached the door that makes you go back and turn on the generator for. When I came back, it was basically standing directly in my way up ahead, just outside the door to the room with the door I wanted. I threw a flare and a noisemaker down the hall and it scampered off after them.
Throughout the game, my stock of flamethrower fuel looked like a sine wave. But by the end I was most of the way full again. IMO, the end of the game was made a lot easier than the middle of the game.
Killing the xeno might have diminished the fear you get from it, but with the flamethrower I felt more like a lion tamer than someone being hunted. Using the guns would make you feel more like a lion hunter, where you know you kind of deserve it if the alien kills you because you ambushed it and missed
Portfolio
Hah, I actually tried this when farming my 100 deaths. It DOES slow it down more than any other weapon. Sadly, can't kill it.
IMO, acid blood that can eat through the deck is the biggest deterent from killing the alien.
Portfolio
Yeah, that should be the big twist.
If you are super great, you CAN actually kill the alien. And then you immediately get sucked out into space and die because the acid eats through the hull.
It's not fun.
I want it to be fun. I like the atmosphere. I like the Alien genre.
I've even dialed it down to easy just before this play through but it doesn't seem to do anything. This game is just exhausting. When I get through an area, it's mostly because I've learned that crossing threshold X triggers Y, which gives me enough time to do A then B then C, which should give me enough lead time to explore a bit farther than I did last time and maybe make it to the next threshold where I can start learning things again.
Just as an example of this, there's this part where you walk along a corridor and it explodes. Slowly, over the course of like 7 attempts I learned that right after the explosion the alien appears on the other side. You have enough time to walk back to a terminal which turns off the fire, peek out and wait for the alien to turn and walk away from you, clockwise around a corridor, which allows you to follow behind him to a room which triggers a cutscene. The alien walks by the room, you keep quiet, then you have a few seconds to calmly walk counterclockwise down the corridor to the next threshold which causes the alien to despawn.
Ugh. I feel like I'm not actually better at getting through the game, I'm just slamming my head into it until I memorize enough to make it to the next part. I'm not learning how to be an awesome alien evader, I'm just gaming the system through infinite respawns like Tom Cruise's character in Edge of Tomorrow.
e: I'm at the end of the medbay mission. I'm considering uninstalling the game actually.
QFT.
Speaking as someone terrified of the alien, I have managed to get up to mission... 8 or so (almost done with lockdown level) and haven't died yet.
Plenty of terrifying moments and I've had to turn off the game more than once due to mental exhaustion, but even with the occasion trigger point (which honestly are a little too noticeable for my liking) I have always felt that the alien is a tough but avoidable enemy - been using heaps of flares and noise makers and have so far eluded capture.
It's actually got damn poor eye sight and provided you don't try to over extend - pushing too fast has almost gotten me killed several times, which makes me suspicious that the game deliberately tries to pace you in certain sections - you should have a wealth of options in terms of hiding or distraction to avoid an survive any alien encounters.
If you aren't into it yet there's no sense in continuing. The game offers an amazing atmosphere and level of tension if you can get into it, but it seems like you've gone through a big enough slice to understand what the game is about and aren't enjoying it. The game constantly shifts things around and keeps things interesting throughout (and gets much easier past the medbay) but it's still basically a variation of what you've already played.
I mean, I easily consider this my game of the year and I still don't know if I'd call it "fun". More like "engaging". It's gonna be a divisive title and there's no shame in not playing if you don't like it.
Though if you bought the game and like Alien, I'd at least recommend trying to find some kind of mod or noclip mode to wander around the environment and look at the art. Some of it is staggering
Portfolio
I wonder how I would've felt about Medical had I been using it. I also wonder if the game could've done a better job of sort of introducing your character's discovery of its effectiveness? On the one hand, I think that's kind of nitpicky of me, but on the other hand it seems that the Medical section makes even dedicated gamers and Alien franchise lovers like me want to stop playing so.
Medical is the point at which I actually learnt how to play the game, and realised that the games tutorial was bad and taught me very little about how to actually play it. More importantly I learnt that you could survive playing ring-a-rosie around a table in the middle of a corridor and it won't actually notice you, which suddenly makes hiding much more viable.
While that explosion is scripted the alien's responding to the sound. I had it show up on both sides. I also didn't know you could shut the fire off. That may have made things easier.
As others have said, the game is a bit easier to handle once you're out of the medbay and the game gives you a few more tools to work with. But the trail-and-error-ish deaths in the medbay should teach you a fair amount about evading the alien so you're note quite so harassed.
One of the tooltips also recommends walking (not running, not crouchwalking) when you can. It will not only speed up your gameplay, it will be easier to keep the alien off your tracks. Resort to crouch walking when you have some cover and the alien is actually close by and capable of seeing you.
Other than scripted environmental effects (setting off an alarm, that pipe bursting ...the random room that explodes) and a small handful of scripted points, the alien's behavior is not actually dictated by triggers. It responds to triggers (like the loud noises those environmental factors cause), but I'm not really sure what "Do A then B then C" aspect you're talking about. There are things you have to do to progress, but the alien's actions while you're doing them (other than a few "you escaped, now you don't have to deal with the alien for a bit unless you make noise").
There are a few "one-way" sections (and that part in the medbay is probably the most annoying one) where the game limits your options by significantly limiting where you can go. Those tended to be the most frustrating and annoying sections for me.
Chinchilla Dave is usually immune to video game horror because he's such a goofball
But the alien gets him goooood once he gets into medical
How can something be so funny and so terrifying at the same time? Laughed AND jumped out of my chair.
Bnet tag: Nermals#11601