Alien Isolation is a follow up to last year's disappointing game Aliens: Colonial Marines. This time around Sega has given the reigns to Creative Assembly. While Creative Assembly is known for the Total War franchise, they step out of their comfort zone to give us an Aliens game unlike any other.
Rather than stepping into the shoes of a hardened colonial marine, this time we get to experience the terror through the eyes of Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter. Taking place between Alien and Aliens, the story follows Amanda after she is invited on a job that might shed some light into the disappearance of her mother and the rest of the Nostromo crew. You arrive on the space station Sevastopol only to discover that the station is in ruins and the remaining people still on board are terrified of some unknown creature.
To say the least, the game has a very good hook to get you invested in the story. The dark and tense tone is set as you begin your investigation. People are paranoid and fighting over resources and it doesn't take too long before you are faced with the terror that survivors can only describe as a dangerous organism.
Get away from me you b***h!
The game play is far more focused on survival horror than combat. You will need to rely on your wit and whatever tools you find lying around to ensure your survival. Your most vital tool in isolation is the motion tracker. Similar to the tracker used in the Aliens movie, this will monitor movement in a cone in front of you. The motion tracker comes in handy for monitoring the alien's movement and other potential threats that might lurk in the immediate facility. Do not go into this game assuming that the alien is the only enemy you will encounter. Human survivors are running scared across Sevastopol and needless to say they are a bit trigger happy. Along with people, there are Seegson androids running maintenance on Sevastopol called Working Joe's. Many androids are hostile and while they are slow, require quite a bit of ammunition do put down.
You always know a Working Joe!
There is also a crafting system present in the game that will allow Ripley to make use of the materials she collects around the station to craft useful gadgets to aid her in combat or distract the aliens. My favorite of these devices was the noisemaker. It not only provided a much needed distraction when I was moments away from getting eaten but it can also act a summoning tool for the Alien. One strategy that seemed to work well was to throw a noisemaker near an armed group of people to summon the alien and let it do the dirty work for me. Summoning the alien has its consequences. It might be able to pick off the enemies with guns but now you have a threat to dead with that cannot be killed.
It'll never find me here........crap
The audio and video department definitely did their homework when it came to making an alien game look and sound like something that belonged in the universe. Everything in the game looks and sounds like a 70's sci-fi movie. The computers are big and clunky, the film grain effect is present, and I even got goosebumps when that heart throbbing alarm started ringing in my ears.
Some parts of the game can be difficult to navigate. The motion tracker has a cursor that will always point you toward your next objective however sometimes the compass gets finicky at certain times and doesn't always get you there the quickest way. Thankfully there is a map for when you get lost but Sevastopol is a big station and it would've helped if there were more visual cues to guide you through the station.
While Isolation delivers a tense horror game that keeps you constantly looking around each corner there are some missteps along the way. First of all the game is way too long with too little variation. Aside from humans, androids and the alien there isn't much else in the way of harm for Ripley to deal with. The game play doesn't change much once the alien shows up and it starts to get a bit repetitive after a while. While the alien does exhibit some randomized behavior, I found myself sticking to the same tactics over and over again. The alien fell for the same tricks over and over again and the game never tried to change up the game play other than just taking away some of your equipment for a section. The game lasts a little too long for it's own good. There are several points in the game where they could have ended the game right then and there. The game also suffers from a bit of a weak ending. It isn't disappointing but I think the long run time hurt the game's story more than it helped.
Alien Isolation is definitely worth a play. It's nice to see horror games making their comeback and this one combines sci-fi and horror nicely. It was also a relief to see that the alien license finally got the justice it deserves. Despite some of the flaws this game has there is still plenty here for someone to be entertained and anyone who is a fan of Alien or survival horror should definitely check this one out.
8/10
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