Let me start off with a small history lesson: I have seen the first Alien movie in 2002 or so, and I really liked it. Coincidentally, this was one year after I got my first gaming computer and was actually getting into videogames in a big way. The first thing I thought was "This would make for an amazing videogame!"

But a shining beacon of hope appeared in the distance as I have discovered that there indeed is a game which is considered good from Alien universe (sort of), Aliens vs Predator by Rebellion. So I got that. And while it was scary enough as a Marine, Alien wasn't this constant, ever present threat which was to be feared - Aliens were just common monsters, which would give you a scare, but weren't really all that difficult to defeat. I liked the game, sure, but something just wasn't quite there. It reminded me of the second movie far more than it did of the first, and the fact that I seemed to move at warp speed didn't help either. Since then, two more Aliens vs Predator games got released, and shortly after those, Aliens: Colonial Marines came out. And finally, 12 years in which I have revisited the original movie a few times and every time hoped for a proper Alien game to exist, one came out. And it is nearly all I hoped it would be.

Alien: Isolation throws everything you would traditionally do when returning to a movie that old out of the window and executes everything with a beautiful attention to detail, replicating everything from visual design, sounds of the original, music, hell, the game even got the original cast of the fist movie on board to do voice acting. The game doesn't try to modernize, it doesn't try to make the game 'more believable' for a 21st century consumer - nah, it just says fuck that, converts everything we could see in the original movie into in-game assets and ends up being that much more thrilling, nostalgic and believable for it. It's a game made by fans of the movie, for fans of the movie, a huge love letter to everything the original is.

I could probably start talking about the game tho, right? Yeah, I should do that. So, you're playing as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley. Ellen Ripley has been considered lost for 15 years, and Amanda has been informed about black box of Nostromo finding its way to Sevastopol space station. Soon after arriving on station, she finds that everything has gone to hell, surviving people are fighting for remaining resources, androids kill on sight for trespassing, and on top of that, there is talk of some creature murdering people.

The game is mostly a stealth-based survival horror, with very few tools to defend yourself with (and while you get more of those as you progress trough the game, you very rarely get to have enough ammo), so you're left to a motion tracker and your wit to stay alive. The game gives you many tools for distracting your enemies, be it humans, androids or the Alien. You can craft items, some of which can cause direct damage, others which can serve to distract. Some levels have conveniently placed 'rewire boxes', which allow you to turn off cameras, open doors or cause distractions in various parts of a level. You can hide in lockers, vents or just low spaces like under desks or beds. These elements, and parts of the game where you need to get around humanoid opponents, mostly reminded me of games similar to Outlast or Amnesia. Individual areas tend to be open enough to allow for a decent amount of ways to get around various obstacles, and the level design itself is quite beautiful, varied and clever to keep you interested. All in all, when you're up against more traditional threats, Alien: Isolation is a good stealth game, and a decent shooter in the rare occassions you choose to approach it that way. When you explore the station, it also very rarely happens that you'd get locked out of a section of it, and so you can go back to most places you've already been - and there's even a reason to do so as more equipment you gain will open up more secret areas for you.

However, all of this changes after the Alien makes its first appearance. Suddenly, you're not just worrying about the traditional opponents. There's always the threat of the Alien, lurking above you, making its way trough ventilation ducts of the entire station. If you run too fast - you may attract the Alien. If you hit a wall with your maintenance jack, it might distract your opponents, but it might also attract the Alien. If you fire your gun, you don't just fire your gun - you may attract the Alien. (that also applies to human opposition tho - while the Alien ignores androids, when someone shoots at you and the Alien is nearby, it will jump out of airduct and start working its way trough any human it sees. Including you of course.)

The creature's AI is good enough to differenciate it from all other opponents, to make it a constant threat and to make you nervous about it, as you see a green dot on your movement tracker, circling around you somewhere above. Those are the calm bits of the game tho - when it emerges and you can see it, everything gets a lot worse as, most of the time, it only takes the Alien to notice you once for you to pretty much instantly die. Oh, and it can kill you from the vents if you miss the dribbling ooze or are foolish enough to take a look what exactly is it dribbling from. All of these aspects are frustrating, yes, along with the fact that the Alien is a lot more perceptive than the other opponents, you are going to die a lot and the only way to save your game is at fixed save stations (which are placed fairly close to each other so it's not that bad), but all of this successfully leads to one end - not cheapening the creature. Alien is terrifying, it's constantly there, stalking you, trying to pinpoint your exact location and to kill you. You'll feel that most of encounters with it are close, and that you are always one wrong step from dying. While it is, in reality, a lot more forgiving than that, the feeling of paranoia is always there, scratching at the back of your head.

All of this is backed up by a decent storyline and solid writing, with fantastic music, graphic and sound design. While some bits of the game feel a bit padded, it generally manages to make you feel like its always quite fresh (I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to reveal how exactly), and while the game is quite long, it feels captivating enough to make me finish it. The game takes good care to pace itself properly - the first time you even get to see the alien is about 1,5 hours into it

All in all, Alien: Isolation is the best survival horror game I have played in a very long time, possibly since Dead Space, and this time, it places emphasis on the 'survival' bit. It's beautifully put together, very well crafted and it's such an innovative gaming experience that I'm pondering on making it my GOTY of 2014. Well worth your money, well worth playing.

