Alien: Isolation: In Space, It Can Hear You Breathe

 Alien: Isolation: In Space, It Can Hear You Breathe

Note: Despite being a video game title, Alien: Isolation shares the same canon universe as the films in the Alien franchise. This review will contain major spoilers for the original 1979 film Alien and some spoilers for its 1986 sequel Aliens.

I cannot stress this enough: I love horror video games. The thrill of being in a dangerous situation in a game is unmatched by anything else in gaming for me. It always feels horrifically adventurous to be at the whims of whatever digital terrors game designers have conjured up. Often times, these games, like Amnesia or Outlast, invoke feelings of dread while telling stories set in their own universes. It's expected, really, for most horror video games to create their own worlds separate from any pre-established franchises. But this isn't always the case; sometimes, a pre-established franchise is ripe for creating a horrifying experience. While not every video game based on, say, a film franchise will resonate with the audience as well as the film, sometimes an exception to that idea occurs. No more present is this idea of taking a non-gaming horror franchise and making an interactive version that's just as terrifying as the original than in Sega's 2014 survival horror game Alien: Isolation.

Basing itself in the same universe as Ridley Scott's Alien franchise, Alien: Isolation takes place in between the 1979 film and its 1986 sequel Aliens. The game takes place 15 years after the events of the original film, when Amanda Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo were hunted by a beast-like alien organism. While Amanda Ripley is still in stasis on her way back to Earth--though presumed missing as far as Earth knows--her daughter, Ellen Ripley, has learned that a flight recorder from the Nostromo has been located. Soon enough, she is invited by a Weyland-Yutani android named Samuels to accompany a crew to retrieve the lost recording. Intent on knowing what's happened to her mother, Ripley joins the crew, flying through space to Sevastopol, a spaceship owned by another company, Seegson Corporation. Upon trying to board the ship, however, Ripley and her crew are tossed through space due to debris severing the line between then and their own spaceship. Separated from the rest of her group, Ripley lands inside Sevastopol, where it appears the crew have gone mad. People are scrounging for supplies as though they are apocalyptic survivors, shooting anyone unfamiliar. Androids, while helpful at first, soon malfunction, becoming hostile toward humans. And all of the chaos can be traced back to one source: A Xenomorph, the titular Alien creature of the franchise, which is aboard, hunting anything that moves. As Ripley, your job is to find the lost flight logs of the Nostromo while avoiding detection and death via the Alien onboard.

The gameplay mechanics are rather basic, but they are crafted in a way that evokes the sense that you are always in real danger. Playing as Ripley, you play through a multitude of missions onboard Sevastopol and its accompanying ship, the Anesidora, moving from one point to another across winding floors of the space station. You must rely on stealth to avoid being caught by the Alien, alongside some sections of the game where you need to avoid death at the hands of humans and androids as well. You are not defenseless in this endeavor, though; the game features a rudimentary crafting system for objects that can help you survive. While exploring the space station, you can open boxes and search tables to find scraps you can use to craft healing items, ammunition for your gun, and stun bombs (specifically for Androids). You can also find ammunition while exploring, as well as uncraftable objects like stun baton ammo (again, for the Androids, we'll get to those things later). The game allows you the freedom of exploration in order to best prepare yourself against the dangers you'll find on the space station.

However, this comes with a few limitations. Humans are often the easiest enemies to deal with in the game. You can avoid their line of sight to keep them from seeing you. If you're stealthy enough, you can also sneak up on them and wack them twice with a melee weapon you're given early on in the game, killing them--though you have to do it quick, as a scream from one will alert others in the room. Humans are also usually on a scripted path, not actively searching for you in the same way as other enemies unless they suspect your presence. Androids behave in a similar fashion, not actively hunting you down unless they've spotted you. While difficult to kill--requiring the use of the aforementioned stun batons and bombs, alongside 4-5 melee hits while they're stunned--they are easy to outrun, as once an Android spots you, they will only fast-walk in your direction. If they're the only enemy around at that point, then outmaneuvering them is as simple as sprinting away.

Unfortunately for you, the Alien is not as easy to deal with. This is because, unlike humans and Androids, the Alien cannot be killed. Guns and stun weapons also don't work on it, deterring it momentarily, but typically not for a long enough time for you to get away. This is because the Alien is much faster than humans and Androids, its hind legs pushing it forward if it catches a glimpse of you. Sprinting away from it when spotted isn't an option, as it will see you, and it will kill you. The best way to avoid the Alien, then, is to hide around corners, underneath objects, and inside lockers. These, however, are not guaranteed safety zones should the Alien get close. This is because the Alien can also hear what Ripley does. So, for example, if you were to jump into a vent to avoid the Alien and it was able to hear you do so, the Alien will go to investigate the vent. If you give it a reason to suspect you're in there, such as moving around or being within its line of sight, it will crawl into the vent after you, cornering and killing you. The Alien is an absolute killing machine whose sole purpose is to hunt you down and kill you. Sure, you can make it retreat with Molotovs and a flamethrower later in the game. But these resources are limited and, over time, the Alien will get used to what tactics you use to try and deter it. Which means that, when escaping the Alien, you have to always be switching up what you're doing.

