Alien: Isolation is releasing October 7th, and it’s shaping up to be everything Aliens: Colonial Marines and the other Alien games that preceded it weren’t. It will follow Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda fifteen years after the original events that unfolded in the original Alien film. The game itself is shaping up to be a very impressive effort, and it’s poised to bring the science fiction masterpieces to light again after all these years.
Related: A Look at the Next Chapter of the Alien Franchise
So how does it terrify and take hold of players? These five aspects are what the The Creative Assembly focused on during development, and have succeeded at resulting in a game that is going to frighten, entertain, and impress its visitors.
Alien: Isolation - How This Alien Game is Actually Terrifying
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A believable Alien
This looks as though it's been covered for the most part, but it's absolutely essential to Isolation's unpredictability. The braindead scurrying hordes of xenomorphs of Aliens: Colonial Marines may have been caricatures of themselves, but what's here is much more methodical. The Alien of Isolation is a cold, calculating beast that stalks its prey, takes its time, and follows the player through tunnels and small passageways in a way that leaves you feeling no sense of security.
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Less gunplay
With a creature whose blood is made of acid, it's a little silly to think that riddling it with bullet holes is a good idea anyway, and yet that's the first instinct when it comes to dealing with a xenomorph. But let's take a page from the Aliens: Colonial Marines book and eliminate the extra firepower and ammunition from the situation. How many guns, realistically, would still be available and floating around anyway? And how many would Amanda be able to use in a pinch? Letting the player feel as though there's no escape and no way to fight back naturally raises the tension. As we learned from games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, this is the future of horror games.
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A true sense of isolation
More than just a pun, this Alien game has to truly instill the sense that you're alone. Like the original Dead Space did before introducing co-operative play and additional characters, there was no safety net, just you, the bloodthirsty Necromorphs aboard the Ishimura, and the cold vacuum of space. Ensuring you feel that fleeting sense of helplessness that's attached to being completely left to your own devices is is integral here, especially given the fact that Ripley's daughter Amanda must fend for herself. It feels as though she's got nowhere to turn, and that makes the Alien's design most effective.
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Dedication to lo-fi aesthetic
It's already been advertised time and time again that Alien: Isolation will feature the fuzzy VCR filters of the 1970s, and true-to-period set pieces. Thankfully, it stays dedicated to this aesthetic. It doesn't stray from what one can only assume is a vision of the future colored by the '70s, the very same world Ridley Scott envisioned with the original movie. This game is in the spirit of the original film, and that makes it so much creepier.
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An appropriate soundtrack
Touted as one of the biggest parts of Alien: Isolation, close to the source material and excellent sound direction, and it's nailed it. There is no swelling orchestral segments building up to pointless and predictable jump scares. A string section comes out of nowhere. The game falls silent when a threat is nearby. And finally, the voice actors knock this performance out of the park as if it were the very last piece of Alien media ever made. Because for all we know, it very well could be -- not counting Prometheus, of course.
