Game Review: Alien Isolation

My relationship with the Alien franchise is one filled with turbulence. I loved the original 1979 film by Ridley Scott for how much it committed to the premise with its acting and production. The sequel by James Cameron skewed away slightly from the survival/horror aspect but still was able to deliver a solid and suspenseful film for the most part.  The remainder of the franchise however leaves a lot to be desired. It felt like after the first two films the franchise was always struggling to maintain it’s core quality with its constant efforts to shift and evolve with less than stellar results. From what I hear, the same questionable quality extends to the video games based on the iconic property. It’s well regarded that the video game adaptions of Alien range from poor to average at best, with some of the worst examples coming in the form of Alien Colonial Marines by Gearbox Software.  With hope fading of the franchise and its respective media ever reaching the original levels of quality ever again, it gives me great pleasure to note Creative Assembly were the exception to the matter.

Alien Isolation was developed by Creative Assembly and published by SEGA.  Released on October 7th 2014 across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, the then latest entry in the franchise promised to deliver players with an Alien experience grounded in all the major elements that made the original movie so renown. Critically the game aggregated a positive 78 on Metacritic at the time, with critics touting the game’s focus on survival horror as one of the key elements of praise.  Commercially the game sold well over a 2.1 million copies by March 2015 which you would rightfully consider as impressive, but it was noted SEGA deemed it didn’t meet their financial goals surprisingly. Playing as a first-person, survival horror experience, the main gameplay is presented through stealth and puzzle solving with a few slight combat encounters sprinkled in.

The narrative behind Alien Isolation is set fifteen years after the events of the original movie when Ellen Ripley survived the attack of the Xenomorph on the USCSS Nostromo. The game follows Amanda Ripley, Ellen’s daughter who is an engineer working for Weyland-Yutani.  She soon receives intel from a Weyland-Yutani android about the discovery of the flight recorder of the Nostromo.  After it’s initial retrieval, the recorder was taken to Sevastopol, a space station owned by Seegson Corporation which is orbiting a local gas giant.  Accepting a mission to aid Weyland-Yutani in retrieving the recorder to obtain some form of closure, Amanda ventures forth to the space station. It’s made quite clear however that things have gone very awry at the station when they can’t even get them to hail their docking calls.  After brute forcing their way onto the station it’s discovered that all major operations are down and a Xenomorph has somehow found its way onto the station.  Stuck with no power, no information and no way back, Amanda must face the horrors that await her on the station if she’s to discover the truth behind her mother’s disappearance and escape with her life.

What I really appreciate about the narrative of Alien Isolation is its simplicity. Where a lot of the recent Alien movies tried to push the series forward with new ideas and concepts, Creative Assembly understood the fans didn’t want that here.  By bridging the narrative to the original movie with the main character being Ripley’s daughter, it gives the player a personal connection to the narrative without making it overly complicated.  The idea of a station under siege from a Xenomorph and the main character is trying to fight their way through it to survive is the core concept that we all engage with.  By keeping the plot streamlined with that sole objective it helps keep things on track with little risk of alienating the player.  Amanda isn’t nearly as charismatic a character as her mother however, but she at least adopted her no-nonsense and do or die attitude.  Her journey to survive the horrors that await her in Sevastopol is a thoroughly engaging one but it does suffer notably from a pacing issue.  This narrative drags on just a little bit too long for my liking, I appreciate that padding is necessary in some cases but you really begin to feel how long the game is when Amanda runs into another technical issue which will require her to go halfway across the station over and over.

In terms of gameplay, Creative Assembly understood the assignment completely on that front. Xenomorphs are at their best when they are the dominant force in a situation. I don’t doubt playing a Colonial Marine shooting down hordes of them can be fun, but that’s not the best reflection of what draws people to this franchise.  The reason the original Alien film worked so well is because everyone on the Nostromo was vulnerable against a singular Xenomorph, it made how hard Ellen Ripley fought to survive way more compelling. In Isolation’s case, that core ideal is cemented through primarily stealth and puzzle gameplay mixed in with minor combat options.  Whenever the Xenomorph is in the room with you, you truly feel the tension as you need to utilize your equipment to distract the creature and hide through the environment.  The AI behind the creature is truly remarkable, especially when you consider this is a game from 2014. The way the creature can detect noise from equipment you use or your movements makes you truly afraid to act, it all contributes to recognizing the Xenomorph as the pinnacle sci-fi horror monster. The creature isn’t the only threat you’ll face on the station either.  A bunch of Seegson synthetics will give you a fair run for your money as well as some hostile human survivors. They each provide different threats to approach during encounters and when they start mixing together in later stages of the game, it really amps up the pressure when it comes to surviving.

When you’re not trying to stay alive in Sevastopol though, you’ll be exploring its vast levels and divisions. On the exploration end there’s a lot of depth behind the environments you’ll be navigating and the intrinsic details built into each room go a long way into immersing you into the game.  Just on that point, Creative Assembly’s effort to reflect the aesthetic of the Alien franchises set design is easily the most impressive aspect of this game.  Every corridor you walk down, every room you enter, every terminal or machine you interact with looks and behaves like it would from the actual movies.  There’s such an authentic approach to the level design that it easily stands out as you work your way through the environment.  There’s so many ways to navigate the environment too, with the benefit of shortcuts and air vents, you’ll have a variety of means to circumvent your encounters with the Xenomorph or other enemies. A lot of the environment will feature obstacles that you will need certain equipment to get past as well so it injects the environmental design with a good level of metroidvania gameplay to justify further exploration. 

On the visual end, for a 2014 game this still looks pretty incredible.  Again I feel the theme of the Alien set and prop design applies a genuinely timeless vibe to the visual of the game so it helps Creative Assembly did such a phenomenal job in incorporating that style into the game.  Lighting and atmosphere go a long way to giving the game that additional level of tension too and the developers deliver on that front exceptionally.  Even on the audio front this game knows exactly when to play with sound design to make a moment go that much further. I cannot tell you how many times I was frozen with fear when I could hear the Xenomorph walking around the air vents or in the room next door.  On the soundtrack end, Christian Henson, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith all contribute massively to scoring the game to replicate that original Jerry Goldsmith score brilliantly. 

Alien Isolation is a remarkable game based on so many different metrics.  With a simple and smart narrative, mixed up with immersive gameplay, this is a genuinely compelling experience on so many levels.  It’s not without its faults though, the game does sadly overstay it’s welcome near the end with some bloated segments and repeated loopbacks. I think the whole is greater than the sum of parts though in this games case.  Alien Isolation is the definitive Alien experience and its reputation is so grand that it’s even been touted as an inspiration in the latest movie, Alien Romulus. Creative Assembly have confirmed they have plans for a sequel in the future and I for one absolutely cannot wait if this is the standard of quality we can expect.