From a programming perspective, the Alien is a massive feat in game design. The typical horror game has its enemies on what's known as a "script," a scripted path programmed into the enemy that it cannot stray from. For your typical horror game, learning the enemy's path, its limitations, and what you can do to avoid it is part of the process. There is a set route you have to take or general thing you have to do in order to avoid detection. The Alien in Alien: Isolation, however, works much differently. As explained in an article from Game Developer, the idea of creating the Alien was to have it always confront the player in unique scenarios. Outside of a few portions early in the game, the Alien is not scripted. When it hunts the player, it does so without a set path, always changing its strategy in order to find you. This is done through the programming of two Artificial Intelligences (AI) that are programmed into the Alien. The "parent" AI always knows where the player is at all times, while the "child" AI is the Alien, hunting down the player. The parent AI gives periodic hints to the child AI as to where the player is, but the child AI must always figure it out for itself. What's difficult about this, though, is that the child AI is smart. Very smart. And it only grows smarter upon raising the difficulty of the game.

Having played it in Normal mode, I can say that it provided a rather definitive horror experience that I'm not sure I'd be able to complete on a harder difficulty setting. The first time encountering the Alien, I was in a circular hallway with a room in the center and a far corridor on the other side. As a scripted event, the Alien drops down from a ceiling vent into the room. If you're not crouching next to a piece of furniture in the hallway, you are going to die, no questions asked. The first time around, the Alien looked around a bit and then headed in the direction of the far corridor. Not knowing what to do, I started sneaking around, hiding in a floor locker and watching the Alien step past from my left through the grates in the locker. I tried to sneak out, but the Alien detected me and killed me. The second time around, it went in the direction of the far corridor again. I did the same thing as before: Hide in the locker, watch it come from the left, and continue on my way. This time I got a little further along, managing to hide in another locker--this time a standing locker--a little further into the map. However, at the time I was unaware of a game mechanic where the Alien will come up to a locker and start sniffing it, meaning you have to lean back in the locker and hold your breath. Needless to say, I did not make it out that time around either.

Hoping the third time would be the charm, I once again waited for the Alien to move toward the far corridor then hid in the floor locker. Watching through the grates, I waited for it to come by, anticipating it on my left. Instead, I ended up waiting much longer than before. I could hear the Alien, I knew it was close by stomping about, but I had no visual on it. That's when I saw it. It was on my right, moving much slower than before. Then, it crouched down in front of the floor locker. I leaned back in the locker as fast as I could and held my breath. It stood there for a few seconds, then stood up and went toward my left. In the direction I was supposed to be heading.

That is what playing Alien: Isolation is like. Never knowing where the Alien could be, having to rely on the sound of it going into and coming out of ceiling vents to keep yourself safe. That is the thrill ride of the entire game, and also of having to really learn how to strategize in order to keep yourself safe. I think one of the best aspects of the Alien, though, is that it doesn't just come after you. While it ignores Androids because they're not biological organisms, the Alien does attack other humans on the ship. When there are segments of trying to get past humans, if you're spotted, the human can fire their weapon at you, the sound of the gunshot alerting the Alien that something is in the room. Or, if you're fast enough, you can fire a few shots at the humans and then hide in a locker or vent, watching as the Alien takes care of the work, lumbers around for a few minutes searching for you, then leaves in a vent. The latter was my go-to strategy when dealing with humans. There's nothing quite like shooting aimlessly into a massive, open room with four dudes in it, backing up into a vent as they fire in your direction, then listening to the cur-thump of the Alien dropping down, followed by animalistic growls and blood-curdling screams. It also makes for good loot, too, when collecting the ammunition they'll never use again.

Another appreciative element of Alien: Isolation comes not just from the impressive AI of the Alien, but also how well the game works as a transitional piece between Alien and Aliens. It retains the terror of a single Alien being a major threat while simultaneously interjecting actions sequences into the game. The action sequences aren't exactly commonplace, nor are they what one would think of as traditional "action scenes." Most of them just involve shooting a gun and using the Alien to clean up human enemies. Even so, there is genuine care put into the game that makes it not only a fantastic game in its own right, but also a strong segue for the films it takes place between. I really appreciated that, as it made it feel like its own entry in the franchise that wasn't just fun, but necessary to the overall story of Alien. In fact, I would say that, if someone wants to experience the Alien franchise in full, the best way to start would be by watching the original Alien, followed by playing Alien: Isolation, and then watching Aliens. It honestly works as a perfect trilogy despite the differences in mediums, creating a perfect balance accentuated by the levels of horror and terror therein.

Alien: Isolation is a terrifying video game, both as a standalone experience and as part of the larger Alien franchise. The Alien is an impressive AI whose behavior can feel all too real and much too smart at times, making me wonder if there are any games that have come out or are in development that have built upon the concept of what amounts to a living, thinking monster chasing the player. I feel like I'm going to find myself replaying this at least once in the new few years, likely on a more difficult setting to see just how animalistic the Alien can become. Alien: Isolation is available on PC, as well as PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch. While in space, no one can hear you scream, it can still hear you breathe.

***

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