Extra Punctuation: Why Were Shadow of Mordor and Alien Isolation So Good?

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw:

First Shadow of Mordor and then Alien Isolation. Where are we at when movie tie-ins start turning out to be good games? We're at the thin end of a dangerous wedge, my friend. If the purse-string-holders start getting it into their heads that movie tie-ins result in success, then they might, with the usual sterling logic of the big-money entertainment producer, decide that they were successful because they were movie tie-ins, and not because they were, you know, decent games with good ideas that managed to innovate a bit in spite of the shackling to existing franchises.

[BranWheatKillah]

Neither of these are movie tie-ins...

[jdaboss]

You know what they mean.. stop being a dick.

[mafiahajeri]

Umm no we dont know what they mean, the main debate about movie tie-ins being bad is that that the devs are confined to the movies source material and were often bound to movie dead lines, hence the bad quality.

Both these games were good because they werent restricted to any of these terms, and had the creative freedom to create what they wanted, however long it took them...

[user5669510]

with all the mediocrity and rehashes it wasnt hard.

[xwilldemise]

Don't tell IGN that Alien: Isolation was a good game. Lol

[memots]

Simple no one was overhyping them like some mouth frothing idiot.

The least you expect or know about a game the more of a surprise it will become.

[Dante81]

This also means less of an inevitable hate backlash.

[Pozzle]

Because the developers respected the source material and genuinely wanted to make a good game that fans would enjoy, rather than a cheap cash-in.

[Perjoss]

For me they both felt very authentic and it was clear that the designers really treated the franchises with respect and made sure fans of those books and movies would not be disappointed.