The truest Alien sequel.
When I was six years old there was a torrential downpour during the summer of 1997 in Boulder Colorado. Having three kids on summer vacation cooped up in the house for three days straight my dad finally broke and took us to Target to get a new video game for my Nintendo 64. Considering it was my console I got to pick the game and I knew exactly what I wanted, I tore the plastic off of 007 Goldeneye as soon as we got back into the car while shouting “Mom wouldn’t let me have this one!” After Goldeneye my mom gave up on the censorship approach and took the much more realistic road of teaching me right from wrong and ensuring that I knew that it was just a game and real life violence came with real life consequences. With this lesson the ban was lifted and I was very suddenly allowed to play any game I wanted and watch almost any movie I wanted. This sequence of events is what led to me watching the Alien movies when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. Ever since I have always been of the opinion that Alien was far superior to Aliens and all the sequels that followed and I had been waiting for a proper sequel for years; in 2014 we got that sequel and it was called
Alien: Isolation.
Fair warning I am biased and I would never claim not to be unless I was actively trying to take an objective approach. Another fair warning most of my friends and family get annoyed because often times my opinions are not the popular ones. That being said Alien is infinitely better than Aliens, Alien is a masterpiece and Aliens albeit good is for the most part a by the numbers action flick with nothing particularly special about it. Alien has atmosphere, it’s a claustrophobic horror monster movie in which anyone could die at any time. What made Alien great was the detachment from the characters, the audience wasn’t made to fall in love with any of the flawed characters they were very simply real and not necessarily likable and it was because of that that Alien was much more of watching a group live in fear of imminent death as an unknown monster terrorized them rather than joining the group through a heroic journey. I was 11 or 12 and massively disappointed in Aliens and wanted a sequel that did Alien justice, Alien: Isolation is that sequel.
In case you hadn’t already figured it out the driving factor towards greatness for A:I is tone. Creative Assembly is clearly devoted to the original movie, which can be seen through the constrained almost simple gameplay; standalone story, and pure terror the player experiences throughout the game. From the moment the player sees the Alien it is abundantly clear that this is not a fight but a hunt, running will be the only option. This masterfully crafted concept gives the player a feeling of complete hopelessness because no matter how long you run you will still be stuck on a space station with this animal. This is the point at which the game separates itself from the movies and truly takes advantage of the fact that it is a video game and not a movie. The player is forced to experience the feeling of helplessness and take part in hatching the plan to escape the beast’s cage.
One of the main contributing factors to the tone and atmosphere of A:I is the stunning visuals and incredibly accurate alien model. Everything that I loved about the first alien movie has come alive and is happening on screen under my control in an all-new fantastic story. While the graphics aren’t the best I’ve ever seen the direction of the art style chosen by the team fits the tone of the first movie so perfectly that the graphics never had to be completely state of the art to impress me. It is when I never even notice graphics that I feel the graphics are best.
Gameplay in A:I is simple almost to the point of walking simulator with a few shit your pants then run and hide moments peppered in. Without a doubt the most valuable item the player will acquire is the flamethrower as it is the only weapon with the power to actually keep the alien at bay. The gameplay is simple and the walking simulator almost becomes a crawling simulator out of petrifying fear created by the setting and the enemies that occupy that setting.
A:I is a fantastic game in everything it set out to do but where is shines brightest and really shows us that it is a diamond in the rough that was 2014 is in the artificial intelligence. Players will come into contact with several different enemies as they travel through the space station Sevastapool and almost none of these interactions are scripted, so the alien dropping from the ceiling not five feet in front of you before goring you through the stomach will more than likely not happen again on your next try. This alone makes the enemies feel more organic and allows the game to maintain its unbelievable tension from start to finish. By not allowing the player to fail one section over and over again in an attempt to perfect it creative assembly forces players to develop and hone skill rather than just learn the sequence of the game.
A:I is the sequel I expected as a kid and the sequel that any fan of the first movie deserves. Continuing the story of the first movie and moving us along through Ripley’s arc without ever even seeing Ellen Ripley was a stroke of genius. Creative Assembly has done more for the series than any number of movies or big name actors and directors including James Cameron, Danny Glover, Adrian Brodie, and even the great Danny Trejo has ever been able to do; here’s hoping that Sega is smart enough to not give it the Lennie treatment that they have given to so many things like the Dreamcast and even Sonic, here’s hoping for a sequel that continues the greatness of the first.
Making life decisions is difficult for people like you, luckily you have much better and cooler people with washboard abs like me to help. A:I is a must play so go play it then thank me on our Twitter @doomcatteam and donate to our Patreon at patreon.com/doomcatproductions as a way of thanking me for being such a fantastic life coach.
9/10
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