Alien: Isolation'Old xenomorph, new tricks
(Photo courtesy of alien isolation.com)
I am a horror game kind of guy. I've beaten a few classics like Silent Hill 2 and Condemned: Criminal Origins, I've experienced the action/horror craziness of the Dead Space series and Resident Evil 4, and I've crawled down dark hallways in newer titles like Outlast and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I love horror games, and when I heard a franchise-related Alien title was about to be released, I'groaned. "What could Alien possibly have left to offer the horror world after having been revisited so many times?" I asked myself. 'This series has been done to death.' Considering the recent Aliens: Colonial Marines mishap and the less-than-successful turn the movies had after the second installment, I didn't see any reason to hold out hope for yet another Alien franchise money grab. What I didn't count on was the true quality of this game and the power of a driven xenomorph. Alien: Isolation is good.
Alien: Isolation follows directly after the events of Alien (the first movie in the series). Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda, has been notified that a flight recorder from her mother's long-lost ship has been found, and that it contains a message for her. After agreeing to try and acquire the message, Amanda and a small crew sets out to find the Sevastopol, the space station that picked up the message. Upon a crazy arrival, Amanda quickly learns that she and her friends are not alone, that most of the crew is dead,and an alien hunter is loose on the ship.
Alien: Isolation plays like a modern horror game'few weapons, little ammo and lots of places to hide. As Amanda, the player meets a variety of enemies across the ship and each will respond to her differently. While the remaining human crew might only fire a few rounds in her direction, service androids will hunt her relentlessly, keeping a speedy pace and attempting to choke the player whenever he or she gets close. Other natural hazards pose a decent threat, but nothing in the game can come close to the intimidation and deadliness of the xenomorph. The titular alien of the title is brutal, unpredictable, and fast, appearing out of nowhere with deadly intentions. The alien kills within seconds, giving the player precious little time to respond to the threat and given the sparse nature of save points, the threat of death means more than just a long loading screen. Players can use in-game items to craft weapons, distractions, and traps to stave off the alien threat and after enough experience these tools give the player just enough of an edge to survive. That's not to say that survival will be easy. The Alien itself cannot be killed by any players' ammunition. Knowing this heightens tension and pushes players to their limits. The intimidation of knowing a creature you can't kill and can barely harm is hunting you is fabulous, and the AI for the creature is excellent. Of all the aspects of this new alien title, by far the best is the Alien itself.
I do have a few qualms with this game. The quests Amanda undertakes are often full of backtracking, and the 'metroidvania' style of "get a new thing, open a new door in an old area" can get old after revisiting the same area 2-3 times. In addition, the jobs Amanda volunteers for are often completely out of her league as an engineer. When trained policemen and soldiers refuse to do a perilous job, why send the engineer? And what kind of engineer agrees to do all of this? Despite her fully realized, voice-acted performance, it's hard to say that Amanda Ripley has a voice of her own. Weapon usage is badly explained, leaving players only experimentation and blind luck to get through some of the more difficult enemies. Once the player grasps the purpose of each weapon, though, the game becomes almost laughably easy in non-xenomorph areas. Finally, the game seems to outlast its welcome, with a drawn out plot and unnecessary stretching past what could have been a final climax.
All in all, though, Alien: Isolation is a great game. A great monster with few resources and a tight atmosphere all add up to some very scary circumstances and this game follows that formula to the letter. Despite its flaws, Alien: Isolation is a solid game worthy of any horror fan's attention.
