Alien: Isolation
Hello readers, and welcome to Blank Gaming’s semi-quarterly-monthly-whenevertheteachersfeellikeit-ly news segment.
The general consensus for a while was that horror in the high-budget gaming industry had slowed down, if not stopped entirely. Alien: Isolation changed all that and managed to be completely awesome in the process. It’s the fourth installment of the Alien games and the best by far.
For those out there who don’t know, the entire Alien franchise focuses around the existence of bloodthirsty, cold-hearted, super-efficient killing machines on some faraway planet. Called xenomorphs, these aliens take the form of pitch black monsters with long, eyeless, obelisk-like head, bodies reminiscent of a blood-starved velociraptor, and razor-sharp teeth and claws. As if this wasn’t enough to give nightmares to even the most seasoned horror gamer, their esophagus extends into their throat to form another, equally sharp-toothed mouth within the original. To kill its prey, the alien will hold its victim fast with its claws, open its mouth, and then shoot out the second mouth to tear the person’s frontal lobe out through their skull. But enough about them; the game itself is what caught my attention.
The first and foremost element in this game is something gamers call mechanics. Essentially, mechanics are how the gamer plays the game. Some examples include sneaking around, how the inventory works, carrying capacity, and lots else. In Alien: Isolation, the player is forced to scrounge for supplies in unlikely places. Small tasks outside the main storyline, also called side objectives, often have rewards of bandages or other supplies that become rarer as the player progresses through the game. Possibly the most important mechanic of the game is crafting. Instead of random drops of bullets and guns from defeated foes, the player is forced to craft all his or her own items using crafting agents such as bonding agents, spare cloth, and scrap metal. This adds a whole new level of difficulty to them game, and forces the player not to shoot everything in sight. The sneak mechanic in Isolation was good, if not necessarily original. All of these ideas and usages are interesting, to say the least, but one thing among the many caught my attention. The Motion Tracker. This little box of joy and sorrows is acquired about a third of the way into the game, and becomes essential from there on out. Described as a low-frequency Doppler echolocator, it displays a twenty-meter radius tracking scanner, with dots to sow moving targets. However, it makes small beeps whenever something moves on the radius. The Alien can hear theses, and kills the player if he or she gets too close with it active. This adds yet another intricacy to the game: trying detect without being detected. All the other, relatively standard mechanics, like climbing and crawling, weren’t stunning, but they were done well nonetheless. Personally, I score this section of the game 10/10.
The plot line of Alien: Isolation was about as close to perfect as it could have gotten. At heart, it almost sounds more like an action game plot, but it has the jumpscares and creep segments that make all horror games scary. The soon-to-be-terrified gamer plays as Amanda Ripley, a professional technician working for the fictional technology supplier Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Her mother was the main character of the first two games, Ellen Ripley. The second game ended with a recording that Ellen was attempting to send into the main network of human colonies. Long story short, a freeport supply depot and space station called Sevastopol Station picked up the transmission, and Weyland-Yutani Corp wants to retrieve it. Amanda is invited to join the expedition out to the station, and ends up being part of the boarding crew. When the expedition ship reaches Sevastopol, they are surprised to find it in a state of advanced disrepair, and with scrambled radio signals. Amanda and two others attempt to board in space suits, but some equipment on the station becomes dislodged and flies toward them, separating the group. So begins Amanda’s journey to reconnect with her crew members, find her mother’s last record, save the crew of Sevastopol, destroy the station itself, and evade a hidden evil (i.e. the Alien) the entire time. All in fifteen or more intensely scary hours. However, there are a few plot holes, and it’s difficult to enjoy a riveting plot line when you’re running for your life from evil robots, so I’m giving it a 9/10 for the story.
Mechanics and plot are well and good, but if the player can’t tell whether they’re fighting a dragon or a giant duck, it severely detracts from the appeal of a game. Luckily for us modern gamers, there’s no shortage of sumptuous artwork and flawless graphics on the market. Isolation was no different, with movement animations and scenery to make real life jealous. The Alien was genuinely creepy, and the people actually looked like people, but that’s fairly common nowadays. What really caught my eye was the style. Because the original movie Alien was made in the late seventies, the filmmakers couldn’t use sophisticated computers like we have today. The movie was set in the future, and yet they had glitchy, monocolor displays and static-ridden audio recordings. So, as a nod to the original, Alien: Isolation incorporates the same styles and fashions used in the seventies and, more importantly, access terminals. These terminals use the same flickering displays as were used in the original Alien, and provide a way to get backstory info and side quests. Due to this intelligent twist on what the future looks like, I give this section a full 10/10.
Alien: Isolation is an amazingly new take on the horror genre, a section of gaming which has been neglected for several years. It had plenty of potential, and fully came through. Unlike other Alien games, the player can’t just blast his or her way through each level, firing what guns they may have willy-nilly. In fact, it’s hard for the player to blast at all, considering that most enemies, namely the Alien, can’t be killed. Instead, the player must rely on wits and stealth to survive. It’s a real challenge to play, but most certainly a fun challenge. The final score for the game is 29/30, but don’t take my word for it. Even amateur gamers will have a great time, and if you can’t play it for yourself, watch some Youtube. I sincerely hope everyone can experience such a stunningly well done game, and maybe get scared out of their wits in the process. Make sure you check in again next quarter for more reviews, and thanks for reading.
