Just Asking For It - Immolation

Just a quick-glitch that I found during gameplay I had to repeat this section once, because I had somehow forgotten about the (nearby) facehugger. I tossed the flare(s) to distract the riot-gear clad, shotgun totting, space station crazy, but I timed his route incorrectly. I just decided to have a bit of fun, thanks to the system-save, but found that possibly the Alien DOES rely on sight ? I've noticed there are strong reactions to sound, standing too, but tossing a couple of smoke bombs hindered BOTH its detection ability, of course that of the AI bot - male character - BUT somehow standing beside one another with the Smoke Bombs means also they cannot detect one another. Possibly just too many deployable items in one area given that all sections you travel to must load in.