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REVIEW
EDITOR’S
AWARD
XENOMORPHIN’ TIME
@NathanDitum
ALIEN:
ISOLATION
In space no one can hear you
hammering the q button
INFO
FORMAT PS4
ALSO ON PS3
ETA OUT NOW
PUB SEGA
DEV CREATIVE
ASSEMBLY
After a barren run of games
inspired by the Alien series that
have failed to capture the magic
of the films, Alien: Isolation is
like a tart, minimalist palette
cleanser. It gets it, and in
getting it the game has already
completed its most important job: to not be
another fumbled exploitation, another thickbrowed
shooter blind-firing familiar characters
and locales in the hope of nailing that elusive
Alien feeling. Isolation’s an intelligent addition
to the Alien mythos made with love and detail.
091
Oh, and terror. Lots of terror. The basis of that
terror is the decision to retreat from all the
hardware and hoo-has of James Cameron’s Aliens
flick – no easy thing, given how right they feel
for videogames – and into the clinical interiors
and frigid horror of Ridley Scott’s original film.
Shooters release wave after wave of enemies for
you to knock down, an approach incompatible
with the defining deadliness of the xenomorph:
‘Here is the universe’s perfect predator. Kill 50 to
progress’. Isolation scales down to one unkillable
beast, and in doing so it reinstates the danger.
RIDLEY’S GAME
So, we have a survival horror instead of a blaster,
but it’s not just this top-line approach that
Isolation learns from Scott’s film. The game
feels like a careful study of Alien, careful enough
to discover what actually makes it work. As a
result, Isolation doesn’t feel obliged to rush into
action, and instead gives itself time to build a
world. And it doesn’t do this with set-pieces or
an exposition carpet bomb, it does it by allowing
you to walk around some environments quietly,
without any rush. This is the game getting it –
getting that you don’t need to jump straight in
with the horror if what you’re showing has the
class and depth to be inherently interesting.