Sounds like somebody isn't very good at stealth games. The PC gamer guy said when he demoed it with other journalists a few months ago, he was the only one who didn't die. As someone who favors stealth games above all others, I'm thinking my own views will be more in alignment with his 93 review, myself.
"It’s a deft blend of stealth and survival horror that, thanks to dynamic AI and clever, systemic design, is much more than the sum of its parts."
Stealth shouldn't be made for the lowest common denominator like practically every other genre you can name. This portion of the PC Gamer review really seals the deal for me... the creative problem solving:
"But as smart as it is, there are ways to exploit and confuse it. Faced with a group of looters blocking an exit, I consider my options. I can shoot them, but then I'd attract the alien. I could toss a Molotov, but I don't have the materials to craft one. But I do have a noisemaker: a device that emits loud, garbled electronic squeals. I hurl it in their direction, then I hear the hiss of the alien dropping out of a vent above them. It's a massacre. Once it's crawled back into its hole, I stroll to the exit, stepping over their mutilated corpses. I used this method a few times, until I developed a weird Stockholm syndrome for the alien, like it was my friend, or a faithful pet. Ripley had a strangely intimate relationship with the aliens she faces in the films, and I felt the same thing happening to me in Isolation."
Pure stealth games aren't about shoehorning your desired play style into all situations. They're about situational awareness and above all, patience. (Incidentally, patience and review deadlines don't mix.) It sounds like it won't be for everybody, sure... but as a stealth zealot, I don't want a stealth game made for everybody. Maybe the criticisms regarding it's length were simply a non-stealth gamer being required to finish a game he or she was terrible at and feeling repeatedly frustrated at the lack of hand-holding. However, if you're the kind of gamer that played MGS3 on European Extreme difficulty, the fact that this game didn't try to appeal to non-stealth players is an asset instead of a liability.
"Combining items and weapons in interesting ways, and playing with the enemy AI, gives the game a lot of unexpected depth, and kept it interesting for the entirety of the 25 hours it took me to finish it. Yeah, that's right: twenty-five hours. This is a long game, but it never outstays its welcome. This is down to the pacing, which is pretty much perfect. It's constantly switching things up so you don't feel yourself slipping into a routine."
I hate sports and racing games, myself, largely because I'm terrible at them, and it wouldn't make much sense for you to decide whether or not to buy the latest Madden or Forza game based on my reviews of either of those probably great games either because those genres aren't in my wheelhouse, and I would be miserable playing them. So talk about how it's a flop if you like, but when you see such polarized review scores, you know that you've got a game that wasn't made for everybody. Fine by me.
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