The Evil Within

[Pyperkub]

I was in the mood for a big budget Halloween game, and succumbed to this with the GMG 25% off coupon.

Anyone else in? I didn't see a topic. The download is 30GB but requires 40GB space. I had to clear up some space on my 750GB drive that I have steam on. Gak! Going to be playing on a 16x10 monitor, which may require some console hacks...

[Pyperkub]

Got about 30 mins in tonight. It's just what I hoped for thus far. No console hacks yet, I'm kind of enjoying the cinematic presentation. Of course, I have a 30" 2560x1600 monitor, so I'm pretty dialed in.

Playing with a 360 controller, FWIW. Definitely the way to go - the vibration feedback adds a lot.

[Giles Habibula]

Thanks for the reminder. I'd heard this game was coming, and then sort of forgot about it.

With my annual week off for Halloween coming up shortly (Oct. 25 through Nov. 2), I'd set aside some money to pick up "Alien: Isolation". But now, I have a choice to make.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, as I'll probably only be buying one of these two games, since I doubt my ability these days to finish more than one game during that week.

[Pyperkub]

A little less than 2 hours in and still just scratching the surface of the story, but it is dragging me in really well. Stealth creepiness.

[GreenGoo]

5 minutes into the game me and everything I can see is covered in gore.

I did not expect that from a routine homicide call in the middle of downtown in a metropolis, even if it's a mental hospital.

[GreenGoo]

I'm not one that normally gets upset about save points and such but I just had an experience last night in Chapter 3 where I snuck around, looted half the map, stealth killed a bunch of "guards" and generally took my time and did things right.

I then managed to get myself killed. Not normally a big deal in this game as you often respawn right before the event that killed you and you get a do-over. Not this time. I was sent right back to my original load point for the evening, so I lost a good 30-40 minutes of stealthing around.

The game is not nearly good enough or the stealth system enough fun to accept the loss of time and progress.

I pretty much rage quit immediately. Well, less rage quit and more disbelief-I'm not doing that again right now-quit.

Super not fun.

[Pyperkub]

I think the same thing happened to me there. I did get past it, though I still haven't finished it

[GreenGoo]

Giving it another try, in small doses.

While it's not the first time I've seen this in a game, it was still funny. I was at a trap switch, waiting for some hapless zombie to stumble onto the trap, when one of them kindly walked up to me from outside the camera view and literally tapped me politely on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir? I'm going to eat you now, alright? BOO!"

[GreenGoo]

I've realized I'm terrible at the survival horror genre. I managed to get through silent hill 2 once upon a time but it was rough. I don't know if it's the controls, mindset or what, but I'm just terrible at this game.

So I made a decision a week ago. That decision was to use a video walkthrough. I don't just mean that I watched the walkthrough then played the game. I mean I watch 5 minutes of video and then play 5 minutes of game. Repeat.

It is totally lame, no question, so no need to point that out to me.

That said, I'm thinking about why it's ok "this time" and I'm not sure I have an answer.

1) I struggled with one of the earliest bosses. That was really frustrating.
2) Save points in the early chapters were inconveniently placed (imo)
3) Collectibles are not something I particularly enjoy searching for. I like to explore, but not go through everything with a fine toothed comb.
4) a LOT of the backstory to the game is told through collectibles.
5) The story is almost nonsensical without the collectibles. It's not exactly clear with them.

I will say that watching someone else play the game for 5 minutes has made the entire game WAY easier, by identifying which creatures do what and how to deal with them. I struggled against even the most basic enemies for awhile. Now I can deal with them without help.

I guess for me, for this particular game, the story is the interesting part. I'm not saying that boss fights aren't fun, because some of them are, but what I'm getting out of the game is the sheer insanity of the creatures/design and the mystery of the story. So I don't really care about the game play all that much. I could just watch the walkthrough and be done with it, but as I said, some of the fights can be fun as well. By using the walkthrough I can be sure I'll get all the collectibles and therefore piece together the story in a way that I never would have been able to do on my own.

So what I do is watch an entire chapter's walthrough while doing the dishes, then later when the kids are in bed, I play through the chapter, pausing and switching out to the video walkthrough every time I get lost or am unsure of what's next.

I'm on Ch 7 or 8 I think. I believe there are 15 chapters.

Lame. Don't care. Much. Enjoying the game anyway.

[hitbyambulance]

I will say that watching someone else play the game for 5 minutes has made the entire game WAY easier, by identifying which creatures do what and how to deal with them. I struggled against even the most basic enemies for awhile. Now I can deal with them without help.

if by 'without help' you mean 'watched the video walkthrough for the entire game'

[GreenGoo]

I will say that watching someone else play the game for 5 minutes has made the entire game WAY easier, by identifying which creatures do what and how to deal with them. I struggled against even the most basic enemies for awhile. Now I can deal with them without help.

if by 'without help' you mean 'watched the video walkthrough for the entire game'

Hah. No, I mean "random enemy of type A/B/C shows up in unknown/unexpected place can be dealt with in an improvised and ad hoc way".

And in this particular case I don't even mean I learned the mannerisms and expected behaviour of various enemies (although I did that too), I mean I was missing a core aspect of the enemies very nature which precluded me from even experimenting with tactics in directions that might have resulted in success.

i.e. I can now defeat most enemies without resorting to a walkthrough for each particular instance. i.e. a random encounter no longer results in me getting my ass handed to me.

edit: I didn't mean to sound defensive, because I fully admit that the walkthrough is completely holding my hand throughout the entire process. I was just trying to clarify my seemingly contradictory statement.