Unpredictable Alien Mod Review for Alien Isolation

Variety is the Spice of Life

It is a common saying that "variety is the spice of life", this too goes with the sense of life being unpredictable and unbound by the shackles we attempt to place on aspects of our lives. So to can these sense of random joy be placed on the video games that we play and, in turn, the relative enjoyment that we gain from them!

If every game we were to play was predictable to the point of being formulaic then it wouldn't encourage us to carry on playing, certainly in a general sense of wanting to discover something new. If we were to win every match, we would tire. If we were to know every strategy, we would tire. If we were to discover every secret, we would tire.

Not knowing what awaits you is where we find fulfillment, joy and enlightenment within the video games that we love.

Pure Suspense

In our original review and breakdown of Alien: Isolation, we regarded it, simply, as one of the greatest survival horror games ever made, due to a variety of factors that include it's superior presentation and attention to detail, it's fantastic environments and it's truly chilling sense of being pursued and an uncanny feeling of being the prey amongst an all too aware predator.

In our review however, we didn't touch upon the one glaring flaw with Alien: Isolation. A flaw that isn't at all evident at first, yet it becomes almost impossible not to notice towards the end of the game. The flaw we are speaking of in question is the flaw with the AI of the Alien itself. I know, I know, Alien: Isolation has always been regarded as a game with fantastic AI and, yes, I also hear you crying out that we, ourselves, spoke of the superior AI within our original review. The AI is indeed fantastic, yet it does carry with it an innate problem. 

The problem in question is that of the "rubber band effect" present within the AI itself. In simplified terms, the Alien is programmed to be somewhat tethered to you and is never too far away in the grand scheme of things. Where this works as a plus point at the start of the game is in the fact that you always feel that the Alien is present and the sense of overhanging dread is palpable. Where it begins to fail is in the later game, when, simply put, you have become acclimatised to the Alien being nearby. Hearing it clanging through the vents, prowling the halls and hissing behind each corner becomes commonplace and so, by way of conditioning, you begin to almost stop fearing the alien entirely, stripping the game of it's greatest strength.

Here enters the Unpredictable Alien Mod developed by somethingelse666 which works wonders in it's simplicity. The mod, in layman's terms, simply tweaks the AI of the alien to allow for wider ranges in stalking and patrolling, as well as taking breaks and lying in wait. This incredibly simple premise to a mod untethers the alien from your presence and creates a sense of pure suspense and pure dread by proxy. 

The alien could quite literally be anywhere, making the encounters more sporadic, more meaningful and twice as terrifying! This, in our humble opinion, is how the game was meant to be played. The alien itself truly feels alive and not simply a vessel attached to you and you alone. We cannot recommend this way of playing Alien: Isolation enough, taking the game from one of the greatest survival horror games of all time, to perhaps the greatest survival horror game of all time.

Links

Here is a direct link to the Mod in question for you to download and install:  https://www.moddb.com/mods/unpredictable-alien-mod

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Tom - Cash Grab