Title: Alien: Isolation
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: SEGA
Genre: Survival Horror
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4(reviewed), Xbox 360, Xbox One
Price:₹999(PC), ₹2999(PS3, X360), ₹3499(PS4, XB1)
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‘A true son of the classic Survival Horror that ruled the 80’s-90’s’
There’s something about Aliens and Predators, note that I’ve used ‘and’ and not a ‘versus’. When I saw Alien, the Ridley Scott original on television for the first time, I was stunned and shocked beyond any words possible. Not only was it scary, but scientifically imaginable. But above all, Alien the original was cold and raw as steel, and barely anything positive and relaxing happened in those 120 hours of survival. A lot of elements basically made up for the overall experience, the theme of being lost in space, the motion tracker, the smoky chambers and vents, and those 80s sound effects. Immediately after that, my love for the franchise led me to its sequel, Aliens, directed by James Cameron, you know of the Terminator and Avatar fame. I saw it, this time more like a fanboy turned critique. What I realised by the end of Aliens is that the kind of atmosphere that Scott set up for this creature survival franchise was not only unachievable but conclusive. As a matter of fact, even a story written by Cameron lacked depth in all kinds, by trying too much in the recurring sequel. You can milk a sci-fi franchise, but you can never milk those edge-of-the-seat moments, unless you are going back to the roots and polishing surfaces before introducing something completely new. The crushing defeats while trying to keep the franchise moving forward seem evident, with the Winona Ryders and Colonial Marines of the world. Re-emerges the bleak secrets of Sevastopol station in 2014, with Alien Isolation, the game that I had the honour of playing in this Triple A crammed month.
Okay here’s the first sentence out of my system, “Alien: Isolation is by far the best AAA game that I have played this year”. It is not only haunting and alluring, but also wicked, clever and very Ridley Scott-ish. Years after the disappearance of the Nostromo and its crew (especially the woman you may have fallen in love with as a kid: Ellen Ripley), Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly’s franchise redeeming attempt) sets you out as Ellen’s daughter Amanda, approached by the Weyland-Yutani Corp. to retrieve the blackbox of Nostromo from the Sevastopol station. The station is unlike anything she could have imagined, with Rapture (Bioshock 1) like horrors waiting inside, along with the alpha predator – the Xenomorph itself. The young engineer is not only brilliantly capped, showing resemblance to her mother Ellen, but also has a way of understanding the situations around her and acting accordingly, thanks to the voice acting. She is definitely a hot head, but unlike her mother or maybe like her mother when she witnessed the Xenomorph for the very first time in Alien, Amanda takes time to adjust to the alien’s presence. She will squeal, gasp and shake if she hears faint noises around, or if the motion tracker detects the Alien’s presence. The other crew members like Taylor and Samuels, share subtle screen time along with the protagonist. Alien: Isolation literally starts with a bang, and continues to amaze one with a confused concoction of gameplay and Alien lore, which in my opinion is acceptable. If you want an amazing Alien story, go watch the first movie, if you want to know how it is like to be trapped, play Alien: Isolation, pure simple.
I hated Alien: Colonial Marines because that title took away the horror of surviving an encounter from the franchise, and filled it up (like the recent adaptations of the original) with blazing guns and masochistic one-liners. Alien: Isolation tracks back the original hype factor about Aliens, and puts it right back on my sweaty palms and shaking controller. Alien: Isolation is a benchmark in gameplay design; it is as much about sticking to some rules and never letting go of the guidelines for mere fun and a change of air. You may be stuck endlessly inside a spaceship’s loop and fretting about how many hours you’ve spent inside a locker, but that’s what a date night with the Xenomorph is all about. The ambience of Alien: Isolation, ranging from the open shafts, the volumetric lighting and vent smoke, to the floating debris in the outer space that you can spectate from the ship’s rear, adds up the scare fare.
The title believes in scaring you rather than outright killing you with a drop, the anticipation makes up for most of the times I freaked out. The sounds and visual department sync in harmony with the gameplay mechanism to deliver that very creepy atmospheric chill. Alien: Isolation is not always abiding by your reasons, no matter how accurate or timed they are; there will always be a little bit of luck or ill-fate by your side. Your motion detector might suggest that the Alien is gone, but just about then it reappears. You may think that the Alien is investigating the rooms as per a cycle, and that’s when it does the reverse and you go running for cover. The AI of the Xenomorph is the most challenging bit about the game; it is always a step ahead of you. And here’s the other gruelling bit in this survival game, you know nothing about the level you are going to be thrown into, while the Alien seems to have been calling it home. As soon as you discover a level or a new section of the mission map, you will need to scavenge for map blueprints that will further unlock the map, show you shortcuts and other valuable things inside the map. Without prior knowledge, you will push everything, including your very existence, to pure, unjust luck. Meanwhile, you will hear footsteps of the Alien running past you, horizontally past you, or vertically. Yes, it uses the vents in the game more than it uses them in the movies, and at times you will feel like ‘F*** it, I’m so done’. That’s when the game excels, ignore the game’s brilliance, and it will catch you lazing.
