Alien Isolation (PS4, XBO, PC, Rift) - Original cast is back

Cal wrote:

jamcc wrote:Just after I submitted my post above, lavishing praise on this game, I found a pretty terrible and potentially game-breaking bug.

I'm at the bit where you have to turn off a generator to distract a group of people armed with pistols, and then sneak around them. I was playing while talking to my housemate so I messed it up a few times and got caught. Never mind, as there's a save point right before the room with the generator bit, except that.... when I went to try a third or fourth time they knew I was there before I'd even walked in. To avoid being shot, I hid under a trailer which only made things worse as it resulted in them marching around shouting "there's someone there" and the like.

Every time I retry now they're facing me even as I'm just walking in. It's really pretty awful and has kinda ruined the experience. Even when I reverted to the save before the last one the outcome is the same.

I tried Googling 'generator bug' and the like but just found other bugs. Did any of you guys get this?

TBH, that encounter - which is really the first serious encounter a new player comes upon in the game - is a poor design choice by the devs, imo (and in the opinion of quite a few others, if a recent discussion the Steam forum is anything to go by). Not only are you suddenly in a hostile situation with several humans, but you suddenly have the Alien itself to deal with, too. It's all very stressful in what had been up to that point quite a slow build-up. It's not immediately evident what you should do and blind panic can very quickly set in.

I dunno, perhaps that's the whole point, but it felt like a bit of an unnecessary speed bump to me, on the devs part. It kinda sets the tone for other situations further down the line (a lot of them, too), so if that kind of raw stress isn't for you, be warned of what is still to come. I struggled forever - the Medical section is another absolute bother and I gave up several times just trying to get through. It's a beautiful-looking game - a perfect distillation of what makes Alien 'Alien', but it can be a nerve-shredder and induce off-the-chart levels of anxiety and stress.