An Alien touched me, and it felt like the finger of God.

I'm an Australian electrician, and this game really nails the feeling of working in someone's roof after finding a 7ft long snake skin.

Alien: Isolation really makes you FEEL like you're about to get killed by a xenomorph.

The game is like a perpetual anxiety attack. Terrifying... yet very helpful for my constipation. I didn't just sh*t a chicken while playing, I sh*t the whole roost!

The only problem with Alien Isolation is that you can only play it for the first time once. I cannot stress enough how much I love, respect, and fear this game.

Years ago when this game first released, I had a DK2 Oculus. My friend from work came over and we played the game in VR.
As electricians, both of us climbed high buildings and worked at heights and generally prided ourselves on being two dudes who were afraid of nothing. I don't think either of us was able to make it more than 30 minutes without making up an excuse to smoke a joint or a cigarette. Neither wanted to admit it, but we were terrified.

It took me 10 years to revisit the game (only made it like 3 missions in the first time), you have to grow up as a person and realize that theres real evil in the real world, then the game is less scary.

It started going so well at first on my return.

I’d found a difficulty that worked for me (novice, yes I’m a snowflake) and had been making progress after getting stuck in medical years ago, paralysed by fear. I’d been taking it in small bite sized chunks: 20 minutes here and there is all I could stomach. I’m on a mission where I have to do some coolant or energy stuff at a terminal in the middle of a big room. Alien keeps dropping in. No problem, I’ve learned about Molotov and blasting it with flames. Bit of fire and it goes away. I do something at the terminal then run back to save point.

It comes again. I go to blast it… I’m out of juice. And molotovs. And I’ve just saved the game like this. Oh hell. I don’t know if I can take this. It keeps getting me!

Honestly, this game. It’s too much. I’ve never known anything like this. It’s a monumental achievement to craft fear and unpredictability like this. I watched the AI videos, so I knew roughly what it would do. But it still gave me a shudder when I heard it descend from the vent. It’s just code and animations I told myself, and yet… What a game this is, even years later. How anyone plays this in Nightmare mode is beyond me.

It took me 10 years to muster up the courage to play it again, but I'm so glad I did! I mean, yeah, it's terrifying, to the point I had to play this game with cartoons sometimes on the second screen, that's how scary I found it, but in the best possible way. And when you inevitably die (because, trust me, you will), the scenes are slow and not at all jump scarey. It's more about the overall tension of the game.

The alien stalking you through the vents as you try to accomplish your objectives is seriously nerve-racking. I found myself intensely focused and totally immersed in the game, always planning my next escape route and mentally tagging places to hide. And the break from the alien to deal with humans and androids was such a welcome respite. The objectives and gameplay were so linear and focused, which I absolutely loved. It is one of the most immersive and terrifying games I've ever played, there is a learning curve however.

The star of the game is definitely the Alien AI. It’s arguably the best ever created, with superb atmosphere and off the charts tension. You can't just stay hidden until the alien goes away, you have to keep on the move. The way the AI works, the more you stay hidden in one place, the more the alien will try to find you and be agressive, it adapts to your actions. If you are hiding in a locker everytime, he will check more lockers; if you are hiding on vents and he hears the hatch opening over and over again, he will eventually search in the vents; after the first times you use the flamethrower he will learn not to fear it so much; the more you stay hiding in one place without moving, the more he will search for you.

You can't expect to play like Amnesia or other games that rely on scripted events and "hide till he goes away" style. So the first few hour will be difficult until you figure out how it works, but this is what makes the game so good, he is always on the hunt for you, the game wants you to go after objectives, and this makes the experience much more immersive. In the first half you might be sure something is safe, then as the game progresses the rules change, and what shouldn't have been safe to begin with (but you took for granted) punishes you for that hubris.

Just like Ripley in the first movie, you have to face your fears if you want to stay alive, there are few moments where you can safely run around without the risk of dying. Very few big budget "stealth" games let the protagonist be this vulnerable, it's great. And that's what I wanted from an Alien game. I loved the feeling of being so powerless. The only empowering aspect is that if you're smart, you can survive. And that's so rare in games now that it's so fu*king fun. The minimalist HUD was also a huge plus, and I loved how interactive the world was. The map updated as you explored, and map guides revealed portions of the map. The various tiers of equipment and tools were all so fun to use and plan with. It just felt perfect and intuitive.

The story follows Ripley's daughter from the original movie, and it's pretty intriguing. I loved the world-building and call-backs to the film. The world-building was masterfully woven into the gameplay tools as well. If you pay attention to the walls, you'll see an advertisement for the very same motion scanner that you use, which explains why it's on the space station. It’s a relatively long game surprisingly, about 40hrs to complete for me, and after those 40 hrs, I sure as hell was not ready for more (thats a compliment), but it really depends on how good you are at stealth games. I was pretty invested in getting Ripley the truth about her mother, and the cutscenes really helped me feel immersed in the game and story.

The station also just feels so real... You FEEL like you’re actually there, with Ripley, just... insane. The attention to detail is mwah *chef's kiss*, I just adored the amount of love and passion the developers put into this game, from the advertisements to the character details, the logical layouts, everything felt so lived in and abandoned... just extremely authentic. And even the little things... Ripley's breathing when the Xenomorph is nearby, her shivering in the body freezers... the first person animations... everything is top notch and I am so happy I got to experience this, and that there are developers who really love what they do.

One of the most unbelievably immersive and engrossing gaming experiences of my life. Exceptionally great horror title. A ballsy game design concept that loyally and successfully translated a huge deal of the original film's elements into raw, gripping gameplay. Fantastic all around, and the flaws that are there are all very minor. The aesthetic of the game is incredible, if you liked the original Alien movie, then the eye candy in the game alone is worth checking out.

Turning off the lights, throwing on the headphones and just diving in will be one of those experiences you will remember as a gamer your whole life. Alien Isolation has to be the absolute cream of survival horrors and I would highly recommend that any one who is a fan of the Alien franchise or Survival Horror games needs/must to play this. The game is a true love letter to the franchise and better than the movies after Aliens for me. The amount of care that went into making it is absolutely worth the price of the game as an appreciation. It's truly an amazing feat what they did. What the hell are you waiting for?!

10000/10

But seriously, f*ck that Alien.

𝓲-𝓲𝓶 𝓼𝓬𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭

it is perfect