Greetings from Iran! It took me three days to complete the campaign. I found the graphics to be head-and-shoulders above other games. The texture is very high-quality and more realistic than Watch Dogs', though round objects such as buttons are not perfectly rounded. The expression on characters' faces during cut scenes are vacant and unnatural, despite the high-quality texture that even shows sweat running down their faces. The scenery outside the spaceship is remarkable, though you won't get to see it much; when you do, look around and enjoy the "blinding" sun nearby. It's a wonderful effect!
The beginning levels were very slow and I was quickly bored of the repetitive nature of the game, of walking through the same claustrophobic sterile corridors, constantly running into locked doors requiring unlocking tools nowhere to be found. 1/3rd into the game I found a jack and much later two types of torches (ION and Plasma torches) to open those locked doors. This means you have to do quite a lot of backtracking; go to one end of the spaceship and return through the same corridors back to where you were to do something else.
Basically the game consists of performing a set of repetitive tasks such as opening locked doors, finding key-cards and pass-codes on computer terminals to get the doors opened, restoring power to generators and hacking, "again" to open locked doors! Boring, isn't it? I couldn't be more wrong, because after the incredibly slow built-up, there comes the alien; agile, frightening, unstoppable and truly well-designed I might add. Every time you see it adrenaline is bound to rush through your veins! Surprisingly, its movements are unscripted and totally unpredictable, so every time you die you will have to try out new tactics to get past the alien, as it will be roaming some other spot. You have to sneak around and use a motion detector "at all times" so that you don't accidentally run into the creature. It can even find you by the sound of your breathing while you're hiding in a closet! The downside is, the motion detector never tells you if the alien is a story above or below you, which makes the game all the more exciting.
The alien could kill you anytime and anywhere; whether you are in the middle of starting up a generator, hacking a door, reading a journal on a computer terminal, or "saving your progress"! Once you get to a distant phone booth to save your progress, the alien might cut you open while you are saving the game, which is really frustrating. The worst thing is, saving spots are very distant from one another and you might find yourself dead after performing loads of tasks and evading the alien before you find the next saving spot or you might get killed right in the middle of saving your progress! Another frustrating thing is the map. It never tells you if the location you are to reach is below or above you. You will die a lot trying to find out just where the game wants you to go, and the map is quite confusing for another reason; use the map and move around and see if you don't get lost!
During the game, you will collect maps, blueprints and seemingly useless stuff enabling you to build useful things, which will be vital to your progress. Of all the things I built, I could do without most of them, but some are essential. Make sure you have at least 20 revolver bullets, 6 med kits and 3 pipe bombs with you at all times. You will not be able to progress during later levels without at least 2 pipe bombs to get rid of a horde of relentless androids. Bullets are scant and won't do any good when encountering four androids at once, so you will have to throw two pipe bombs to pick off the four androids. Don't waste your valuable pipe bombs on individual androids. Instead, shoot them twice in the head with your revolver and hit them twice with your wrench. Oh and never run or pick up fights because that will lead the alien straight to your location. The flamethrower will make it go away for a few seconds only to come back to you more forcibly. It's truly the most invincible foe ever seen in a video game.
To deal with the alien, you will get a flamethrower 2/3rd into the game, but that doesn't mean that you don't need to sneak around anymore, because just like all other types of ammunition, flamethrower bullets are extremely rare and you will need them A LOT, especially during later levels. Always try and save as many bullets as you can. NEVER have less than 15 revolver bullets or 300 flamethrower bullets, because if you run out of bullets you will not be able to progress any further and there's no going back, as when you save the game your previous save games are overwritten. If you're lucky, every one hour, you will find a single revolver bullet and virtually no flamethrower bullets; that said ammunition in Alien Isolation is extremely rare and hard to come by.
All in all, the game is very intense and after finishing it you will feel that you have accomplished something big. It's a challenging and frightening experience. I strongly recommend this title to horror movie fans. Just ignore IGN and Gamespot and immerse yourself in the atmospheric universe of Alien Isolation.
