Since I was a child, I have been a fan of the Alien film series, but have also had a deep-seeded fear of the Xenomorph. And it is because of this fear and my self destructive personality that I decided to pick up Alien: Isolation and force myself to play it.
Alien: Isolation is a first-person horror game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. You may know Creative Assembly from their work on the Total War series and Halo Wars 2, among many other titles. The game was released on October 7th, 2014 on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
The game takes place 15 years after the first Alien film. You play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies. You have been approached by Weyland-Yutani who tell her that they have found the black box from her mother’s ship that mysteriously disappeared. Wanting to discover what happened to her mother, Amanda agrees to go with them.
Amanda, along with two representatives from Weyland-Yutani, venture to the space station Sevastopol to retrieve the black box. Through unforeseen circumstances, Amanda is separated from her companions and finds herself alone on a derelict space station filled with murderous scavengers, insane androids, and a vicious creature lurking in the shadows.
With most horror games, atmosphere is vital to help set the mood and get you into the proper mindset. Creative Assembly crafted an amazing atmosphere. Everything from the vents, the computers, the twisting hallways, all look exactly like they belong. It all looks like it was ripped right out of the Alien movie itself.
The sound design is also wonderful. When sneaking around Sevastopol trying not to be noticed by the cadre of things that want you very dead, there are occasionally noises of something moving around you. This put such a weigh on my shoulders, feeling as though at any moment something is going to climb out of a vent or round a corner and take my head off.
The controls can be difficult to get used to. Within an hour of playing you acquire a lot of items that each are necessary for your survival, so you’ll find yourself playing a rather difficult piano piece; constantly switching between all these tools while traversing the station.
The menus can also be a challenge to navigate. Things like the crafting menu take a bit to learn, but once you do it will seem quite simple. A couple hacking minigames can also be difficult to comprehend. With little explanation of how exactly to play the minigame, you are forced to undergo a trial by fire, failing to unlock a door while trapped in a relatively small room with the Alien.
I had a few issues with Alien: Isolation. The first being the utter uselessness of any of the weapons you are given. The melee weapon and the revolver you are given do seemingly nothing to the Alien and the androids, but other people are so few and far between that you never get a real chance to fight back against anything that wishes you harm.
I would like to think that if I was in any similar sort of situation I would at least attempt to fight back against whatever is trying to kill me, but since the weapons lacked any actual use, you are left feeling completely vulnerable.
Another one of my issues comes from the pacing. Within the first hour or two of starting, the three threats to your life aboard the Sevastopol are shown to you and you are forced to deal with them instead of the threat escalating from other paranoid humans trying to survive just like you to insane murderous androids with the ever present threat of the Alien.
The events of the game feel as though they aren’t properly paced either. In one moment you are watching a comrade get a new gapping chest piercing, courtesy of the Aliens tail right through his heart, then the next you’re calmly working out how to turn on a radio. While I tried to write it all off as Amanda going through shock, I just couldn’t ignore the ludonarrative dissonance.
But even with my issues in mind, I did enjoy the time I spent with Alien: Isolation. I would recommend it for everyone who can survive repeated heart attacks as you are ripped from your hiding place in a locker by a rather aggravated Xenomorph.
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