What is this? Have I gone mad? Have I lost all sense of reality? I imagine it's possible. I mentioned in my review of Alien, that there was a video game based on that movie: Alien Isolation. It's unusual for me to review a video game on a movie blog, but I feel that this game certainly deserves some attention. For those who are not in the know, Alien is a sci-fi/horror movie released back in 1979. The film followed a group of space "truckers" as they are sent to investigate a mysterious signal on a nearby planet. They discover not just an alien ship, but a very violent and destructive organism that begins to pick off the crew one-by-one. Hailed as one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made, Alien succeeded in terrifying audiences world-wide. Utilizing claustrophobia and the fear of the dark, Alien featured one of the most iconic movie monsters ever conceived. The film featured top-notch performances from Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, and the woman who would usher in a new generation of bad-ass female heroes: Sigourney Weaver.
Alien: Isolation takes place 15 years after the events of the original movie. The game begins as Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda is offered a chance to find out why her mother hasn't been seen in 15 years. It seems that the flight recorder from the Nostromo has been found. It's been taken to a space station to be examined and collected by Weyland-Yutani, the company that Ripley's mother worked for. As soon as we board the space station, we begin to see that something terrible has happened and the space station is falling apart. People are scarce and there appears to be something lurking in the shadows. The developers at Creative Assembly sought to replicate the atmosphere and tension of the movie, and to that extent they succeeded. Right from the get-go, the work that went in to bringing this world to life is apparent as many of the designs of the corridors and technology are lifted directly from Alien.
As you can see from the screenshots, the detail is almost immaculate. What you can also see, is that the game takes place from a first-person perspective. This is not an action game, even though it has elements of action in it. No, this a first-person survival horror experience. The moment you enter the station, you feel a real sense of foreboding, as if something really bad is about to happen. There is definitely a palpable sense of dread the further you get into the station and begin to find out what happened. The first hour of the game is basically a setup for what happens next. After an hour, you finally encounter the creature itself, and let me tell you, it takes your breath away. While some of the other enemies in the station can be killed, the Alien itself can't be. You're limited in the kind of weapons you have, so taking on the monster is suicide. The best thing you can do is hide and hope it doesn't see you. If it does, it's game over. This is where the real tension of the game reveals itself. Like in the movie, it's not necessarily what you see that scares you, it's the sound of that thing stomping around, either in the corridors or in the air vents above your head. One of the few things that can help you avoid being seen by the Alien is a motion tracker. It's not always accurate however. One of the worst things you can do when staying hidden, is not moving after the Alien leaves. It could come back and rip you out of the locker you're hiding in, because it could hear you breathing. Sound plays an integral part of this game. Any sound you make could alert the creature to your presence. It's very intense, almost to the point of being unbearable. You have no idea where this thing is going to pop out, save for that little motion tracker you've got. I'll be honest, there were a couple of times where I had to quit the game, because it got to be too crazy. One other thing I should mention: This game is unforgiving. I couldn't make it anywhere on the hard difficulty before quitting in frustration, so I knocked it down to easy. Is it easier? You have a little more wiggle-room to make mistakes, but it's still pretty hard.
That's not to say it's all hopeless. You do have a few interesting tools that you get throughout the game that will help you either fight off the Alien or distract it. You have a noisemaker that can throw the creature of your trail for a little bit, giving you time to escape. Or you can use a molotov cocktail to injure the monster and drive it off that way, but you won't kill it. The Alien isn't your only enemy on board the station. No, you've got security forces, scavengers and droids. With the human forces, you can take them down easily enough, or you can use the noisemaker and basically get the Alien to go after them instead of you. But it won't go after the droids. The droids are one of the downsides to this game. They suck. They take a lot of hits before they go down and if they get a hold of you, they deal quite a bit of damage. Luckily, they're slower than molasses, so you can outrun them. However, if you do run, there is the added risk of attracting the monster. You have to be very careful how you approach certain situations. There are long stretches of gameplay where you don't encounter the Alien at all. The second half of the game starts to become more of an action game. The first half of the game is basically survival horror and the second half the game is run-and-gun. Almost. You do get a flamethrower to help ward off the creature, but this section of the game relies on too much gun-play. Your character isn't a soldier, she's an engineer. That leads me to another interesting point about the game: It's crafting mechanic. You pick up schematics for molotovs, EMP grenades, pipebombs and medkits throughout the station, so if you have enough scrap, you can build stuff that'll help you. Visually speaking, this game is a stunner. It all comes down to details and this game has it in spades. The corridors are appropriately spooky. Hell, the game even retains the whole future-retro technology from the movie. For example, the computers that you sometimes need access to, remind me of the computers from the late 70's and early 80's. The human characters are exceptionally well-detailed, particularly during cut-scenes. There will be times when you have to space-walk and the scenery is exceptional. You can even see the clouds moving on the nearby planet. The station itself is a marvel to behold. It's HUGE. You thought the ship in the movie was big. That has nothing on the space depot. That also leads to ANOTHER problem with this game: Backtracking. There's a lot of it. You have trains that will take you to different parts of the station, but some of the locations start looking a little too familiar.
The creature itself is remarkably well-designed. While some of its walking animations seem stiff, the rest of it is fantastic to watch. It's surprisingly graceful for a perfectly-evolved killing machine. Although, if you watch the creature too much, it'll kill ya. So, don't get hypnotized by it. It's a thing to be feared. What really makes this game so damned effective is the sound. It really sends chills up and down your spine. When the creature is stalking the halls or the vents, you can hear and you have no idea when it's going to make an appearance. Atmosphere is everything in a game like this, and the sound really amps it up. The voice-acting definitely helps draw you into the game. Some of the characters sounded familiar, so I had to look them up. I'm surprised at what I found. One of the main characters, Marshall Waits, is played by none other than William Hope, the guy who played Lt. Gorman from the second Alien movie. Returning from the original film are not just one, but several of the main actors: Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton and Ellen Ripley herself, Sigourney Weaver. They all came back to record some stuff for audio logs from the Nostromo. I think having Sigourney Weaver reprise her iconic role after nearly 20 years, lends a credibility and authenticity that I don't think this game would have had otherwise. In fact, there are two DLC(Downloadable Content)which allow you to play AS Ellen Ripley herself or as some of the other members of the Nostromo crew. I think it's fantastic that you can explore the Nostromo a little bit. Of course, you have to contend with the Alien, so it's not all warm fuzzies. But the details on the original Nostromo crew are fantastically detailed. The ship itself is replicated in nearly every detail. So, it's kind of an interesting trip back.
Many of the screenshots I've just posted were from the XBOX ONE and PlayStation 4 versions, but I'm playing this game on my PC. My specs(for those who actually care):
AMD-FX6300 Six-Core Processor at 3.8ghz
8GIGs of DDR1300 RAM
AMD RADEON 7770 4gig video card
1 Terabyte harddrive
Windows 8.1
Overall, this is a fantastic game, but if you're a gamer and you're reading this, be prepared to die. A lot. It is a difficult game, but one that I feel is worth every penny. Is it perfect? No. Some of the issues I've noticed I described already. One of the issues that I didn't mention, was that while the lighting effects are incredible, they also make it hard to discern friendly human from enemy human, and if you accidentally shoot an innocent person, it's game over. The game's difficulty is also a double-edged sword. While it can be satisfying to escape the alien, it gets really frustrating every time you fail. Even on the easy level. Some of the puzzles are kind of ridiculous, though. The solutions to those puzzles are almost always in the same room. If you frighten easily, or have a weak heart, stay away. This IS a stressful game. There are also too many sections where nothing actually happens. But it's the atmosphere, the sound, and the tension that help drive this game forward. There have been multiple games based on the Alien franchise, but most of them have failed on nearly every level, especially last year's Aliens: Colonial Marines. The less said about that....thing, the better. Alien Isolation definitely captures the essence of what made Alien such an incredible movie in the first place. At least the first half of the game. But it's still more than what most companies would have been able to pull off. The folks at Creative Assembly have crafted a very memorable experience that is both challenging and satisfying. It took me a little over 15 hours to complete the game. Half that time I think, was spent cowering in a locker. No other survival horror game has given me the creeps the way this game did, so that's definitely an achievement. If you're a gamer, and a fan of the Alien franchise I think you owe it to yourself to try this game out. Just be aware that it requires a lot of patience. Despite some of the game's glaring issues, I'm giving this baby a solid 9/10. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go scare myself silly again.
*Credit for screenshots go to their respective sources.
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