One of my all time favourite games, Alien: Isolation is not without flaws, however I still consider it a masterpiece of game design that won't appeal to everyone, but is something everyone should try. I'm going to be detailing my criticisms further down, but first onto the good stuff.


First up, the Alien universe has been lovingly recreated throughout the game. The art direction and attention to detail brought through from the first film is astounding and the feeling of dread and hopelessness in the face of the Alien itself is wonderfully brought to life in the game play experience. I would describe the horror elements of the game as more atmospheric than jump scare based (though there are one or two to keep you on your toes). As you progress through the game then you'll find your initial fear of the Alien will mostly give way to respect and tension as you learn how it behaves and you seek to play around it. The station you're navigating, Sevastopol, never loses its menace as you maneuver through it, and while it faithfully keeps to the artistic vision established the original film, each area still manages to distinguish itself easily and carries its own unique take on the world's canonical look.

The levels feature some of the best level design I've ever seen. Without giving too much away, you're often given the opportunity to see the vast majority of a level before a key event occurs and the Alien is either thrown in with you or the area goes into chaos. This lets players familiarise themselves with the area and scavenge for supplies before the pressure is put on. Room design and area layout have been meticulously thought through to balance tension, challenge and ease of use for the player. For example, one of your initial prolonged encounters with the Alien features a large windowed room to give you the best view of where the Alien could be across the area as you get used to dealing with it. Touches like this are what separate good level design from great and they're easy to miss or underappreciate because of how seamlessly integrated they are.

The game mechanics themselves are well thought out and easy to use. Stealth is simple to understand and highly effective (crouch or walk a lot and hide behind (or under) things when enemies show up). The combat is basic, but weapon usage is very satisfying when you're not stealthing around enemies. The motion detector is outstandingly good fun and a wonderful carry over from the films. The crafting system is a touch fiddly from an ease of use perspective, but it's not hideously complex like some item crafting systems from other games. If you play on Hard then you probably won't find maintaining your supplies and resources to be that hard, so you can craft whatever you like whenever.

The plot itself is a little basic, but sufficient. If I had to criticise it then it mostly boils down to "you want to do X, but system Y is broken, so you'll need to get component Z to fix Y and then you can do X. Oh and there'll inevitably be a detour to make getting to Z longer than you planned... Off you go." The player is essentially little more than a glorified mechanic moving through areas and solving issues as they crop up, but the set piece levels in the game are stunningly executed and more than make up for any simplicity in the plot. One of the strengths of the plot is that it subtly allows you to imagine worst-case scenario situations to build up a level of fear and tension in you ("I hope that this doesn't happen! Surely it won't...") and then delivers those worst-case scenarios in a way that is tense, keeps the challenge level appropriately high and brings a dose of "OH... ♥♥♥♥!" to your reactions as it unfolds.

The characters you meet in the game are well acted, if a little one-dimensional, but what're more interesting are the characters that you don't get to meet. You find e-mails and audio logs scattered throughout the game that detail the actions and states of other characters on the station that are all trying to survive the crisis just like you. You never meet these people, but you become intimately familiar with their personalities, motives and movements as you learn about them through their messages. Their unfolding situations take on vignette-like qualities; snapshots into the lives of others in the same mess as you, and they contribute so much to fill in the lore and bigger picture of events across Sevastopol. It really brings the feeling that everything's going to hell across the station and you're not the only one trying to get through the nightmare.


I said in my opening that Alien: Isolation is not a game without flaws.

Firstly, the game got a lot of hype around the ingenuity of the Alien's AI design, which I find to be a largely disingenuous claim. The Alien AI is undeniably a clever piece of design, but it really just boils down to randomly choosing from a number of available actions at any given moment, applying weighting to the options based on context. The marketing claims the AI "learns" as well, but this is actually as basic as there being a tracker on the number of times you use distraction objects and the flamethrower - the Alien becomes more resistant to both the more you use them. Like all AI designs, the longer you play then the more competent you'll get at understanding how it works and how to play around it. As a result, the horror held by the Alien is only as powerful as your fear of in-game death; as soon as you accept that the Alien's going to kill you a few times then its potency is greatly diminished. If you die a lot then you'll likely find it more frustrating than scary, but once you get good at evading it then there's still some tension in navigating around it.

