History YMMV / AlienIsolation

* CultClassic: Although Alien Isolation's sales was underwhelming, the game is still held up as one of the best horror game to have ever been released and ''the'' best ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' game to be made. Even nearly a decade later, the graphics, set design and atmosphere puts most triple A video games released in the 2020s to shame. Fans praised the game for offering a good mixture of the survival-horror genre and the 'walking simulator' horror genre, which prevents the game from becoming dull, alongside the absolutely brilliant AI from the Xenomorph. To this day, people still made walkthroughs, gameplay analysis and video essays on how the Xeno's AI works despite being released all the way back in 2014. For a single-player horror game that released only a few [=DLCs=], ''this is impressive''.

* CultClassic: Although Alien Isolation's sales was underwhelming, the game is still held up as one of the best horror game to have ever been released and ''the'' best ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' game to be made. Even nearly a decade later, the graphics, set design and atmosphere puts most triple A video games released in the 2020s to shame. Fans praised the game for offering a good mixture of the survival-horror genre and the 'walking simulator' horror genre, which prevents the game from becoming dull, alongside the absolutely brilliant AI from the Xenomorph. To this day, people still made walkthroughs and gameplay analysis despite being released all the way back in 2014. For a single-player horror game that released only a few [=DLCs=], ''this is impressive''.

* CultClassic: Although Alien Isolation's sales was underwhelming, the game is still held up as one of the best horror game to have ever been released and ''the'' best alien game to be made. Even nearly a decade later, the graphics, set design and atmosphere puts most triple A video games released in the 2020s to shame. Fans praised the game for offering a good mixture of the survival-horror genre and the 'walking simulator' horror genre, which prevents the game from becoming dull, alongside the absolutely brilliant AI from the Xenomorph. To this day, people still made walkthroughs and gameplay analysis despite being released all the way back in 2014. For a single-player horror game that released only a few [=DLCs=], ''this is impressive''.

** [[spoiler:Marlow's playable flashback to the ''Anesidora'' crew's discovery of the derelict ship on LV-426]] is nothing but [[ContinuityCavalcade exploration and references to the first film]], and is generally a welcome break from the tense, cat-and-mouse stealth action of the rest of the game.

* ScrappyMechanic: The lack of a frequent autosave feature. While the game does autosave, they're usually only after completing either chapters, major events, or during moments where there are absolutely no ways to manually save. Instead players have to rely on manual saves, which takes several seconds to complete and leaves you at the mercy of nearby enemies. This was done to add [[JustifiedSavePoint realism]] and tension to the game, but many players found this annoying as there are often [[CheckpointStarvation long stretches of time between each save point]]. This is ''especially'' bad during the more difficult levels of the game.

* GeniusBonus: Apollo Korzeniowski was the father of "Joe" Conrad, author of ''Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard''.

* BeamMeUp,Scotty: At no point in the game is the page quote ever spoke by Samuels. His real line is "Maybe this will provide some closure for you", not "we get to shut the book Ripley"

* Beam Me Up, Scotty: At no point in the game is the page quote ever spoke by Samuels. His real line is "Maybe this will provide some closure for you", not "we get to shut the book Ripley"

* Beam Me Up Scotty: At no point in the game is the page quote ever spoke by Samuels. His real line is "Maybe this will provide some closure for you", not "we get to shut the book Ripley"

* Beam Me Up Scotty:
[[spoiler]] At no point in the game is the page quote ever spoke by Samuels. His real line is "maybe this will provide some closure for you", not "we get to shut the book Ripley"

* Beam Me Up Scotty: At no point in the game is the page quote ever spoke by Samuels. His real line is "maybe this will provide some closure for you", not "we get to shut the book Ripley"

* EightPointEight: While the game has some issues such as the seemingly [[{{Padding}} padded]] length, ''Isolation'' averaged around 8/10 with critical magazines and reviewers. Polygon, Gamespot, and IGN, however, kicked the crap out of the game giving it a 6.5, 6, and 5.9 respectively [[CriticalDissonance earning a lot of ire from fans and players due to it]]. Many fans go as far as to blame these poor reviews on the fact that the game has not gotten a proper sequel.

