Alien: Isolation Review

You’re near the next area. You know what’s behind you, the enemy patrol routes, and timings have been noted. You’re good to go.

Shit.

The alarms blare. Your shoulders droop. A light sigh. You could reset it…but no.

GO LOUD. The assault rifle comes out and you fight your way through until things settle down again.

Unless I’m particularly hell bent on a completely stealth play-through this is how stealth games usually pan out. Recent ‘stealth’ games allowed me to kick into one man army mode when being an invisible ninja failed.

Alien: Isolation is not like these games. Having a central enemy that you cannot kill under any circumstances will do that.

Aesthetically this game is amazing. The attention to detail, clear affection for the world set up in the first two films and the dedication to creating everything in the same style is readily apparent. This low tech future filled with green screens and oddly marked, chunky keyboards is unlike any other game environment.

The Xenomorph itself is very well implemented, it’s occasional jerkiness offset by it’s presence and intelligence. It isn’t messing around and demands that you treat it with respect. I died over a 100 times; Isolation quickly kept any cockiness in check.

But it wasn’t the toughest enemy in the game. Bloody androids. The reaction to the Alien is very consistent. Have fire or run and hide. But do you avoid the Androids or take them out? Ammo is far from plentiful but if they get hold of you you’re in big trouble. They are very persistent too, as I discovered when one chased me through several rooms. Waiting in a locker as an enemy comes over to inspect your last known location is fraught and well judged.

Amanda Ripley is a lot like her Mother. A bit colder perhaps but has that strong determination to survive. She sure doesn’t take any shit but will always try to help others. Using her seems both a blessing and a curse. I’ll get to the curse a bit later but being the mentioned Daughter of the franchise’s protagonist does lend her an air of importance straight away.

There are now couple of very big buts coming your way.

This game is too damn long, at times stretching my attention and patience as I trudged back through an area again. I don’t mind exploration and things opening up over time but I’ve already been back and forth across a ship in Dead Space. You could easily cut two hours from it. But there is a bigger but coming.

I won’t go into detail but you’ll see the disappointing and lazy ending coming from a mile away. If you’ve seen Aliens you know that Amanda lives to see the ripe old age of 66, so she isn’t going to die here. We know this, so why couldn’t the writers play with it a bit? Sadly it just comes off as extremely generic.

Is this the best video game containing the Xenomorph? Alien versus Predator retains it’s crown, but if Alien: Isolation had just been a bit shorter and bolder in it’s choices it would have severely troubled it. As is it’s still a game well worthy of your attention.