First playthrough, Unpredictable Alien Mod: yea or nay?

[MechaSaurian]

I'm about to start this game up for the first time (planning to go for medium difficulty), and I've noticed this mod.

Apparantly the Alien is "leashed" to the player, keeping them within a certain radius. This mod allows for the Alien to explore different sections of the game levels while you are somewhere else, leading to more sparse but more surprising xenomorph encounters.

Would you reccomend it for a first playthrough? Yes or no?

[ReeNoiP]

No.

Keeping the Alien relatively close to the player keeps the game more tense IMO. I think having it roam a larger area takes away a lot from the core gameplay of having to stay on the move and taking calculated risks.

The leash is only really noticeable if you hang around the same area for a long time, much longer than you need. Usually the people who complain about it keep hiding in the same room waiting for the alien to go out of motion tracker range or into the vents, instead of sneaking past it.

[Emmental]

I think any game should be played vanilla first so you get an idea of what sort of mods you may or may not like.

[Berserk Slayer]

No. The game is a 21st century scion of the old monster in a maze genre, and as such you will want it on your back to get the experience "as intended" for your first play-through.

With that said, that mod is highly recommended once you have experienced the campaign as the devs intended.

[[:TMSA:] The Xenoborg]

I feel the mod makes the game much better. You get some breathing moments that still have the lingering sense of endangerment. The mod also makes the game (and the ship) feel larger and realistic. The idea of the Alien hunting for you in different parts of the ship makes more sense to me and adds depth and layers to the experience. The mod also makes for some genuine jump scare and tense moments by really making the Alien more unpredictable than it was already. But that's my opinion.

[Berserk Slayer]

I would still go vanilla on first play-through myself, but I agree it's a must-try mod after that. :)

[MechaSaurian]

Well, I'm on the sixteenth mission of a vanilla playthrough now.

I found Normal preferable to Hard - the tight leashing of the Alien to the Player on Hard mode seemed more annoying than anything else. I'm not sure how I feel about the mod now - the leashing of Normal mode honestly feels "just right." Guess I'll have to try it anyway.

I'm thinking of cracking open the game files and creating my own custom difficulty mode that has the AI vision cones of Hard, the Xenomorph-player leash range of Normal, and the resource scarcity of Nightmare.

[Ben]

Originally posted by ClockworkRex:

Well, I'm on the sixteenth mission of a vanilla playthrough now.

I found Normal preferable to Hard - the tight leashing of the Alien to the Player on Hard mode seemed more annoying than anything else. I'm not sure how I feel about the mod now - the leashing of Normal mode honestly feels "just right." Guess I'll have to try it anyway.

I'm thinking of cracking open the game files and creating my own custom difficulty mode that has the AI vision cones of Hard, the Xenomorph-player leash range of Normal, and the resource scarcity of Nightmare.

Sounds cool.

[EX0m0nd0]

I just replayed the game with unpredictable mod + Hard difficulty. The alien AI feels like on Novice/Easy difficulty. When it's in passive mode (hiding in vent) it would take several attempts of making noise, like 3-4 gunshots or 2-3 noisemaker, to lure him out of vent. The alien also not so pressing on player, e.g. after you ward him off (with flamethrower or pipebomb/molotov), it won't try to return to same spot in short intervals like in normal Hard game. However I never got the "unexpected bump" experience with the alien, I still see the usual "popping out around player", perhaps because I had played the games many times so I already know where to go and the objective location so I didn't spend much time wandering off the map.

[Dayve]

Unpredictable alien mod makes the game easier, it's true. It makes it more tense and adds some randomness to future playthroughs, but it does make the game easier (the alien parts at least).

So for your first playthrough, no. For other playthroughs - up to you.