** "[[CreepyMonotone You always know a]] [[UncannyValley Working Joe]]."

* UncannyValley: Some of the human characters look very unnatural, either having dull, lifeless eyes, skin that looks ''almost'' like rubber, off-putting facial expressions, or a mixture of the two.

* DisappointingLastLevel: Or, rather, "Disappointing Last Chapters". From approximately Chapter 14, which is considered a scary, awesome level onwards, the game suddenly begins to [[{{Filler}} pad itself to ludicrous degrees]], culminating in several very difficult and frustrating encounters with the Alien. The game could easily end several times in the story, but continuously drags itself along, placing locked doors, powered down generators and a pissed off Xenomorph in your way. The game also moves its goalposts frequently in these segments, which only adds to the frustration. Even when you reach the final chapter of the game, which is ostensibly [[spoiler: a two-story room with some vents in the floor, and a fairly intense and climactic battle with an Alien]] and manages to drag it out to almost an ''hour total in just that chapter alone.'' [[spoiler: The ending is also extremely frustrating in and of itself, turning the game into one long 15 hour ShaggyDogStory.]] Many critics complained about this insane padding, claiming that the game could have easily been toned down from a 15 to 20 hour game to a 12 or 14 hour one, and nothing of any value would be missed.

* EndingFatigue: There are several points where the game could have naturally ended ([[spoiler:the destruction of the hive underneath the reactor core]] or [[spoiler:Amanda confronting Marlow on the ''Anesidora'' and finding her mother's last transmission]]), but it continues past this, to the point of filler. Many critic reviews pointed out that the game could have easily been cut down to a more manageable length. To put this in perspective, ''Isolation'' is about 18 chapters long, with a short 19th chapter for the epilogue. Both of the above moments happen at around Chapter 14 or 15. This means that there are about 5 chapters left until the ending from the point where the fatigue sets in, roughly translating to ''5 hours'' of padding until the ending.

** The Nintendo Switch version is as much of a technical achievement as the ports of VideoGame/Doom2016 and VideoGame/DoomEternal were. The game looks and runs fantastically, and it even has a better overall picture quality than the PS4 version. Not bad at all!

* HePannedItNowHeSucks: To put it mildly, fans of this game were not amused by IGN reviewer Ryan [=McCaffrey's=] extremely critical review, which gave it a score of 5.9. It didn't help that he was most critical of things that many fans saw as positives, like the game's [[NintendoHard challenging difficulty level]], the alien's sophisticated and unpredictable {{AI}}, and the prominent role of the "Working Joe" androids (whom many fans [[EnsembleDarkhorse loved almost as much as the alien]]).

** "Mercy or Prudence" requires beating the game without killing any human enemies. This is surprisingly tricky to achieve because, unless you don't want to summon the alien, even non-trigger-happy gamers will want to get rid of any potentially dangerous humans nearby. Additionally, some of the weapons that are considered non-lethal, like the Stun Baton, will still count as a kill if you use it on humans. It's telling that some gamers recommend playing the game on ''harder'' difficulties to get this achievement, since that's when you really don't want to engage in combat.

** At the very end of the game, as you're about to release the docking clamps on the ''Torrens'', you see the Xenomorph calmly observing you from a support beam about twenty feet away. It should be creepy, but its idle animation has it scurrying from side-to-side like it's doing a fucking jig.

** While it makes sense after the breakdown of law and order - and certainly is consistent with the HumansAreBastards theme of the ''Alien'' franchise - the sheer hostility most [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] have towards the player borders on StupidEvil. This goes UpToEleven on the final few chapters when Seegson Security will shoot at you while [[spoiler: ''the station is now crawling with Xenomorphs and facehuggers.'']] In general, it is such an obvious plot device to add an additional enemy type besides the androids and aliens that it breaks suspension of disbelief.

* ScrappyMechanic: The lack of a frequent autosave feature. While the game does autosave, they're usually only after completing either chapters, major events, or during moments where there are absolutely no ways to manually save. Instead players have to rely on manual saves (which takes several seconds to complete and leaves you at the mercy of nearby enemies). This was done to add [[JustifiedSavePoint realism]] and tension to the game, but many players found this annoying as there are often long stretches of time between each save point. This is ''especially'' bad during the more difficult levels of the game.

