The following review will contain spoilers for Alien, Aliens, and the game itself. I will only mark the spoilers for the game itself.
It's no secret that the Alien franchise has had a very poor track record when it comes to games. Aside from a few decent AvP titles, the various Alien games to come out since the series' inception have never done it justice. This has always been a mystery to me, because the setting, plot, and tension in both Alien and its sequel seem perfect for a video game. But as it stands, Alien Isolation succeeds as the first game to definitively capture the series' essence.
Alien Isolation takes place between the events of the first two movies, and stars the daughter of Ellen Ripley, Amanda. Not knowing that her mother has been alive in cryogenic sleep for the past 15 years after the destruction of the Nostromo, Amanda finds her chance at answers when the Sevastopol recovers the Nostromo's flight logs. After an accident while boarding the vessel, the young Ripley is stuck on a dying commercial vessel populated by killer androids, insane people, and a certain acid-bleeding killer lurking in the vents.
The gameplay of Isolation is basically the antithesis to 2013's Aliens: Colonial Marines, in which you gun down Aliens with the typical FPS mechanics. Alien Isolation strives to re-create the feel of the original Alien, in which you are hunted down by a single Xenomorph. You cannot kill the xenomorph, so the only choice is to hide, distract, and trick the creature to survive. You can find and craft tools such as noisemakers and molotovs to increase your chances, because encounters with the Xenomorph result in an instant death. Later on in the game you can use a flamethrower to scare the alien away, and although many accuse it of being an overpowered tool, I quickly found that reliance on the flamethrower desensitized the Xenomorph. So, at least on Hard, it only felt like a get out of jail free card with a fine print of "at your own risk". Along the way you will also have to counter rogue androids and deranged people aboard Sevastopol. The androids are less quick to detect Ripley and move slowly, but remain an imposing threat since they are very difficult to lose once they've seen you. They also say strangely deceptive things without even knowing you are there, like "Look behind you", just to mess with your head. You can kill either the androids or humans if you want, but sticking to stealth is the best way to maintain items and health.
The motion tracker made famous in Aliens serves as your constant companion in Isolation. One would think the motion tracker (which allows you to see where enemies are so long as they are moving) would ruin the sense of tension by giving the player too much information. In reality, it is an ingenious blend of the two drastically different tensions from Alien and Aliens. In Scott's Alien, the Xenomorph pops up at the most unexpected times possible, and the creature is portrayed as an unpredictable, flawless predator. Cameron's Aliens portrayed them as animalistic and hive-minded, like insects. Equipped with heavy weaponry, the motion tracker beeps frantically as they close in en masse. From above, below, or right in front of you, you can't know for sure. Isolation presents a balance of both horrors as you still have an unpredictable, flawless predator, but now you know approximately where it is almost all the time. It would be interesting if the developers included a mode where no motion tracker was allowed and we could only use the game's excellent audio to gauge where the Xenomorph was, but the motion tracker was a good way to incorporate something from Aliens.
Graphically, Isolation fits the look of the movies perfectly. Rather than trying to modernize Alien's anachronistic vision of the future, the shiny but outdated 80's glimpse of the future revels in primitive computers and cassette tapes. A subtle takeaway from Scott's Alien was the nature of the environments: they look genuine and real. Clothes, magazines, and other miscellaneous items are strewn about to give the areas a lived-in feel that was notably absent from the sequels. The game runs at 1080p and 30 frames per second on both platforms, though I observed framerate drops on the Xbox One version of the game during the game's admittedly beautiful fire effects. I often ran into PS2-worthy lip-syncing, and sometimes no lip-syncing at all which was a surprising encounter in the 8th generation. The music in the game sounded just like a score you'd expect from the Alien movies, and I like that they opted to go for a largely original score rather than recycling older music, like most recent Star Wars games.
Overall I really enjoyed the aesthetic, sound, and feel of Alien Isolation. However, there were some issues I had with the game. I will mark spoilers when needed.
Even though the story kept me engaged and curious most of the time, the game drags on a little too long for its own good. I've seen people argue that this is a trivial complaint, because most games are too short these days and this way, you get your money's worth. I am of the opinion that a game's length isn't a factor in its quality, but its pacing. For some perspective, imagine the last couple hours in Bioshock after you kill a certain important character, and how it completely killed the momentum of the plot. Now imagine that happens multiple times throughout Isolation's 18-24 hour story. The developers also did a poor job of making Amanda Ripley a likeable character. Although she is admirable for her bravery, the writers seemed more concerned with making her a carbon copy of her mom than making their own character. Other characters fail to leave lasting impressions either, and you can usually tell which ones will end up in a pool of blood.
*SPOILERS*
One criticism of the plot I often see is the presence of a Xenomorph hive on Sevastopol despite their being no queen on board. Although it was a stupid plot hole, I have to admit that the set piece it allowed was a totally worthy trade. Hearing the shrieks of multiple Xenomorphs mingled with the distant, tortured screams of human hosts while my motion tracker became cluttered to the point of uselessness was one of the most terrifying moments in any game. Since this is a horror game and that's kind of the point, I'll let it slide. The products of the hive though, the facehuggers, are the most infuriating thing in the game. The shooting mechanics in Isolation are not very intuitive, and it isn't ever a problem until you get to the facehuggers who are tiny, fast, and instantly kill you. They just feel like a kind of pointless addition, only momentarily delaying your progression by forcing you to determine where they spawn through trial and error gameplay.
*END SPOILERS*
I obviously had some big issues with Alien Isolation, and yet I still consider it to be an excellent game. More than anything, I praise it as a great starting point for future Alien games to build upon, and that's more than can be said for any of the other games based on the franchise.
If you've got an Alien itch you can't quite scratch until Alien: Rolumus releases, GameSpew has rounded up the best Alien games to tide you over.
Fans (myself included) are clamouring for a direct sequel to this fantastic game and hope for an Alien: Isolation 2. But will this great game ever get another instalment?
tbh it doesn’t need a sequel. Fantastic game but not something to make into a long running series.
Looking for some hidden gems to tell your friends about. Here is a list of 15 of the best hidden gem Android games you've never heard of.
I beat this game about a month ago. My main issue with it was the length and story. The game felt as if many of the latter chapters could of been shortened or simply removed. The game has excellent graphics with great lighting that added to sublime atmosphere. I also had a few issues with the games' technical aspect it runs at 30 fps, I don't understand why it wasn't 60 fps, the graphics are comparable to that of Metro Redux. Also on the PS4 version the framerate during cutscenes tends to chug and dip. Technical issues aside I enjoyed the game for it tension, atmosphere, set pieces and faithfulness to the films.