Alien Isolation
Normally I don't post about games I just finished playing. But Alien Isolation is a real exception. The past month I spent completing the main campaign has been a harrowing one that left me with both nightmares and moments of complete awe. With no hesitation I can say that this is not only the best Alien video game by far, but also one of the best expansions on the Alien lore since James Cameron's Aliens.
After the epic failure (or so I hear) that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, I was surprised to see Sega publish yet another Alien title. The difference was that where Colonial Marines focused on all the same things ever other Alien game has in the past; hoards of Aliens, loads of weapons and ammo and generally trying to turn Cameron's Aliens into a video game. Isolation however, is one of the first games to focus solely on the first Ridley Scott film. In fact, Alien Isolation pulls not one trope or element from the films beyond the first. Everything from the makeshift, lo-fi technology, rattled and unprepared characters, and the entire look of the world resembles Scott's Alien down to a "T".
Alien Isolation isn't your typical Alien game. Instead of gunning your way through the halls, splattering acid-blood on the bulkheads, you are a rodent in a 20 hour game of cat and mouse. You play as Lt. Ripley's daughter, who, after the events of the first film, has been trying to find out what happened. Getting lucky, she ends up on a mission from Weyland-Yutani to recover the black-box of her mother's ship the Nostromo which is being held at a Segson run space facility. You end up stranded on this station, which has gone straight to hell thanks to a number of factors, one major one of which is an Alien which has managed to make it's way on board. The Alien hunts you and the other surviving members of the station as you attempt to escape back to your ship the Torrens and try to find the black box which contains the answers you are looking for.
As you make your way through the game pick up a motion tracker, in style with the one used in Alien, not Aliens. You also craft a number of tools for distracting the Alien and other humans who are so scared of what's going on they'd rather shoot first and figure it out later. This means you are sneaking and hiding your way through most all of the game. Make too much noise and the beast comes looking for you. You get a gun, but using it could cause you more trouble than it's worth. The entire game is full of increasingly tense moments where you could get hauled into a vent at anytime by the nasty creature and for the first few days I got terrible sleep because I was literally having nightmares about this game.
Alien Isolation is not for the weak, it's non-stop tension and a generally frightening game where you typically feel helpless. Mimicking exactly what Ridley Scott did with his Alien film. There's also so many fantastic moments I simply can't get into without spoiling what is a very new game that I know many people have yet to, and will, play. This game looks gorgeous, is gorgeous and is an absolute feat in a world where noone seems to be able to create a great Alien game. I can only hope for a sequel, with how well this worked out. In fact, with how well this turned out, I would love to see them apply this formula to the Alien 3 movie.
After the epic failure (or so I hear) that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, I was surprised to see Sega publish yet another Alien title. The difference was that where Colonial Marines focused on all the same things ever other Alien game has in the past; hoards of Aliens, loads of weapons and ammo and generally trying to turn Cameron's Aliens into a video game. Isolation however, is one of the first games to focus solely on the first Ridley Scott film. In fact, Alien Isolation pulls not one trope or element from the films beyond the first. Everything from the makeshift, lo-fi technology, rattled and unprepared characters, and the entire look of the world resembles Scott's Alien down to a "T".
Alien Isolation isn't your typical Alien game. Instead of gunning your way through the halls, splattering acid-blood on the bulkheads, you are a rodent in a 20 hour game of cat and mouse. You play as Lt. Ripley's daughter, who, after the events of the first film, has been trying to find out what happened. Getting lucky, she ends up on a mission from Weyland-Yutani to recover the black-box of her mother's ship the Nostromo which is being held at a Segson run space facility. You end up stranded on this station, which has gone straight to hell thanks to a number of factors, one major one of which is an Alien which has managed to make it's way on board. The Alien hunts you and the other surviving members of the station as you attempt to escape back to your ship the Torrens and try to find the black box which contains the answers you are looking for.
As you make your way through the game pick up a motion tracker, in style with the one used in Alien, not Aliens. You also craft a number of tools for distracting the Alien and other humans who are so scared of what's going on they'd rather shoot first and figure it out later. This means you are sneaking and hiding your way through most all of the game. Make too much noise and the beast comes looking for you. You get a gun, but using it could cause you more trouble than it's worth. The entire game is full of increasingly tense moments where you could get hauled into a vent at anytime by the nasty creature and for the first few days I got terrible sleep because I was literally having nightmares about this game.
Alien Isolation is not for the weak, it's non-stop tension and a generally frightening game where you typically feel helpless. Mimicking exactly what Ridley Scott did with his Alien film. There's also so many fantastic moments I simply can't get into without spoiling what is a very new game that I know many people have yet to, and will, play. This game looks gorgeous, is gorgeous and is an absolute feat in a world where noone seems to be able to create a great Alien game. I can only hope for a sequel, with how well this worked out. In fact, with how well this turned out, I would love to see them apply this formula to the Alien 3 movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment