70/80's retro-futirist art style name?

[The Commodore]

After running around in this game for days made me realize I'm in love with it. It'd be nice to know what to call it though. Does it even have a name or is it too recent in history?

...Video-punk?

[Sunshine]

You actually said it yourself. It is Retrofuturism, which is divided into sub-forms, one being Cyberpunk (which is Alien, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Deus Ex, ...)

Love it too.
Fascinating, not even sure why, but it sure is.

[Dayve]

I think I like the Alien variety of retro-futuristic art style so much because everything sounds so cool. Everything is solidly built and mechanical and makes a very satisfying sound when it's used. Like those Russian T-34 tanks in World War 2. They weren't exactly a marvel of techological engineering but they were solid and they got the job done, and so simple that if anything went wrong any shmuck could identify the problem and bang it with a hammer to get it going again.

I like that kind of stuff. That's why I still use a mobile phone that would've looked modern in 1998. I've had it for 13 or 14 years, it does nothing extra except what you need it to do (phone calls and texts) and it's solid but not complicated, so it just doesn't screw up.

[Sunshine]

Originally posted by Dayve:

Like those Russian T-34 tanks in World War 2. They weren't exactly a marvel of techological engineering but they were solid and they got the job done, and so simple that if anything went wrong any shmuck could identify the problem and bang it with a hammer to get it going again.

This myth will never die I assume.
The T-34 was not getting the job done, that is why most of them broke down or got destroyed.
I don't have it at hand, but if you google the build/loss numbers and the causes, along with HOW 'simple' (in every negative way) this thing really was (until 1944), you will be surprised.

They didn't build incredibly ridiculous numbers of them because they were so great - but because they were breaking down left and right or simply failing in combat.

Stalin issued an order in summer of 43' (I think), where he addressed the severe losses to mechanical issues and claimed "they must be sabotage related" - in fact, they weren't.
Seriously, google it, you'll find a lot of interesting myth-breakers about this piece of crap.

Other than that - I agree, Alien sounds great.

[Holografix]

Cyberpunk is data streams, jacking-in, and matrices in the style of Johnny Mnemonic by Will Gibson. Alien is too fleshy, too biological to be cyberpunk or an offshoot of it.

Retrofuturism is close, but doesn't really address the biological machinic part of the Alien style that H.R. Giger developed. Giger called his style surrealistic style 'biomechanical' since the Alien itself is an amalgamation of flesh+machine.

I think it could be called Bio-Futurism since it's set in space, deals with the Alien and even has the quiet stirrings of an almost 'live' spaceship with all it's groans, creaks and hisses.

Whatever it's called tho, love the game. It's so good.

[Sunshine]

Huh? Alien is absolutely Cybperunk.

Cyberpunk is more than data streams and jacking in, the core is build by a dystopian future and greedy megacorporations.
Just because Alien has "biological aspects" or doesn't show some things, doesn't mean it won't qualify as Cyberpunk. Frankly, this is the first time I heard Alien is not Cyberpunk.
What next? Blade Runner isn't Cyberpunk either? I'm sure you wouldn't say that - which is why I used this example. There are a lot of similarities in Alien and Blade Runner, some even claim it both takes place in the same "universe", for many reasons.

And Retrofuturism is still the most accurate description for the technology(!) found in the Alien universe. Alien is, for a reason, used as a prime example for the term.

[Holografix]

Originally posted by Lethargo:

Huh? Alien is absolutely Cybperunk.

Cyberpunk is more than data streams and jacking in, the core is build by a dystopian future and greedy megacorporations.
Just because Alien has "biological aspects" or doesn't show some things, doesn't mean it won't qualify as Cyberpunk. Frankly, this is the first time I heard Alien is not Cyberpunk.
What next? Blade Runner isn't Cyberpunk either? I'm sure you wouldn't say that - which is why I used this example. There are a lot of similarities in Alien and Blade Runner, some even claim it both takes place in the same "universe", for many reasons.

And Retrofuturism is still the most accurate description for the technology(!) found in the Alien universe. Alien is, for a reason, used as a prime example for the term.

Retrofuturism is quite broad and mostly deals with visions of the future from the distant past, like The Forbidden Planet or Ra's al Ghul's Wonder City from Batman Arhkam City. Alien isn't a vision of the future from the distant past, but is actually about the future. In that sense, it is future-centric and not past-centric about the future.