** "Mercy or Prudence" requires beating the game without killing any human enemies[[note]]fortunately, this doesn't count against you when either killing a Working Joe or luring the alien to kill the humans for you[[/note]], which is also tricky to achieve even for non-trigger-happy gamers because the game tells you the Stun Baton isn't lethal, but still counts it as a kill when you use it. It's telling that some gamers recommend playing the game on ''harder'' difficulties to get this achievement, since that's when you really don't want to engage in combat.

* PolishedPort: The PC port looks absolutely incredible and runs fantastic- the game is so well optimized that the Steam versions lists a 2GB GPU in it's recommended settings, when the average GPU of the time had upwards of 4GB of VRAM. On the other hand, the [=PS3=]/Xbox 360 console ports are mediocre at best, with the [=PS3=] version outright being a PortingDisaster due to memory leak issues that cause the framerate to plummet over time.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: At the beginning of the Gemini level you come across a woman sitting on a couch staring out the window. While it's common to see other people in the game, usually they're gone if you backtrack in the area - [[FridgeHorror probably dead]] - but this woman remains in the same area up until [[spoiler: the station is blowing up.]] Despite this, you cannot interact with her and she has nothing to do with the story.

* {{Fanon}}: This game's lore has been embraced by fans and had a massive impact on the outer circles of the franchise: Amanda Ripley's story has been continued in comics, and Seegson has become almost as present as Wayland-Yutani in subsequent works.

** Chapter 17, the escape from the Habitation Deck. The station is progressively falling out of orbit, with fire and power losses everywhere, your flamethrower is down to fumes, and now that [[spoiler: there are multiple Xenomorphs and Facehuggers loose]] not even running away from danger is guaranteed to save you. As if all that wasn't bad enough, there's one incredibly obnoxious generator outage that requires you to backtrack across incredibly dangerous territory ''twice''.

** [[spoiler:In the nest level, it is possible to encounter to two Xenomorphs at once. Later, after they flee the core, you would think this would mean that you have to deal with multiple alien threats at once all throughout for a maximum suspense. Nope, except for a brief sequence towards the end, it's mostly just one at a time.]] Some might consider this a good thing, though.

** The elevators and trams are treated as safezones, as it seems no enemies will emerge from them (although pursuing you into them is a different story). Surprisingly, this is never taken advantage of by the writers.

** One of the toughest parts of the game is in Mission 16, where you have to make your way to Ricardo while evading hallways crammed with shotgun-wielding riot guards. While the vents help you bypass some of them, the last stretch forces you to walk right within their line of fire, and any attempt at combat can quickly escalate the situation to being a lost cause, particularly on Hard or Nightmare Mode. Even if you're fortunate enough to have Smoke Bombs or Flashbang Grenades handy (which you probably won't on Nightmare Mode), you have to be ''really'' quick lest you want to get mowed down in seconds by them.

** However, the fact that it has multiple places where the story could have ended could be FridgeBrilliance, as it reflects on the original film. At the time ''Alien'' came out, most films had a three-act structure. And the film could have easily ended with the destruction of the Nostromo and Ripley escaping. However, Ridley Scott decided to have a fourth act, the entire sequence that took place on the lifepod, as a means of throwing the audience off guard. The game could very well have been designed to mimic that story detail, luring people into a false sense of security and then catching them off guard with the final part of the story.

** Hostile humans become this as the game goes on. While the Alien has an unpredictable AI, it also has a background AI that helps make the game less frustrating to avoid, and while the Androids are relentless, they also are purposely given simple AI that makes it easy to avoid them. Humans though have simple patterns and are easy to kill, but their simple programming means they are frustrating to handle once they notice you. Not only do they tend to try to hunt you down, but they also are equipped with weapons that can, even on lower difficulties, kill you in usually around two hits if at full HP. Combined with the fact they are always encountered in groups, they become at times more frustrating than the Alien, simply because they tend to just remain in the area you encounter them and cut off access to the area you need to go. It's common for players just to throw a Noisemaker to attract the Alien so they can be wiped out, as an unpreditcable Alien can be, in a way, more predictable than the limited Humans.