The Darkness has Bite
Chronologically, Alien Isolation takes place 15 years after the events of the first movie. And puts you inside a jumpsuit belonging to protagonist Amanda Ripley, who is following a trail of her missing mother Ellen Ripley. A trail that leads her to Sevastopol space station.
Playing Alien Isolation is all about using wits, because you will be thrown into really sticky situations with low probability of survival. Forcing you to avoid, hide, and craft items from gathered scraps to endure the stalking terror loose on the station. This time, there's only one Alien creature roaming about, so the confines of a space station are a perfect setting to call upon your childhood's hide-and-seek skills -- which hopefully you refined during many recesses.
Sevastopol’s corridors, living and working areas, machine shops and commercial spaces all pay homage to the 1979 Alien movie sets. Every piece of the hull and machinery on Sevastopol is tangible, and seems to have purpose along with that lived-in feel. The station's rooms and corridors are abuzz with lights, panels and other tiny components. The walls are retrofitted with scuffed padding, many (many) analog monitors, and flashing trinkets: all rendered and lit with meticulous attention to detail.
The Menu is You
Details be damned tho, as every corner, vent, or shadowy corridor may hide the lethal Alien creature. It stalks. It hears. It reacts. This is one creep you do not want to come face-to-jaw with.
The Alien's specialty is hunting, and it does this well. Make too much noise by engaging Sevastopol’s crew in combat, or run exposed for too long, and the snapping jaw of doom will descent upon you. To even out the odds, you can craft nifty gadgets from found junk. Noise makers, smoke grenades, explosives and Molotov cocktails, can be your saving grace, providing you find a safe spot to start the crafting process.
Which is tricky, as there's danger all around: distraught crew -- synthetic and living -- and of course the vigilant Alien. To evade your pursuer(s), using the many hiding spots found within the environment is a must. The feeling of claustrophobia is uncanny at times, most felt when you're stuck inside a locker waiting for the creature to leave the room, listening to its snarls and gnarls while it prowls around the deck with heavy foot.
While the variety of defensive and offensive weapons and gadgets is great, I found that I ignored half of my built inventory in favour of a flamethrower (sweet melty goodness), noisemakers, and an electrical stun baton, which I used to dispose many pesky cybernetic synthetic servants (I legit hate those things). To be fair, the small pool of used weapons was mostly due to my sneaky approach, combined with lots of slow movement and motion detector use.
Those crude devices add a wicked cruelty to the game, while stressing one simple fact: The Alien cannot be killed, it can only be avoided or delayed. Fail to do one of those actions, and you’ll be a victim of a gruesome fatality and swiftly witness the final black curtain.
The Grand Design
Play long enough, and you may start to feel a strange kinship to the Alien, feeling its presence in adjacent rooms. This is probably because of how the game's design subtly forces you always keep an eye out on the motion detector, and the creature itself. While you won’t be holding hands with your adversary Ico and Yorda style, you’ll often think, “Where’s that slimy bastard?”
To ease progress, you can play around with the station’s rewiring system to activate or deactivate door locks, turn off cameras and mess about with other essential systems -- which rewards a more exploratory approach to get from point A to point B. I really enjoyed how the music changed in intensity and tone, depending on the severity of the situation, and the proximity to the creature. Perfectly echoing the mood of various memorable scenarios, through the use of subtle violin work or screeching chaotic arrangements.
Many terminals can be found and accessed for a quick dose of informational tidbits. Since the game is more about immediate survival, the backstory is somewhat disproportionately peppered throughout the game, requiring effort on your part to be read by finding crew logs and databanks. This asymmetrical approach to storytelling won’t win AI any praise for intricate lore, but it does work within the context of a survival theme.
Zero-G Terror
Newcomers may find the game a bit difficult at times. I’m no novice gamer, yet I still got stuck on few notoriously annoying spots, where many repeats were necessary. But if you endure, many awesome moments will surprise and entertain you. This is the only game I know where you need to look around while interacting with computers and during saving, because something can get a hold of you any time. Freaky. But it’s all part of the game’s staple tense atmosphere.
If you're looking for a game where you need to outwit your enemies through a more methodical approach, Alien Isolation will deliver a tense encounter of the terrifying kind. H.R.Giger's Alien creature is one of the most recognizable movie monsters of all time. In fact, I place it among the classics like Frankenstein's Monster and The Creature from The Black Lagoon.
Every aspect of the game gels well: the scenarios are awesome, the tension never lets up, and the gameplay injects a serum of unique experiences not to be forgotten. Finally, the Alien franchise has made a memorable imprint on the videogame market. And is available for almost every platform! Careful, once you strive to survive in outer space, you may never return (in one piece).
Alien Isolation gets five bloody chest-bursting xenomorphs out of five.
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Platform: PS3/4, PC, Xbox One/360, Linux, Mac
Released: 2014
Genre: Survival/Horror
