I don’t really play a lot of horror games or delve much in the horror genre. It’s not so much the themes and dark tones that make me bug out, but rather the jumpscares and the paranoia that comes with indulging in this set of media. My anxiety is also one of the reasons I can’t watch shows like The Detective Files late at night, for fear of someone climbing through my window to attack me seemed all too real. But there’s only one horror game that I can tough my anxiety through.
Alien: Isolation is a AAA game that was released back in 2014 from Sega, one of their last big title games. I first discovered the game when watching one of my favorite Let’s Players on YouTube play through the 18 hour campaign. I remember rewatching his videos several times because I loved his reactions and the actual universe of the game. I was so intrigued that I had to buy it and play it for myself.
The game focuses on you playing as Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley from the movie series. In the process of going to find the Nostromo’s flight recorder, you get caught up on a space station where everything is breaking, but it’s your only hope of survival as the Alien hunts you down. You also face off against hostile survivors of Sevastopol Station, along with androids that will stop at nothing to protect the specimen.
I didn’t get the best experience playing it the first time back in 2015. My laptop was underwhelming when it came to computer specs, so the graphics had to be set rather low. But even then the game still looked fantastic. I remember being so scared of playing the game, it took me around 35-40 hours to finish it. On novice difficulty. Every five seconds I kept hiding in lockers. But I still went back and played it again.
Recently on Twitch, I went back and streamed the game quite a few times. I completed it once on easy difficulty, followed by a modded game for achievement hunting purposes and then finally a hard mode run to finish off the final two achievements I needed to 100% finish the game. Even now, after having grown five years, the game still holds up really well to newer and more current games. Sure, there may be a few ‘cheap’ jumpscares, but a lot of it is well timed.
For example, the Alien is scripted to be following you around the station, showing up as a ‘tease’ for what’s to come, even when the Alien is not in play yet and can actively hunt you. If you don’t know that clue, you think the Alien can kill you as early as Mission 3 in the game. There are other points in the game where the Alien will make its presence known but cannot attack you. A new player won’t know about these, but after playing the game five times and seeing playthroughs, you learn a few things.
But it’s true, this game really does hold up to the standard of our modern games in my eyes. The graphics are incredible in quality and mimic the design of the original Alien movies well. The atmosphere is well developed and makes you feel threatened for your survival regardless of what difficulty you’re on and how many times you’ve played the game.
If you’re looking for a stealth/horror game for this spooky season, then I highly recommend Alien: Isolation. I love the game so much that I still go back to stream it for the DLC and custom games!