They were right...no one can hear you scream

Horror movies and action movies exist on almost diametrically opposed ends of the emotional spectrum. Action movies are often about wish fulfillment. The main character is usually a self-insert figure who either possesses or gains all the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to overcome the antagonist or central conflict. Horror films do not empower you; they make you uncomfortable. The sound design, lighting, and camera angles are all crafted to make you feel uneasy and vulnerable to fear.

Video games function in a similar way, though the gameplay loop changes the dynamic. In most games, your abilities increase incrementally, requiring greater skill as the difficulty also rises. Horror games attempt to maintain tension by never giving you enough of anything, and that scarcity creates discomfort. You ration resources, and as your ability to avoid or overcome enemies improves, the tension naturally decreases. Eventually, you get used to the monster, or you have hoarded enough ammunition that the threat no longer feels overwhelming.

Alien: Isolation overcomes that eventual sense of comfort through smart game design and award-winning AI.

Alien: Isolation has far more in common with Ridley Scott’s vision than James Cameron’s. You play as Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley’s daughter, and you are neither a soldier nor a security officer. You find yourself aboard Sevastopol, the space-equivalent of a failed real estate development. Within the rundown hallways of the station, you contend with desperate survivors, hostile synthetics, and — above all else — the Alien drone stalking everyone aboard.

For most of the game, you are dealing with a single Alien drone. Imposing, intelligent, aggressive, and capable of problem-solving, the creature is a constant threat. The drone is also indestructible. Eventually, the game gives you a pistol, shotgun, and flamethrower, but these weapons can only delay or frighten the Xenomorph. The pistol and shotgun both feel heavy and awkward in Amanda’s hands. She is not a Colonial Marine, and it is easy to imagine this may be the first or second time she has ever held a gun. You are also given schematics to build pipe bombs, which can drive the Xenomorph back temporarily, but every tool you have against the creature is ultimately fleeting. You can distract it with flares, blind it with smoke, or confuse it with noisemakers, but at best you are only buying yourself a few minutes of reprieve.

The Xenomorph truly is problem-solving intelligent to boot. If you repeatedly hide in the same locations, it eventually begins checking those spots first. If you stay in one place too long, it will find you. The creature actively plays the game against you, learning as much about your behavior as you learn about its own. At one point, I was hiding beneath a desk while the Alien scanned the area searching for me. It stopped, glanced through a nearby window, paused for only a moment, and then sprinted toward me with terrifying focus.

The game also introduces additional enemies. Panicked security guards and desperate civilians roam the station, many of them armed and just as vulnerable to the drone as you are. There are also the “Working Joes,” cleverly designed in-universe androids that exist right on the edge of the uncanny valley. They slowly plod toward you, eyes glowing white and faces locked in unsettling neutrality. You can dispatch these enemies with your weapons, but any noise risks attracting the attention of the Xenomorph.

The art design in this game feels lifted directly from the production notes of Alien. Sevastopol does not look exactly like the Nostromo, but the two share similar industrial aesthetics. The Nostromo feels like a refinery drifting through space, while Sevastopol resembles a failed shopping mall development abandoned to decay. There is even a noticeable liminal-space influence throughout the station’s design.

Alien: Isolation is not only a great survival horror game with exceptional AI, but also one of the best spiritual adaptations of an intellectual property ever made.