Amanda is regularly being hunted by more powerful foes. What this game does best is create moments of genuine terror.
But on the plus side this system does keep the stakes and heart rate high throughout the game, which is commendable considering the limit enemy types. Nothing undermines believability like watching scripted events play out over and over again. So you're often forced to sit through the same conversations, staged action or slow-paced puzzles when you already know the outcome. There's no in-game auto-save, not even after key events, like cutscenes. But this death also gave me my first look at the reload options, which I soon came to realise are just as retro and clunky as the old analog phones that you save the game with. Thankfully you do eventually encounter actual enemies, and I'm certainly guilty of jumping the first time I was caught by the Alien. Some need the power restored, and others you'll need to hack. There are the classics like the keypad and keycard locks, some that require more muscle like these door clampy things. And Alien Isolation has perhaps the greatest variety of locked doors I've ever encountered.
But while there's no monster moment early on, you do get to square up against that all too familiar survival horror foe - locked doors. And in that first hour or so you really feel the tension start to build as you face off against nothing but noises and shadows. Amazing corridors! Corridors of the year! The game has a wonderfully cinematic intro with a deliberate, slow pace to let you soak it all in.
It all has a tactile aesthetic and feels far more realistic than the ususal chrome-y, hologram sci fi stuff we're used to seeing these days.Įverything about the interiors feels researched and realised, there are layer upon layers of grills, pipes, swinging lights and moody smoke bringing each location to life. Everywhere you look you'll see large clunky buttons, tape recorders, and flickery CRT TVs - everything feels suitably dated, and as a fan of the film, I loved this. It's a nice, simple premise that pays regular homage to the original film, and I really connected with Amanda and her situation, regardless of her inevitably doomed mission.ĭespite being set in the far future, this is based off a 70's interpretation, which means technology is all very "old school". Unfortunately, her mum's still floating through space somewhere after barely surviving the first encounter on the Nostromo, so you're on a mission to try and track her down. You play Amanda Ripley - daughter of the famous Alien-exterminating Ellen. The game's setting slots neatly between the first and second film. Alien Isolation turns its back on the blazing gunfire of last year's Colonial Marines game and instead aims to recreate the chilling terror and low-fi technology of the 1979 original film - and fortunately it delivers on both with a horror game that literally has atmosphere coming out of the walls.