Posted on: June 22, 2025
Ankylon56
Games: 49 Reviews: 14
Great entry into survival horror
Alien Isolation is a favorite of mine when it comes to the genre. It is overall a well-crafted game. Starting from the environment, which is mostly a retro-futuristic space station in disrepair. It's often dark and foreboding, it sets up the atmosphere quite well. The environments while similar, they remain distinguishable with a few fulfilling specific functions (hab block, starport, manufacturing... and sigh medical). The game is surprisingly well optimized and its graphics hold up quite well (at least outside character models which are a bit less good looking). The game's strongest point (and at times its Achilles heel) is the titular Alien. the game lets it roam around a few sections actively hunting whatever human is in the area. Stealth is an absolute necessity (at least early on, and in higher difficulties). When everything fits into place, the game is fantastic. While it may not be necessarily scary, it is tense, due to a combination of the sound design, the graphics, and the seemingly smart xenomorph. However, this is where the game can also fail, the tension does dissipate after repeated deaths, leaving only place to frustration. The game does try to diversify the threats outside of the Alien, you may have to deal with androids and other humans (a good chunk of which are hostile, but not all), however their AI pales in comparison to the alien's. The campaign is quite lengthy (sometimes overly so) and there is enough side content (especially with the various DLC). The story is the basic kind you'd expect from an Alien movie, it is serviceable, nothing more. The gameplay being mostly stealth based may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially those used to the more combat focused Alien games, but I still loved it.
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