I think the biological aspect of Alien is what sets its style apart from Cyberpunk. Sure, Alien could qualify as Cyberpunk but when you start laying Alien next to Blade Runner and next to 2001, for example, the Cyberpunk category starts to get really thin and non-specfic.

That's why Alien is bio-futurism, but who knew you'd run into cutting edge avant-garde nomenclature on the Steam forums!

[Dayve]

Originally posted by Lethargo:

Originally posted by Dayve:

Like those Russian T-34 tanks in World War 2. They weren't exactly a marvel of techological engineering but they were solid and they got the job done, and so simple that if anything went wrong any shmuck could identify the problem and bang it with a hammer to get it going again.

This myth will never die I assume.
The T-34 was not getting the job done, that is why most of them broke down or got destroyed.
I don't have it at hand, but if you google the build/loss numbers and the causes, along with HOW 'simple' (in every negative way) this thing really was (until 1944), you will be surprised.

They didn't build incredibly ridiculous numbers of them because they were so great - but because they were breaking down left and right or simply failing in combat.

Stalin issued an order in summer of 43' (I think), where he addressed the severe losses to mechanical issues and claimed "they must be sabotage related" - in fact, they weren't.
Seriously, google it, you'll find a lot of interesting myth-breakers about this piece of crap.

Other than that - I agree, Alien sounds great.

Hmm, after some googling, it seems you are right about the T-34.

However my point still remains the same (though obviously I can no longer use the T-34 as a comparison). What's cool about this particular game is that everything has a kind of old-technology design, that's solidly built but simple in its design. There's no flimsy modern touch-screen technology, everything is chunky and made of steel and it all makes a satisfying click/clunk noise when used.

[Stompy Boots]

As far as the design of most of the Sevastapol goes, I'd say the biological components aren't really a consideration in the design and the OP's emphasis on "video-punk" makes me think that they were considering more the general design of the station than the biological aspects.

It's basically 70's cyberpunk.

[Holografix]

It's not Alien:Isolation without the biological aspect.

If you're just discussing the ship's interior design and style, it's a strange combination of 2001's long segmented corridors and the dirty tech of the clunky computers pushed onto consumers during the 80's decade. You know, the amber screens, Commadore 64, green glowing research screens ala Tandy, etc... which evokes a more 'video-punk' aesthetic than Cyberpunk.

But it's Alien. Alien is about the horrors of strange combination of technological flesh and biology. Even the spaceship is named Mother! which evokes the sterile birth of waking from hypersleep to the somewhat sexual and violent reproduction cycle of the Alien itself.

Cyberpunk is still too future for Alien:Isolation given the fact that Ripley doesn't jack-in anywhere, or escape into the cyberspace infrastructure of the ship itself. There aren't any real abstract killer computer algorithms ala System Shock or 2001's HAL. Ripley is being chased by a biological organism which contrasts Sevastapol station's sterile enviroment making Alien:Isolation's style a Bio-futurism or Bio-Technoir, if you want to get fancy, but calling it Cyberpunk is shoe-horning Alien:Isolation into a category that does not do it justice.

[Dayve]

I think Sevastopol may actually be creepier than the alien. The creepiest part of the whole ship is close to the start - you know when you have to use one of those power generators to power up the area, and you can hear a cat meowing in the distance, and then the sound of the cat being snatched by the alien.

That's the creepiest part! When you go up those little stairs next to the generator, there's the weirdest, creepiest sound, like some kind of giant coil or something.

[Stompy Boots]

I had a thing written up about cyberpunk and the themes within. About how jacking in and escaping to cyberspace is only part of -some- cyberpunk settings.

Then realized it's really not helping the OP.

Regardless, he's not looking specifically for Alien's aesthetic design, he's looking for the "70/80's retro-futirist art style". So the biological component of the aesthetic design isn't a factor in his specific request.

Ultimately, I think the first person to respond to this thread had it right. Low-fi Sci-fi. It's actually how the developers described the aesthetic, themselves.

[Holografix]

Starring (in order of appearance)

...video-punk
...lo-fi sci-fi
...retro-futurism
...cyber-punk
...bio-futurism
...bio-technoir

In steam-space, where no one can hear you scream about Alien:Isolation's ambiguous space style....