POSTED 24/10/14


ALIEN: ISOLATION

SEGA

Every breath you take, every move you make, every step you take, I'll be watching you.

That’s some scary stalker shit for a mega-hit pop song, yet it could easily apply to stealth survival horror epic Alien: Isolation. Actually, so could the term “some scary stalker shit”.

Not that it’s shit – which is possibly the biggest surprise considering the lame legacy left by most previous sorties into Alien’s space horror, erm, space.

A whole new story, plopped some 15 years after Alien and 42 before Aliens, you fill the boots of Ellen Ripley’s sprog Amanda. She’s determined to find out just WTF happened to her mother, so when informed that the Nostromo’s black box is awaiting her on mega space station Sevastopol, she’s off like a shot.

It isn’t necessarily the wisest move.

Through an almost fatiguing procession of levels – some editing wouldn’t have hurt - you pursue a battle of wits with the alien. Cat and mouse is the order of the day, as this sucker isn’t all pre-programmed. Rather, it follows your cues. Make a bump in the night and it’ll be onto you. Get torch or motion tracker happy and it’ll be onto you. Fart in your spacesuit and, erm, it’ll likely be smelly...

This is a true stealth outing, too. There’s none of this running around all gung-ho like an Arnie on a gun store bullet-sugar rush, hiding occasionally. The meagre weaponry you find or craft can only be used on humans and humanoids – this alien is indefuckingstructible! You’ll take cover behind stuff, under stuff and in stuff, and sometimes even hold every breath you’d otherwise take. Depending upon your scare threshold, it can be terrifying.

Nailing the stark, tense atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s original movie both aurally and visually, rather than stinging fans with more heartachey crap, Alien: Isolation is something we can truly embrace.

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