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