Reviewed by Gallanteer on PS4 playing on “Hard” difficulty.
To state that Alien Isolation is tense is like stating that the Millenium Falcon is pretty nippy. From the start you’ll just want to creep everywhere scared that anything might notice you. Many reviews have said the game is scary but I think this is incorrect.
As an officiando of the Alien franchise then it is more accurate to state that the game is incredibly tense. You know what the alien looks like so being scared is not the correct adjective, but they way it moves and s
ounds sets your heart going and you end up physically holding your breath. This is even more true if you have the PS4 camera and enable vision and sound input.
With the camera in full use, it tracks your head movement fairly well as you peer around. This is even more apparent when hiding in lockers and cabinets as you try to peer out at different angles to spot where the hell the alien has just gone. Add in the microphone and it’s ten times worse. Make any sort of sound and the alien might hear you. Needless to say, I decided that this was a step too far in a house with boys that would deliberately say something loud at inopportune moments, just so they could laugh as the alien flashed its jaws into my forehead yet again.
The look and feel of the surroundings is spot on as are the sounds and music. The game is definately more like the original movie then any of the sequels which is no bad thing. Add in Marines with guns, and the game would turn into just another FPS. The game also avoids the god-awful rubbish that was in Alien Resurection and Aliens vs Predator movies. This is a game of pure tension; once the alien spots you, there are only a couple of ways to defend yourself to send it scurrying away for a few moments whilst you get away and find somewhere better to hide.
The AI of the Alien and other nasties (I’m trying to be spoiler free here) is pretty good. Generally the Alien will patrol in a fairley set pattern, but just when you think you may have worked out a safe passage, it changes its route, throwing you into a blind panid and generally ending in death. And don’t bother even think of running it moves incredibly fast. Vents at first feel a safe place to move betwwen remote rooms, but yes, it does use them as well. One complaint of the game was when it was in the overhead vents, you could die out of luck. This is not the case, using the motion sensor and looking out for dripping slime is the best guide you have.
This is a single player game that doesn’t disappoint and isn’t short either. Just when you feel you’re getting near the end, there’s another turn in the storyline to keep it going. Add to that the cheap DLCs to recreate the end of the original movie and you have a game that will keep you popping Ibuprufen for your tensed muscles for quite some time.
I can’t close this review without a mention of Outlast. It bears a lot of similarities in gameplay style and feel as the afforementioned horror game, but adds more depth to the experience.
Veteran Gamers UK 