Crafting on the go is an essential part of Alien: Isolation, it drives you to take a decision whether to use a specific ingredient to craft an EMP bomb or save it to concoct a Smoke bomb. Just like survival/horror games like The Last Of Us, Alien: Isolation nurtures the spirit of crafting on-the-go. Reading and traversing each corner of the map is essential in the game (especially when the Alien is gnawing in the next room), and you find special recipes hidden somewhere inside the map for you. Picking up the recipe blueprints allows you to craft the specific gadget from there on. Ammo and crafting equipment are scarce, making you think twice before throwing a grenade at an unarmed enemy. There are plenty of hideouts and shortcuts for you to use, the air shafts, the underground vents to name a few, but be sure to check your radar, the Xenomorph might be having the same exact idea. There are tons of traps for you as well, the poisoned gases reeking from rooms, fire chambers that explode, Xeno saliva dripping from shafts (getting underneath it will prompt the Alien to appear from the shaft and kill you in a glimpse).Every shaft and unlocked door that you pass by automates it to open up and send out a noise easy enough for the Alien to track back, so treading carefully is absolutely important. Alien: Isolation’s horror treatment comes from your will to survive versus the various things that are out to kill you.
Alien: Isolation does a tremendous job in delivering a near perfect immersive presentation of the 80’s original, with VHS recorders to old computer stations with noisy keyboards. Creative Assembly created every nook and corner of the game in the spirit of the original. Apart from the lookalike visual rendition, Isolation makes good use of 80’s style radiologues, electronic noises and transistor sounds to recreate that empty horrific atmosphere, where you are all by yourself. The motion tracker is your best shot at survival, and it is by far my favourite tool in the whole story. It senses presence around you and warns you with a blip or two, coming straight out of your Dualshock 4 sound output(on the PS4). It generates most of its noise, including motion tracking beeps, from your DS4, creepy huh? Even the slightest movement that Ripley makes, the chair that falls on her way, or those crucial moments when she’s out of breath hiding in one of those lockers, takes centrestage in Isolation’s creepy SFX. Alien: Isolation’s retro horror soundtrack guides one through storm and hell. A calm theme would mean that you are coming towards the end of a mission; when the music suddenly turns heavy, it generally means that the alpha predator is nearby. The visuals of Isolation look stunning, rich and retro in all aspects, and the devs had an eye for line of sight detailing. Zooming down on the motion tracker blurs out your line of sight, and makes up for most of those uncomfortable alien encounters.
In Alien: Isolation, anything and nearly everything that stands in your way is your enemy. It’s like Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, wherein it is not only the undead that you must be wary of, but also the people and Mother Nature turning against you. Isolation makes you confront the worst nightmares, ranging from hostile humans (who will kill any trespasser) to androids (called Working Joes) that kill people who care less for rules and orders. If you didn’t like Ash from Alien the movie, you might hate the red eyed, bald androids that walk right up at you and strangle you at will, while notifying you that it is just trying to help you out. The way the enemies are characterised and portrayed makes me forget the real threat, the Xenomorph, for a bit. There is an array of escape rules and survival strategies that you will need to lay down, for each threat respectively, if you are worried about surviving Sevastopol. Of course, if there’s one thing I can teach you, it is this (quoting from Alien vs Predator the film): “Enemy of my enemy is my friend”. If you are caught amidst needless enemies that you don’t want to confront, use the noisemaker to summon the Xenomorph to clean the whole house down for you. Of course, every action has an opposite and equal reaction, including this one.
But amidst all these nuisances, if there’s a specific b**ch that I deliberately hated in Alien: Isolation, it is definitely be the game’s save point system. Just like Dark Souls, Alien: Isolation wants you to perfect your moves, or die trying. The game negates auto saves and smartly puts save points (represented as Emergency Phone Stations) that you will need to trigger to save your progress. The save usually eats up 4-5 seconds, and there lies a chance that you might get pounced upon by the Alien if you’re not aware of what’s immediately around you. There is a revolver but it doesn’t slow the Alien down, the flamethrower only repels it for a minute. The emergency save stations also warn you if there are hostiles nearby, and doesn’t save immediately after you just saved your progress. There are innumerable hacks and mini games that will slow you down, especially in that corridor that also hosts the deadly predator.
Besides a heap of challenging scenarios, Alien: Isolation packs up your 18-19 hours of survival with a gift that is equally brutal: The Survivor Mode. In the post campaign Survivor Mode challenge you will have to make it past the level, consuming the least amount of time, or go the furthest, without dying at the hands of the Alien. It is actually the very best way to showcase your survival strategies to a friend dropping by. Besides, every preorder pack of Alien: Isolation automatically carries over the Last Survivor DLC pack that includes Ellen Ripley’s parts of the story, as voiced by Sigourney Weaver herself. Although Alien: Isolation is theoretically the bridge between Alien and Aliens, it has great potential to emerge as a brand new franchise of survival horror, like the ones that we fell in love with in our teenage days. It is so immersive and spiritually close to the movie that I already have high hopes on a Next Gen Predator or Terminator game. Isolation is innovative enough to polish the genre and serve as an example for its spiritual successors in the near future. Just when I thought that Next Gen co-op games were bringing a new apocalypse to the shy and introvert single player campaign loving gamer, Alien: Isolation literally changes it all by being my first real Game of the Year nominee.
