Level One: Alien - Isolation

Format: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox360, XboxOne
Chapters Complete: 5/18
Difficulty: Normal
Deaths: Too many to count

The metallic corridors of the Nostromo are dimly lit as Amanda Ripley crouches silently behind a pile of conveniently placed cardboard boxes. There is not a sound except for Ripley's faint and slightly fearful breathing. Silence. Suddenly, a small beep resonates from her pocket and with a shaking hand she pulls the glowing motion tracker out to observe; it begins to beep faster and faster. Then, an echo. Clunk... clunk... clunk... clunk... "It's close" Amanda thinks to herself while remaining as silent as possible. A thud. Amanda quickly turns around on the spot. A screech. Clunkclunkclunkclunkclunkclunkclunk. Amanda looks down to find herself impaled through the stomach, then everything just stops.

O-Oh my Mister Xenomorph, what big teeth you have

This is how it feels to play Alien Isolation, a breath of fresh air in the Survival Horror genre that gives a genuine feel of threat and fear and doesn't rely on overused and predictably placed jump scares. After the disaster that was Colonial Marines (now let's never mention this again), Alien: Isolation finally allows the player to feel nigh on powerless when confronted by a being you can hardly fight back against, a feeling that can be experienced in very few games to this day. But boy oh boy does this game do it well.

Set around fifteen years after the events of the Alien movie, Isolation sees you take on the role of Amanda Ripley (didn't see that one coming), daughter of Ellen Ripley, as she takes to Sevastopol Station to discover the truth about her missing mother. She arrives with two others and the place clearly looks damaged and very unsafe, yet they decide to go in anyway, and while traveling by wire to the the station, an accident occurs separating the trio and inevitably leaving Amanda stranded aboard the Station, with no idea of the horrors that await her.

Alien Isolation is a game that fuels itself off your powerlessness. Amanda is thrown into the Station alone, and with no weapons or equipment to help fend for herself, and additionally she has no combat experience, all the perfect qualities for a very hostile environment. The whole of the first chapter plays with your mind, there's little you can do except walk forward, and thought there is absolutely nothing of threat to you at all at this point you still find yourself moving slowly, listening for the slightest sound and hiding. That is the spell the atmosphere of the game puts you under, the spell of expecting everything around you to be at your throat within the next second, and it's a spell that never wears off. And when you finally can defend yourself, just remember; firing a gun is basically a dog whistle for the Alien, Amanda melees like a pussy, and the only thing you can do to scare off the Alien is by setting fire to something, and having the resources to do that isn't exactly easy.

The save points are very well incorporated, and even tell you when enemies are nearby before you go to save. Expect to be killed by the Alien at least once right after saving if you're not careful.

After spending the whole first chapter in fear, wondering if the Alien was going to get me, I was extremely disappointed to find the first encounter with everyone's favourite Xenomorph is not only in a scripted cutscene, it's also not a surprise seeing as it's spotlighted by the classic cliche of spittle dripping from the ceiling RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CAMERA. Needless to say my initial reaction was 'Oh so that's it then?' Thankfully that was the only time I had that feeling.

From that point on the Alien is always around, it roams the vents above and sometimes drops down to have a little peak as you cower in the shadows and hope to God it doesn't notice you. For the next few chapters the Alien is basically summoned by Amanda's trespassing where she shouldn't be and setting off every alarm imaginable. Eventually you'll hear the Alien on the prowl after you shut them all off and the real fear begins, because that Alien just loves to lurk around and never go away, it's easy to end up hiding in the same place for twenty minutes plus on NORMAL difficulty. Expect to cower in that locker for over an hour while the damn thing ponders whether it was just the wind that made that one dust particle on the floor move a little to the left, or whether it was you, and then does the same for everything else in the room if you're playing on hard or above.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

By the time you reach chapter 5 you're sort of used to the system, you're only really at threat after all the alarms go off, which is cool. Aaaaaand then you turn like the third corner in the mission and are greeted just by the sight of the Alien uncoiling itself from the vents and looking around. All of a sudden you realize that little safety net you thought you had never really existed at all. It's genuinely horrifying.
Blend all this together with the Alien's intelligent AI which will start to learn if you keep hiding in the same places and you're left with a stealth game that's everything a Survival Horror should be: hours of playtime with not a single second being spent free from fear.

TL;DR: A truly spectacular and unpredictable game that finally brings the tension back into Survival Horror, a must for anyone interested in the genre, even if you're like me and have never seen the Alien movies. Just be ready for chapter 5, it's a dick. Deal with it.