Alien Isolation Review: No One Can Hear You Scream

Image courtesy of GamingCypher.com

Lately, it seems as if survival horror games are finally putting more emphasis on the whole surviving bit. Games like Outlast and Amnesia take all means of offense away from the player, making them rely on stealth and their wits to make it out of increasingly deadly situations alive.

Now, Creative Assembly is hoping to strike major horror gold with of their new survival simulator Alien Isolation. Taking on the role of Amanda Ripley (daughter of franchise hero Ellen Ripley), you are tasked to survive aboard the desolate space station Sevastopol. Amanda was lured there with the promise of finally finding out what happened to her mother (Isolation takes place 15 years after the original Ridley Scott film), but in true science fiction fashion, something goes terribly wrong, and Amanda is forced to escape alive, all the while being hunted by killer androids, paranoid humans, and, of course, the infamous xenomorph.

There is a lot riding on the back of Alien Isolation, as many are hoping it will be the one game that finally gets the Alien franchise right.

And you know what? It does.

The Alien is a constant menace, nearly every moment is a heart-pounding exercise in pure terror, and the sounds, sights, and visuals all make you feel as if you are living inside the 1979 film. Isolation, for all intents and purposes, is a perfect addition to the Alien lore and can proudly stand side-by-side with Ridley Scott's masterpiece. This is a very solidly designed game and you can see that the developers have a very deep love for Alien lore.

The core of the game goes like this: you move from objective to objective, all the while avoiding threats in the form of creepy androids, armed humans, and the Alien itself. Creative Assembly has frequently brought up the fact that the Alien's A.I. is incredibly advanced, as it will show up at random and continuously search for you, all in the hopes of eating your face off. I can attest to this; I always had to be on edge as the Alien could come out of nowhere at any moment, and I always had to be aware of my surroundings if I wanted to survive.

Trial and error is the name of the game here. I died so many times on one stretch of gameplay that I nearly threw the controller at my television screen. The Alien is so menacing and smart that you cannot afford to make even the smallest mistake. To help you stay alive, you have a trusty motion tracker to let you know where threats are at all times (just be aware that it makes noise that can attract your foes) and numerous hiding places to stay out of harm's way. You can also collect scrap and building materials to craft items to use as distractions. As the game goes on you gain access to more helpful tools (like a shotgun and the oh-so-helpful flamethrower) that makes enemy encounters a bit more manageable.

Alien Isolation builds tension and atmosphere perfectly. The pace is incredible and you rarely get a chance to catch your breath. As the game goes on however, that sense of tension wears off a bit. Once you get the aforementioned flamethrower, you can shoo off the Alien every time it gets close to you making it more of an annoyance than real threat. The game does not entirely let up, though, as androids and humans still pose a threat (especially those insanely creepy and seemingly indestructible androids). There is an incredible little break in the middle of the game that is 100% pure fan service and provides a much needed change of pace.

As great as Isolation is, I would hardly call it a fun game. It is nearly 20 hours long (even longer when played at higher difficulties) and its incredibly intense nature keeps it from being your normal, everyday video game burst of entertainment and joy. There was rarely a moment when I could rest easy and truly enjoy my time with the game. That is not to say that Isolation is a bad game - it is very good, great in fact - but it does have a few missteps that hold it back from being a true masterpiece. My two biggest problems with Alien: Isolation are as follows:

1. Encounters with the Alien tend to be way more frustrating than scary. Whenever I entered a situation where the Alien was hunting me, I got legitimately terrified. After 10 or so deaths, however, I became more angered than scared. And thanks to the manual save system, tension turns into frustration rather quickly when you have to replay the same section of game over and over again.
2. The game drags on way too long. I felt like there were four or five spots where the game was going to wrap up, only to keep adding more and more for me to do. Amanda does end up finding out about her mother's fate, which would be a perfect place to end, but the game rolls on for another four hours after that. It feels overstuffed, again taking away the tension that worked so well in the first 10 or so hours of the game. Encounters with enemies at the beginning were absolutely terrifying, but once you run into the Alien for the 167th time, it becomes less of "OH MY GOD he's back!" and more of "Oh great, him again."

That is not to say that I disliked Alien Isolation. Despite being a major test of patience and temper, Isolation is a very well-designed game and is most definitely the best Alien game in a very long time. It is also one of my favorite games of the year so far.

If you love the Alien franchise and/or love horror games, you definitely owe it to yourself to check out Isolation. It is filled with many absolutely harrowing moments that will keep you up at night, as well as many moments of controller-throwing fury. Either way, Alien: Isolation is worth your attention.

Just try to stay alive.