Secondly, the game's a touch long. It's a good 18-24 hours of game play and, while I felt that the pacing was good throughout, some sections could definitely have been trimmed. Those parts didn't lack in quality, mind, but they weren't contributing much to the game's plot or challenge (the Android graveyard section in particular is hugely unnecessary, even if it's one of the straight up creepier sections of the game). Overall, the game's an enjoyable experience in my opinion so the longer the better for me, but constantly working around the Alien could prove tiring for some people over the course of the game. The good news is that if you get tired of sneaking then you can generally afford to be a bit cavalier with the flamethrower and muscle your way through without losing too many resources.

Lastly, and this is a bit of a nitpick, the in-game map is a touch tricky to understand and the game sometimes doesn't explain very clearly where exactly you need to go or what you need to do. I personally only had the odd problem now and then, but I can see how it could be confusing.


Alien: Isolation is a game that never overcomplicates itself, never pretends to be more than it is and never overreaches and lets itself down. It's a simple design executed brilliantly. I almost never play long games like this more than once, but I've played Alien: Isolation twice now and I'm confident I'll be revisiting it again sometime for a third runthrough on Nightmare. It is deserving of my highest level of recommendation.

I also recommend the smaller DLC missions for a more focused experience of simply you and the Alien (sometimes some other enemies) in a small location with no map where you have to achieve a series of objectives for score (or just try and reach the exit alive!) No saves, just one attempt at a time through the maps. The Salvage missions in particular are very good, as you play through a series of 10 mini-missions in the same areas, facing more difficult enemies (and a smarter alien) as the missions progress (saving is allowed in this mode at the cost of final level score).

