I honestly thought it would take a lot longer for the Alien franchise to rebound after the mess that was Aliens: Colonial Marines. But Alien: Isolation has certainly done just that, with the developers at Creative Assembly providing a tense, terrifying callback to the original film that franchise fans are sure to enjoy. It also makes for one hell of a stealth-focused horror game, echoing some of the brilliance found in stealth titles like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Alien: Isolation isn?t exactly perfect, but the positives greatly outweigh the negatives here.
Alien: Isolation is meant to be a sequel of sorts to the Ridley Scott classic, picking up after the disastrous events plaguing Ellen Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo. Alien: Isolation focuses instead on Ripley?s daughter Amanda, previously mentioned in the second film, but with a story expanded upon in Alien: Isolation. Amanda, understandably wanting answers regarding the disappearance of her mother years ago, embarks on a quest for answers when the Nostromo?s black box is apparently found. This adventure takes her to the space station Sevastopol, where as you can guess, things go horribly wrong.
Likewise, the visual design of the game pulls familiar elements from the source material, while building an interesting and legitimately scary backdrop for Amanda to explore. Sevastopol is a bit of a mess when you get to it, and just gets worse as you continue on. It?s a station that was on the verge of an economic collapse, approaching shut down even before a lethal life-form began to roam its halls. And there?s more threats at play than the Alien, giving Amanda little breathing room as she attempts to escape. I?m not entirely in love with the visuals, and think that the character models can look a bit iffy at times, but the art design really does the heavy lifting here. Particularly the environments, which are incredibly detailed and interesting to explore.
As far as technical issues, there?s only one that really stood out. There?s something that goes a little haywire when it comes to cutscenes in Alien: Isolation. This stands out only because everything else in the game seems to run without a hitch, but there is some serious judder going on which feels pretty rough any time the game switches to story mode. This isn?t a cutscene heavy game, but you?ll instantly see what I?m talking about every time you?re taken out of the action to watch something.
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