The last third of the game is increasingly modeled more like a ye olde video game with discrete levels you teleport between with no potential to go back, Sonic the Hedgehog or something of that sort. Once the mechanics of being hunted by an Alien do return, the game pretty much completely cuts off the exploration potential. It's just busywork that's necessary to do if you want to be able to honestly say you 100%ed the game. And unlike an actual Metroid game, there is no aspect of exploration letting you empower yourself to prepare for later, difficult encounters. You can backtrack and explore and whatnot, but the potential of 'explore while an Alien is breathing down your neck' goes completely unrealized. There's not really any experiential difference between picking up a keycard for a single door vs finding a blowtorch that lets you get to the immediate next area.Įventually the game does briefly open up, but this period occurs fairly specifically in the period where the game isn't willing to drop Aliens on you. You're stuck in a Shooter With Plot railroading experience, and whatever tools you pick up to go new places feel less like a new ability that expands your reach and more like the latest pointless activity. largely locks you in to a rigid path, no ability to backtrack or even to particularly go off to the side. But once you do start picking up tools that should open up new areas, the game. Initially, you of course can't backtrack because it's too early for that to be a concept. (Even if many people disliked its 'linearity') That sounds like Metroid: Fusion, but much better, and Metroid: Fusion is a pretty damn good game. A Metroid-esque game in which you're being hunted continuously by an unstoppable killing machine, where exploration is tempered by the constant tension of knowing you may be interrupted by the need to hide from something, desperately searching for resources to aid you in your struggle. One of the weirder elements of Alien: Isolation's design is that there's a Metroid-esque acquisition of new tools that expand your ability to explore Sevastopol, including that older areas are littered with interactables you won't be able to do anything with until you've upgraded your blowtorch or whatever.