One of my all time favourite games, Alien: Isolation is not without flaws, however I still consider it a masterpiece of game design that won't appeal to everyone, but is something everyone should try. I'm going to be detailing my criticisms further down, but first onto the good stuff. [h1]The Praise! (May it be never-ending!)[/h1] First up, the Alien universe has been lovingly recreated throughout the game. The art direction and attention to detail brought through from the first film is astounding and the feeling of dread and hopelessness in the face of the Alien itself is wonderfully brought to life in the game play experience. I would describe the horror elements of the game as more atmospheric than jump scare based (though there are one or two to keep you on your toes). As you progress through the game then you'll find your initial fear of the Alien will mostly give way to respect and tension as you learn how it behaves and you seek to play around it. The station you're navigating, Sevastopol, never loses its menace as you maneuver through it, and while it faithfully keeps to the artistic vision established the original film, each area still manages to distinguish itself easily and carries its own unique take on the world's canonical look. The levels feature some of the best level design I've ever seen. Without giving too much away, you're often given the opportunity to see the vast majority of a level before a key event occurs and the Alien is either thrown in with you or the area goes into chaos. This lets players familiarise themselves with the area and scavenge for supplies before the pressure is put on. Room design and area layout have been meticulously thought through to balance tension, challenge and ease of use for the player. For example, one of your initial prolonged encounters with the Alien features a large windowed room to give you the best view of where the Alien could be across the area as you get used to dealing with it. Touches like this are what separate good level design from great and they're easy to miss or underappreciate because of how seamlessly integrated they are. The game mechanics themselves are well thought out and easy to use. Stealth is simple to understand and highly effective (crouch or walk a lot and hide behind (or under) things when enemies show up). The combat is basic, but weapon usage is very satisfying when you're not stealthing around enemies. The motion detector is outstandingly good fun and a wonderful carry over from the films. The crafting system is a touch fiddly from an ease of use perspective, but it's not hideously complex like some item crafting systems from other games. If you play on Hard then you probably won't find maintaining your supplies and resources to be that hard, so you can craft whatever you like whenever. The plot itself is a little basic, but sufficient. If I had to criticise it then it mostly boils down to "you want to do X, but system Y is broken, so you'll need to get component Z to fix Y and then you can do X. Oh and there'll inevitably be a detour to make getting to Z longer than you planned... Off you go." The player is essentially little more than a glorified mechanic moving through areas and solving issues as they crop up, but the set piece levels in the game are stunningly executed and more than make up for any simplicity in the plot. One of the strengths of the plot is that it subtly allows you to imagine worst-case scenario situations to build up a level of fear and tension in you ("I hope that this doesn't happen! Surely it won't...") and then delivers those worst-case scenarios in a way that is tense, keeps the challenge level appropriately high and brings a dose of "OH... SHIT!" to your reactions as it unfolds. The characters you meet in the game are well acted, if a little one-dimensional, but what're more interesting are the characters that you [i]don't[/i] get to meet. You find e-mails and audio logs scattered throughout the game that detail the actions and states of other characters on the station that are all trying to survive the crisis just like you. You never meet these people, but you become intimately familiar with their personalities, motives and movements as you learn about them through their messages. Their unfolding situations take on vignette-like qualities; snapshots into the lives of others in the same mess as you, and they contribute so much to fill in the lore and bigger picture of events across Sevastopol. It really brings the feeling that everything's going to hell across the station and you're not the only one trying to get through the nightmare. [h1]Some Criticisms[/h1] I said in my opening that Alien: Isolation is not a game without flaws. Firstly, the game got a lot of hype around the ingenuity of the Alien's AI design, which I find to be a largely disingenuous claim. The Alien AI is undeniably a clever piece of design, but it really just boils down to randomly choosing from a number of available actions at any given moment, applying weighting to the options based on context. The marketing claims the AI "learns" as well, but this is actually as basic as there being a tracker on the number of times you use distraction objects and the flamethrower - the Alien becomes more resistant to both the more you use them. Like all AI designs, the longer you play then the more competent you'll get at understanding how it works and how to play around it. As a result, the horror held by the Alien is only as powerful as your fear of in-game death; as soon as you accept that the Alien's going to kill you a few times then its potency is greatly diminished. If you die a lot then you'll likely find it more frustrating than scary, but once you get good at evading it then there's still some tension in navigating around it. Secondly, the game's a touch long. It's a good 18-24 hours of game play and, while I felt that the pacing was good throughout, some sections could definitely have been trimmed. Those parts didn't lack in quality, mind, but they weren't contributing much to the game's plot or challenge (the Android graveyard section in particular is hugely unnecessary, even if it's one of the straight up creepier sections of the game). Overall, the game's an enjoyable experience in my opinion so the longer the better for me, but constantly working around the Alien could prove tiring for some people over the course of the game. The good news is that if you get tired of sneaking then you can generally afford to be a bit cavalier with the flamethrower and muscle your way through without losing too many resources. Lastly, and this is a bit of a nitpick, the in-game map is a touch tricky to understand and the game sometimes doesn't explain very clearly where exactly you need to go or what you need to do. I personally only had the odd problem now and then, but I can see how it could be confusing. [h1]In Conclusion[/h1] Alien: Isolation is a game that never overcomplicates itself, never pretends to be more than it is and never overreaches and lets itself down. It's a simple design executed brilliantly. I almost never play long games like this more than once, but I've played Alien: Isolation twice now and I'm confident I'll be revisiting it again sometime for a third runthrough on Nightmare. It is deserving of my highest level of recommendation. I also recommend the smaller DLC missions for a more focused experience of simply you and the Alien (sometimes some other enemies) in a small location with no map where you have to achieve a series of objectives for score (or just try and reach the exit alive!) No saves, just one attempt at a time through the maps. The Salvage missions in particular are very good, as you play through a series of 10 mini-missions in the same areas, facing more difficult enemies (and a smarter alien) as the missions progress (saving is allowed in this mode at the cost of final level score).