Alien: Isolation is an Underrated Game

During one of many boring nights when I searched near-endlessly for any kind of outlet of entertainment, my eye was caught by Alien: Isolation while looking through my Xbox Game Pass subscription. Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game, released in 2014, that is based on the popular 1976 film, Alien.

This game takes place 15 years after the events of the film and the player assumes the role of Amanda Ripley, daughter of the titular character in the popular movie franchise.

Allow me to offer a bit of background here. I was never a fan of the Alien movies. In fact, before playing this game, I haven't seen a single one of the films. I also don't particularly favor games in the horror genre. Not that I'm afraid of playing them. It's just that they tend to bore me more often than not. I've made it halfway through Outlast before growing annoyed with wandering around in complete darkness. And The Evil Within was quick to lose my interest after the first mission (I plan to give it a fairer chance soon).

But in this genre that I have personally overlooked, Alien: Isolation is a title that sticks out like a black stallion in a herd of sheep.

To get straight to the point, the main monster, the Xenomorph—same as the film's big bad—is terrifying. I do not use that word lightly. It is an eight-foot-tall, hideous creature that moves with the agility of a cheetah and more ferociousness than a reptilian beast.

A good portion of the game is spent completing objectives while trying to avoid and maneuver around this monster. And nine times out of ten, getting seen or spotted by the Xenomorph means certain death. There is no outrunning it, gunfire and bullets prove to be ineffective, and there's a slim chance of being able to hide from it again.

So what makes this monster any different or better than others in the survival-horror genre? In my experience, the AI.

The artificial intelligence given to control the Xenomorph in the game is unique in its programming. The creature moves and unpredictably searches for you, following no set pattern for it to repeat. In each playthrough, the player will see the alien cover different areas as it searches for Ripley.

The AI also allows the Xenomorph to be adaptive, picking up repeated signs of the player's play style and learning to maneuver against it to find them. This means that if you—as the player—love hiding in lockers and small spaces, eventually you'll notice the alien starting to check them out more. And if you're like me, throwing items as distractions every chance you get to draw the monster's attention away from you, it will soon come to stop looking towards the item that was thrown and instead investigate where it was thrown from.

The AI for the Xenomorph alone is enough to make the game enjoyable but that is only the meat to a well-dressed, decorative sandwich.

The level design is also worthy of acknowledgment. A major portion of the game takes place in the gigantic Seegson Space Station. It is in this station that the player is pitted against a variety of enemies, including other trigger-happy humans, menacing androids, and the nightmare-inducing Xenomorph. The progression to each type of enemy is near-perfect at keeping players invested in this experience. My only personal nitpick is that we spend a little too much time battling off the androids before progressing to the next enemy.

Each level is laid out with a design that provides a clear path to take while also promoting exploration. Exploring the environment is more of a luxury during the beginning of the game as after a certain point, you will be constantly stalked by the Xenomorph and given little downtime. This, however, is not a complaint. The little downtime that we are given from the unforgiving, relentless creature is adequate as a breath of fresh air; a break from the chaos.

With its save feature, the game also works to discourage playing recklessly. This game makes you earn the privilege of saving your in-game progress with phone stations that are placed throughout each level. Sometimes these stations feel generously placed and close together, but you can be assured that there are times when you're surviving by a string with no phone station in sight to save your progress.

There is no autosave feature nor a quicksave one like we've probably grown used to these days. Alien: Isolation constantly reminds you that the privilege of saving your game is just that: a privilege. And it makes the stakes of getting caught by enemies or dying that much higher and consequential.

. . .

This experience of a game was originally released back in 2014 for Windows PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and Playstation 4. At the time of my writing this article, it is nearly eight years old.

And it still doesn't get the recognition that it deserves.

Upon release, this game was quickly stifled in the market by receiving low to mediocre scores in reviews, mainly by giants in the gaming journalism industry.

The biggest of them, IGN, reviewed the game with an overall score of 5.9/10, one that many players feel is unfair for the title.

And I couldn't agree more.

Many who involve themselves in the world of gaming share the assumption that big gaming journos hold a certain bias towards bigger companies/developers. And claims following this belief are made evident by the various reviews that they give products.

For example, I have noticed that IGN will not give a rating below 7/10 to any recent Disney project, despite the overall audience's opinion of the property. You're free to search for yourself and correct me but such an observation—which has been made by many others—calls the journalist firm's integrity into question.

Evidence-fed biases such as this have paved the way for the negative perception of giants in gaming journalism. When product reviews come across as sale pitches and dishonesty becomes a trait that is too commonly associated with your firm, people tend not to see your brand in a favorable light.

Looping this back to Alien: Isolation, many critics/journalists belittled this game and the experience that it provided. But I'm here to tell you that it is worth the play. And plenty of other players would agree with my thoughts.