Alien: Isolation

Not a game for everybody, indeed. Alien: Isolation is rather a stealth-based survival-horror than an horror shooter. If you look for a game in which you will overpower your enemies and make your way bullet after bullet, you will be very disappointed, since it is actually the other way around, which is typical of survival-horrors. In order to enjoy the game, you also need to be able to cope with a given level of frustration, especially at the beginning. The game has a very steep difficulty curve, which was, in my opinion, not the best design choice. In general, players in Alien: Isolation player are supposed to be challenged and sometimes die. Another frustration element is represented by bugs. In some cases they are just annoying (example: the Alien is chasing you and the button to enter a vent doesn't appear), in others they are also potentially game breaking. If all of this sounds unacceptable to you, forget about this game and move forward. If you can live with all of this, well...prepare to live probably the nearest gaming experience to the original Alien movie. In Alien: Isolation the atmosphere is just breathtaking. You will have the feeling to be alone in a space station far from home, with enemies everywhere and an invincible alien who hunts you. You will feel hopeless, and you will have the feeling that death awaits for you behind the next corner. Both graphics (still good despite the 12 years from publishing!) and sounds are excellent and work together to create this atmosphere. Space station levels and other levels have a great design and also contribute to the feeling that I described. The story is exceptional and worth the original movie. Characters are also well designed and defined. Some players complain about the game's length. Maybe I am too old-style, but I find it just perfect. Gameplay is good (great stealth mechanics, items and weapons) but has room for improvement. For example, I didn't like interactions with objects (do I reeally need to press different buttons to pull a lever? please!) and the fact that selecting objects from the inventary doesn't pause the game. Moreover, the fact that you die quite often as well as a couple of situations in which it's clear that the alien knows where you are (it doesn't matter how silent and invisible you stay), will take some of the horror element away. I rarely felt scared during my game, and this is mainly due to the fact that you know that the alien is there and will show up soon. Some players complain about difficulty, but I found the overall difficulty level of the game to be well balanced, once you go through some frustrating parts at the beginning. This is the challenge level that a I expect from such a game. One last big plus is the support for all main platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows). Overall I can only recommend you to play Alien: Isolation, unless you hate stealth gameplay or cannot accept to deal with some frustrating parts. It doesn't make it to the top 10 of all time best horror games (my personal and controversial opinion), but atmosphere and story are indeed worth the original Alien movie.