Edit: Apparently, the game can be quite buggy. As I have played it about 6 months after release, bugs might have been fleshed out as I have not encountered any - but take caution.

Vote for the game on community wishlist.

Thanks for the review, i enjoyed reading it. As a fan of the movies, i'm waiting for it's price to drop heavily (because of the DRM) to try it myself*. I have seen only a couple of videos but as i don't want to spoil anything, i'm not gonna watch anything else or search for info about the game.

* unless i change my mind and get to view a longplay video.. :-)

My blood pressure rose while reading that!

My very first exposure to Alien was a viewfinder from the first movie in 1979. I was a grade school kid, and I had no idea what I was seeing except that it was super super cool and very mysterious.

I have loved the movies since.

I will have to keep an eye out for a good price for this game.

woohoo!

Very well-written. You got me excited about the game!

Nice review. I also loved the game, especially when you are avoiding the Xenomorph. Wasn't as crazy about the human/android combat, but it didn't bother me too much.

Funny story, my first exposure to Alien was as an 8 or 9 year old. Don't quote me on the year, but I was visiting my Grandmother's house and she had HBO. I happened to turn it on one afternoon and they were playing Alien. I happened to turn it on JUST as John Hurt was being restrained on the table and then the alien ripped out of him. I still remember standing there with my mouth open before turning the TV off completely. Don't think I watched TV for a week after that!

While I liked the game, I'd say it still has two big flaws: tedium and predictability.

Tedium, because while the tension is really well done, it took me 22 hours to beat that game and constantly hiding under tables can eventually get boring. I feel the game lasts a bit too long, towards the end I had ran out of patience and was gaming the system a lot.

Predictability, because the tropes it uses can be spotted kilometers away. I don't want to tread into spoiler territory, but it does get almost stupid sometimes. I know a guy whose inmersion was completely destroyed due to that, and this is not a good game if you don't have inmersion.

Basically, my point is that while it is a very good game and I agree to pretty much everything you wrote on your review, it does have flaws and I think those should be mentioned as well.

I did mention the storyline being 'decent', which is not exactly a glowing recommendation, and the game feeling padded. See, the first two paragraphs are there for a reason - I'm a massive fan, have been waiting for this for ages, and can hardly be considered unbiased. It's cool tho, we've got discussion here to point out issues other people have had with it :-)

yep, discussion is what forums are for after all.

And I just remembered a third flaw, which I think is pretty major: the game is buggy. And I'm not talking abut graphical glitches, I can live with the alien occasionally clipping through the locker I'm hiding at and suddenly staring at its face. I'm talking about progress breaking bugs, and I ran into quite a few of them. Luckily I could get around them by quiting the game and reloading or lowering the graphic quality, but I had to restart an entire chapter once. The other guy i was talking about earlier rage quited in one of these, and I was close to doing so during the final mission when I ran into 3 bugs in a row.

Seriously, the other stuff is rather personal and others might enjoy what I don't. But those bugs should be gone.

Heh, I'm an extremely lucky person when it comes to bug. I have even encountered very few while playing Elder Scrolls games. Nonetheless, I'm gonna link your post in the wall of text, you're right - that's a genuine issue.

For the record, I played about 3 or so months ago. Somewhere around end of October? Anyway, these bugs seem to be quite luck related indeed, I didn't experience the one that caused my friend to ragequit for instance. And the one(s?) that required me to lower my graphic options probably wouldn't have happened if my computer was more powerful to begin with, I didn't check the minimum requirements so I may be below that somewhere and that would be on me. Still plenty more to complain about though.

And congratulations on your luck. Unfortunately, I don't seem to share it, I also got some quests blocked on Elder Scrolls games. A very funny one happened in Skyrim, on the companions quest line, where they had to reforge some sword by picking all fragments... except I hadn't completed some random "find fragment and bring it to me" quest, so I ended up with the reforged sword and an extra piece that nobody wanted as it wasn't supposed to exist. I couldn't even drop it as it was a quest item.

Thanks for the review, I was considering buying it in the next sale, cheers :)

Isolation is the game that made me realise that there's a big difference between "Feeling like you're in Aliens" and "Feeling like you're in Alien".

In an Aliens game, you're scared because you're outnumbered by horrifying monsters, but you're still a badass (albeit a cocky, overconfident one), and you know you can take them... as long as you can see them coming.

In an Alien game, you're terrified because you're utterly, utterly screwed.

Well you get at least some feeling of empowerment as you progress, and you'll find means to temporarily scare the Alien (which will later come back with vengeance, so it's difficult to asses just how useful that temporary scare is) Still, towards the end, my feelings about the game went from 'terrified' towards 'fairly scared', and sometimes, there were bits where I just felt a big 'NNOPE'

I would still love a game like this in the environment of Alien 3. As much as I love the first two, the strange rust environment of Alien 3 is easily my favourite and the creepiest.

By the way, did you play the DLC? I heard is even better than the game itself.