The release of Alien: Isolation on the PS4, Xbox One and the PC is already five years back. Nevertheless, the team of Feral Interactive ported the survival horror even on the Nintendo Switch. This raises the question of how much the ravages of time have nibbled at the alien adventure …
Does the implementation of such an "old" title really have to be? We will not go into that in our test, but only take care of the gameplay as well as the technical preparation. For those of you who have not heard or seen anything about Alien: Isolation, here is a short summary of the story. Then we come to the actual porting to speak.
In space, nobody hears you scream
The event takes place in 2137, 15 years after the events of the first Alien movie. You assume the role of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley. For some time now, she has been searching in vain for clues to the whereabouts of her mother. But suddenly a hot trail leads to the Sevastopol space station. Together with a team Amanda makes her way there. But soon after arriving, the young woman realizes that this mission will be anything but easy …
<a href = "https://img.gameswelt.de/public/images/201403/dbbd02be223f8d081d9d45d86183f293.jpg" data-title = "Alien: Isolation Figure 1
Platform: PC, PS4, One | Date: 31.03.2014 "data-lightbox =" dbbd02be223f8d081d9d45d86183f293.jpg ">
Because on the space station, the absolute chaos prevails: Many areas are badly damaged, the power supply is broken and everywhere are badly arranged corpses. The reason for this quickly becomes clear: an alien is at fault in Sevastopol. These are of course not a good framework for Amanda's search, but great conditions for an exciting as well as scary horror game.
The developers did not change the actual gameplay. So you can expect on the Nintendo console, the well-known mix of creepers, small puzzles and an always incredibly spooky atmosphere that lets you slip around on the sofa edge very nervous. This also contributes to the great acoustics, which does not save with cleverly placed effects and themes. Although it occasionally comes to arguments in which Amanda can resort to melee attacks and a few weapons. However, for the better part of the season, you are moving softly through the corridors and rooms of the station – always eager to avoid a confrontation with the deadly alien.
Especially the Motion Tracker, which shows the movements of nearby creatures, helps you. Thanks to rumble support and motion sensor, the handling of the device is more intense than in the previous versions and thus enhances the atmosphere. The developers of Feral Interactive have solved this very well, even if it is "only" a small extra.
With the 05.12.2019 the release date of Alien: Isolation is fixed on the Switch.
Horror in switch format
The content of the switch version is identical to the other versions. Graphically, the title was revised, however. Above all, the better anti-aliasing in dock mode is positive. This makes the whole picture, despite dynamically adjusted resolution, cleaner and quieter than on the PS4 and Xbox One. The switch version is also responsible for the excellent, highly differentiated lighting. The frame rate also gives little reason to complain: In the test, we only experienced a few short stutters in dock mode, especially in the slightly faster combat deposits. Overall, however, the game ran almost constantly at 30 frames per second across the screen. Only in handheld mode did the interplay of brightness and contrast leave much to be desired.
Commendable is the fact that Alien: Isolation on the switch includes all previously published download extensions. This also includes "Last Survivor": You take on the role of Ellen Ripley and have to fight for survival aboard the spaceship "Nostromo". Each of these DLC chapters offers around an hour of playing time. There are also several challenges, including matching rankings. Although the tasks were not outstanding, they still motivate them to attack the best times.
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Platform: PC, PS4, One | Date: 13.06.2014 "data-lightbox =" fd421a0743fe32422a896e5ec1482753.jpg ">
Let's not hide a few bugs we noticed during the test. So we could not go through a lock at one point, although this was obviously open. Added to this were a few issues with interacting with objects and a generally fiddly control, which was limited to a few exceptions. It was not really that serious, just a little annoying at times.
