Alien: Isolation and Psycho Break (The Evil Within)

Two of the leading horror games of 2014, Alien: Isolation and Psycho Break, were released in October. As I waited until I finished my exams and duties before I started on them, I only played them in December (and Psycho Break spilled over to this year. Whoops). The verdict? Alien: Isolation is a far superior horror game.

By the way, I played both on Hard and Survival difficulty respectively. You know, because real men play the hardest difficulty available at first (subsequent unlocked or patched difficulties aren't counted). Kidding. I mean, there's no way I'm playing Alien: Isolation on Nightmare mode. Hell, no. Hard was scary enough for me, I was barely scraping enough ammo, um, I mean flamethrower fuel, and I really relied on my motion tracker throughout. With a broken motion tracker, even scarcer ammo (flamethrower fuel again), and a much smarter Alien......hell, no. No way in hell. I ain't playing Nightmare mode. Hard was more than enough.

Alien: Isolation was terrifying. Every time I saw the motion tracker beep, hear the familiar sound of the Alien slithering down from the vents, my heart jumped, I walked straight for the nearest locker (or crouch-walked - because running would draw the Alien's attention to me) and hid in there until I know EXACTLY where the Alien was. And I wouldn't dare to come out of the locker until the motion tracker told me it was far, far away. The Alien was that terrifying. I did get all the achievements, it was pretty enjoyable, and I loved reading all the Archive Logs and Nostromo Logs. Not to mention collecting all the ID tags, running to save at the save station, and then breathing a sigh of relief before fearfully proceeding to where my motion tracker pointed me.

Alien: Isolation was simply the best horror game I had ever played. I'm not sure if it's realistic but it definitely felt real to me. Terrifying, real, immersive, atmospheric. IGN and Gamespot screwed up their reviews (or I just don't agree with their reviews). PC Gamer has a more accurate review. I'm not being biased. Well, maybe I am. Personally, I think Alien: Isolation is the best Alien game ever made, probably slightly better than the first two Aliens vs. Predator games because I love shooting with my Pulse Rifle and Flamethrower, but it is much better than the 3rd Aliens vs. Predator game, and perhaps Aliens: Colonial Marines (can't say for sure because I haven't played that one but I'm sure it's much better after the disaster it turned out to be - so much so I boycotted the game, refusing to give my money to the deceptive Gearbox).

On the other hand, Psycho Break was a little disappointing. Yeah, it plays like Biohazard and has all its annoying flaws. Stupid camera angles, throwing hordes of Haunted at you in an attempt to be scary (that's not scary, that's frustrating and downright annoying). Hamstrings you in ways that irritate the hell out of you, and some of the puzzles and traps just....sigh.....I really hate that trap where you have to hit the blue spot out of the red spot because it's very difficult to hit it. Anyway, that's how it is. Rather than horrifying, it was more frustrating than anything. The only thing that's scary is when you're faced with unkillable bosses, but when you're forced to kill them over and over again, it loses its fear factor. I mean, the Keeper! He was scary at first, especially the part where I was trapped inside with him. But when I faced him again in the meat locker, and TWIN Keepers at the last chapter, it was just irritating. I was forced to empty my precious Magnum rounds into one of the Keepers just to kill the bastard so that I had an easier time fighting his stupid twin.

Laura was probably the only other scary boss. The Sadist? Stupid. I actually laughed when I first had to kill him, and I lured him to the various traps inside the village, sent spikes shooting up his body four times before he died. And I found out I could even sneak kill him. Damn it, what a waste. And the Quell? Not scary at all. In fact, it's the best enemy for farming. I would run and hide in the corner, wait for it to spawn exploding leeches, shoot the leeches and farm near infinite handgun ammo and shotgun ammo. Some kind of funny exploit. Ha ha ha ha. Oh well. Once I maxed out my ammo stock I could kill the bastard at my leisure.

