Alien: Isolation

I may be a bit late to the Alien party, but I am damn glad that I got on board with this franchise. I had never watched any of the movie quadrilogy, nor had I really played any of the games based on them. I was in no way a fan of Alien et al. That has completely changed thanks to picking up Alien: Isolation on a whim and giving it a go. No other game has ever gotten my heart rate up and been the cause for so much personal anxiety before. On top of it all, the darn thing got me to go watch a 35 year old sci-fi horror classic. So kudos to the team over at Creative Assembly for developing a game that got me hooked on a property that I had effectively dismissed almost my entire life.

Alien: Isolation came out about three months ago (October 6, 2014) and has received numerous game of the year awards from outlets like PC Gamer and Stuff. It’s really not hard to see why. This is hands down the best survival horror game that I’ve ever played. The atmosphere of the gritty, deteriorating space station combined with cinematic style mood music created unparalleled levels of anxiety and tension. I found myself holding my breath unintentionally several times while trying to escape the xenomorph or just reach the next save point. On top of that, I was playing on Xbox One with the Kinect listening for any loud sound in the real world to alert my in game foes. (In space, no one can hear you scream — but in this game they sure as hell will.) I also had head tracking enabled, because the only way I could think of to make things more tense was to actually lean to the side in order to do so in the game. Yes, I definitely jumped a couple times when I happened to do so directly into the alien. Next, I want this experience on a VR headset like the Oculus Rift.

Honestly, Alien: Isolation stands on its own an unbelievable survival horror experience. However, all of the atmosphere and the story that was lovingly crafted into the game made me exceedingly curious about the source material. I wasn’t completely ignorant of the Alien films, but I had never actually sat down and watched one with the exception of Alien Versus Predator. So after making it just a bit over halfway through the game, I sat down and watched Alien for the first time. Holy crap, that is an excellent film that stands up even today. I really expected it to feel far more hokey given that it’s over thirty five years old. Even with the monochrome CRT monitors all over the place, large buttons, and bulky electronics, Alien succeeds at telling a compelling story with some awesome characters trying to survive in a horrifying situation. Now I just need to go watch Aliens and write my own Way Too Late review.

What I found out through watching the film was that this game is an incredible homage to the original Alien experience made interactive. The feel of the movie is faithfully recreated in the muted beige look of living quarters, the industrial exposed steel hallways, and the claustrophobic ventilation ducts. It seems that no detail was overlooked. Even the most innocuous set pieces like the drinking birds or the bobbing blue sphere-person things (no idea what the fuck they’re supposed to be) are present in the offices of the game. The interface room for Apollo is spot on to that for Mother on the Nostromo. I can honestly say that I gained a whole new appreciation for the game after seeing the film.

Between Alien and Alien: Isolation, I have to say that I would really love to learn more about this universe and I earnestly hope that they produce a follow up. I’ll admit to being a bit perplexed that a studio known for their tactical war games produced this amazing first person stealth adventure, but I can’t imagine any other studio doing a better job. The game and film compliment and enhance each other in a way that I’m not sure exists anywhere else. (No, not even in Pokémon.)

I’ll admit that I probably shouldn’t have been a crazy person and started the game on hard difficulty because there were certainly times that things crossed over from tense to frustrating. To be fair, that is the setting that claims to be how the game was intended to be played and I thought I’d be up to the challenge. I was, in the end, but it probably required me spending a lot longer and swearing a bit more than it should have. I might have also done better if I hadn’t hoarded all of me resources constantly. Still, I can’t imagine a more fitting game for this universe to be represented by. My only fear now is that nothing else is going to live up to Alien: Isolation. It is quite possibly the apex predator of this genre and anything that dares challenge it had better be prepared to get devoured.