I finally managed to finish this game. Steam says it took me 24 hours to beat, a little longer than average AFAIK. Probably because I'm a pussy when it comes to horror games. But overall, I'd definitely say I enjoyed it (if you can call it that, heh).
Pros:
- Very polished and mostly bug-free game; especially for a new AAA release
- Incredible atmosphere
- Absolutely amazing sound design; one of those games where the sound is definitely more important than the graphics. In fact, this just might be the best sound design I've ever heard in a video game, ever. Hearing the clicks and clanks of metal inside the ship's walls, the footsteps in the vents, the humming of machinery... and, to top it all off, the game has a really sophisticated dynamic music score. This is probably the most important element in making the game scary.
- But hey, the graphics are pretty dang good too. Also it's well-optimized
- A little long, but has just enough variety in enemies and the environment to keep things interesting throughout
- Save stations are spaced together close enough that you never feel like you lost a lot of work. It's a good compromise between crappy checkpoints and save-scumming.
- Pretty good storyline
- Really, really, REALLY nervewracking, and a good example of survival horror done right
Things that bugged me:
- There was one fairly major glitch early on in the game, where you do a fetch mission for a certain NPC, and if you grab the item and return to this NPC, the dialog won't trigger and the game won't progress. I googled it and apparently this is a pretty common issue (something to do with taking the wrong route back, or saving at the wrong save station; or something). Had to reload the mission to fix it.
- I had a hard time distinguishing between hostile survivors and non-hostile survivors. This wouldn't be so bad, except it's an instant fail state if you attack an ally/civilian. At the beginning of the game, most of the survivors you encounter are hostile; and the first time I saw non-hostiles I just instantly started attacking them and the game slapped my wrist and told me not to. Later on, I think I eventually realized that hostiles are typically brandishing weapons and wearing different clothing, but when you're sneaking around in a dark environment and you see them at a distance, it's hard to tell.
- (LIGHT SPOILERS) Through most of the game, the alien AI felt very realistic and believable. But, toward the end, when the difficulty was really ramping up, I felt like the alien knew "too much" about where I was hiding. It became incredibly frustrating. I wanted to pull my hair out once I realized that the alien pretty much insisted on being inside of whichever room I was in, even though he never actually saw me enter said room. If I was being tactful, he still never pinpointed me; but it was like he managed to "follow" me anyway when I changed rooms, if that makes any sense. It became PAINFULLY obvious when I was sitting inside a vent, and I watched the alien simply pace back and forth right in front of the vent for a couple minutes. It was so damn obvious that my illusion of the alien's intelligence basically broke down and the AI just felt plain unfair.
Quirks aside, this is legitimately one of the best games I've played all year, and every PC gamer should give it a run. Creative Assembly should be applauded for what they've done here. I honestly wasn't expecting this game to be so well-done.