Sega’s newest action-horror game, Alien: Isolation, has officially sold one million copies worldwide, according to the publisher. Released on October 7th, 2014, Alien: Isolation was in competition with Bethesda’s The Evil Within, as both horror games were released around the same time.
In Alien: Isolation, you play as Amanda Ripley, a woman desperately on a mission to find the truth behind the disappearance of her mother that occurred 15 years earlier. As you can assume, the alien is the main enemy in the game, but it is also joined by rogue androids and scavengers, all which pose as a major threat to you navigating the ship safely. Anytime you sprint, enter into combat, or breathe heavily while hiding in a locker, the alien can find you. While you’re aboard the Sevastopol, you’re trapped in one giant hunting ground; a hunting ground that the alien can navigate better than yourself.
Alien: Isolation starts out slow, as you don’t even have your first encounter with the alien until four missions in, but once the alien makes its appearance, the difficulty of the game is automatically increased. Ripley always has a motion tracker on hand, giving you the ability to determine how close the alien is, but the alien can hear the beeps being produced through the device. Since you lack the ability to kill the alien, your only option is to hide. There are many places to hide throughout the Sevastopol, such as lockers and under beds, but breathing too heavily in your hiding spot will blow your cover immediately.
If you enter into combat, be prepared to hide soon after, as combat attracts the alien. Use the shadows to creep along to a hiding place, or make a distraction in order to escape. Since Alien: Isolation is in first-person perspective, the overall experience is very frightening. You are seeing everything through Ripley’s eyes, rather than seeing everything around her, making it difficult to tell if anything is sneaking up on you.
Alien: Isolation still isn’t the game that the fans were wanting, but it’s one step closer to becoming a great horror franchise. The announcement of reaching one million sales is proof that the game is finally getting the attention it deserves, and hopefully we can expect to see another Alien game in the future.
