Species: Unknown

I don't normally review a game with less than 2 hours actual play time. This is one of those rare cases where I don't even need more time to think about it or weigh my decision/recommendation, and here's why: I have been trying to get some friends together to play this game for MONTHS. With this particular 4-man, we always run into the issue of one, maybe two out of the four of us not liking a game, and we usually tend to favor the "sillier," less polished experiences. Super Battle Golf and Left 4 Dead 2 are the only ones we ever really seem to go back to. Jump Space was ALMOST enough to engage all four of us enough to play it again. But this game? We were HOOKED almost at the main menu. It just OOZES Alien Isolation right out the gate. There's so much polish here, the game is beautiful and still runs great...and again...THE ALIEN VIBES, MAN... 🤌 The very first monster we encountered was scary enough, though the scare factor wore thin relatively quickly for us. What didn't wear thin was the stress of the hunt. Running out of ammo/health at a bad time was, well...a BAD TIME. With my dumb ADHD friends, it necessitated the nerve-wracking choice between leaving their stubborn behinds to go get more ammo and health to stay alive, or stick with them for comfort and safety (theirs OR mine, depending who had the most ammo at the time). Nor did the gameplay loop itself wear thin; it was engaging start to finish. Felt like we were there to actually ACCOMPLISH something. Not just "collect a bunch of stuff, leave, profit." There was a solid sense of progression. One HUGE thing for me personally is that our very first mission was successful. Most "friendslop" games are obnoxiously and obscenely difficult. I'm not sure if we played it on a default difficulty or if the host adjusted it, but whatever we did it was challenging without feeling impossible. I think a big part of that was that the experience was just so enjoyable that 4 doofuses with varying types of ADHD were actually able to focus and work together toward the goal. It takes craftmanship to make a game that can get this particular group's dopamine levels all in sync. The guns feel fantastic and absolutely critical for survival--but while they're no peashooters, you won't be killing anything with them either (not in the first scenario we played, anyway). The atmosphere SLAPS, and the level design is great; the size and variety of the ship felt very Dead Space. The inclusion of the handy map tool that looks eerily similar to the motion tracker in Alien Isolation and just *happens* to be bound to Spacebar? I mean, come on...we all know where the influence is coming from and we're all here for it. So far my only criticism is that the default gain is a little hot on the proximity chat and peaks/distorts like hell until you turn it down, and the music is STUPID loud by default. Audio levels could definitely use some balancing/retooling imo, but the settings are there to do it yourself at least. The radio comms sound awesome, and the directional sound and overall sound design in general are top-notch, as well. We were sh**ting ourselves as soon as the first monster started stalking us, and we found it had very characteristic cues as to when "IT'S COMING!" vs. "it's nearby." Great distance sound, and solid muffling effects through walls/doors. Sure, we only played one raid...because it's all we had time for this session. We collectively HUNGER for more of this game and will absolutely be getting it as soon as possible. I actually want to play this by myself too--and probably will--it's just that good. I never play co-op/friend-slop games solo; it's just never been my thing. But I'm fiending for more of this game, so I'm here reliving the experience in a review and contemplating postponing my current video project just to make a short one out of this. Now at less than 2 hours, take this all with a grain of salt of course, but the fact that my friends and I found something we ALL are dying to play again and couldn't stop drooling over during--let alone the fact it'll make for great videos--is enough alone for me to say ABSOLUTELY when asked "Do you recommend this game?" And for what little I HAVE played--I believe the first raid took us about 1.5 hrs total give or take (long raids = another plus imo)--I'm giving my first impression a 9.5/10. Hopefully the variety of maps, monsters, and missions is enough to sustain us long-term, but even if I never played it again, that hour and a half was every bit as enjoyable and rewarding as the last movie I went to see...for half the price of the ticket.