Tell me, when compared to Alien: Isolation, how can Psycho Break be scary? The story's confusing as well, I never found out what happened to Myra, who killed Sebastian's daughter, who Kidman really was, and whether Joseph Oda was still alive. At least the nurse Titania or however it's spelled is still alive. But there's a lot of loose ends that aren't tied up properly. And what happened to Leslie? Did Ruvik take over his body? I don't know. I fear these will never be answered unless in a sequel, and that's dependent on the sales of Psycho Break. Unfortunately, sequels tend to fare worse than their predecessors, if we judge by Biohazard. The first four games were good, but the next 2 were bad. Sigh. Dead Space 2 was better than Dead Space, but while I like Dead Space 3, I can't honestly say it was better than the first two games. Co-op and crafting my own weapon were great, but somehow I didn't like the Alien temple in the end. It just didn't feel like Dead Space anymore. And Brother Moons? Really? Sigh.

So verdict: Alien: Isolation is the best horror game of 2014. I'm not counting PT - it's only a teaser and not a full game, and it's too repetitive for me. Okay, I know there's plenty of changes every time I go through it, but I kind of got impatient and sick and tired of seeing the same place (even with the changes) over and over again. I wanted to explore more places. But never mind. I'm sure a lot more people like it much more than I did.

I wonder what games will be released this year. Unfortunately, I'll be saving my money for my Warhammer 40K army rather than for games this year. FOR THE EMPEROR!

That reminds me, there's a new game coming out in 2015 called Warhammer 40,000: Space Hulk: Deathwing. Now I'm getting that game. Not for horror, but because I'm a fan of FPS with alien enemies. Like Aliens vs. Predator, Dead Space series, Doom 3 (technically they're demons and not aliens). Well, basically I love sci-fi horror FPS games with alien/inhuman enemies. Not because they're scary, but it's fun to shoot down alien horrors and demons with hi-tech weaponry. This is probably why I don't like Psycho Break. It doesn't play like a shooter, it doesn't have hi-tech weaponry like flamethrowers, plasma guns and stuff, the camera angles annoy me, and it has way too many puzzles and too little ammunition. This is personal taste, by the way. I like survival horror that gives me a chance to fight back, but my deaths in Psycho Break feel very cheap. Like they're forcing me to die with cheap tactics, hordes and stuff. If they've given me, I dunno, a plasma rifle and a first person perspective with enough ammo to take on the hordes they forcibly throw at me (seriously, I want to sneak past them, sneak-kill them, but they force me to kill hordes by trapping me in a freaking room with these things, and the only way to proceed is to kill all of them to unlock a stupid door. And I've to do that with limited ammo. REALLY?!).

Ammo conservation only works, like in Alien: Isolation, when you're given the freaking option to sneak past enemies, use traps on them or a lot of other options. Locking me in a room with a horde and expecting me to kill them to unlock the door to the next stage is not giving me options. It's irritating, especially when I don't have much ammo because of supposed survival horror. And it happens many times. And there's a lot of times my sneak kill fails because for some reason the prompt fails me when I hit space, and they turn around despite my repeated hammering of the space button! Worse, if they're all patrolling the place, and I'm shoeshorned into a linear path to go past said patrols of HORDES, how am I supposed to sneak kill them?

If you're forcing me to kill them, I might as well play FPS like Doom 3, and hopefully Space Hulk: Deathwing. Not much of a survival horror when I save up my ammo, only to be forced to spend them all on hordes that block my progression and no way of sneaking up on them or sneaking past them. Sigh. May Deathwing be a good game.

As a disclaimer, this is all my personal opinion and personal preference. I am not a professional gamer or reviewer, and I do not expect people to agree with me. If you feel that Psycho Break was a far superior game, then great. By all means enjoy it. If you hated Alien: Isolation with a vengeance because you hate locker simulation or whatever criticism you have, then it simply isn't for you. And if you liked PT, great. I don't like it, but unfortunately I am not you and having different opinions is to be expected.