Alan Wake,
Dead Space, Little Nightmare, PT and that ghost mission from Rugrats: Search
for Reptar. These are my favourite and also the extent of my horror knowledge. So
as a self-proclaimed scaredy cat I’m properly not the right person to ask this
question. But there is one more that has managed to become a horror game I
actually love. That game is alien Isolation.
Story
In the game
you play as Amanda Ripley’s daughter of original Alien film Ellen Ripley you learn of
the flight
recorder of her mother's ship
the Nostromo is located. Christopher Samuels offers you a place on the
retrieval team and hopefully some closure to what happen to your missing
mother. I liked the
story. Ailen is properly my favourite horror movie of all time. It took place
in a time frame I found Interesting. Overall thumps up.
Gameplay
The
Gameplay takes a stealthier approach which I’m all for. Never accrued to me but
stealth is tailor made for horror. It works so well. When not hiding from the
Alien you will spend your dodging Androids, Humans and Face huggers. Combat is
possible but with the other games arsenals being more extend in other games it
is frowned upon in Isolation. The coolness but also fear of the motion tracker pulling it up to see it were the alien is. God the feeling then the sound is close and blip is in the middle. It manages to be helpful and make me fearful at the same time. Love it.
But it felt like a revelation to me. Yes, this is
horror. I’m not some Action Hero with an arsenal of War machine from Iron man
where my shooting skills are put to the test. It is my stealth wit and a little
bit of luck that has to get me thru.
Design
Love the
80’s idea of what the future would be, and a massive shout out to sound design
form the music to the sounds of the ship. Sound of a spanner falling, pipes
busting, gas catching fire to the music getting musicy (that a word) (right?).
It feels like the Dev team had a love for the source material. Every nook and
cranky feels authentic to the universe. Seriously the sound design should have
its own class in video game school.
Xenomorph
But the Xenomorph. A constant treat that is always looming.
Up to this point horror games have felt very ghost train to me. Go from A to B
all the way to Z which is fine, works perfectly well. But with the Xenomorph
you can’t just throw your ammunition at it. You have to learn to live with it.
I began to learn to adapt with it. Even being able to use it to my advantage
against enemies. In that moment I released I wasn’t afraid of it anymore. Don’t
get me wrong I still get jump scared face huggers are the worst thing known to
man. But the fear of the Xenomorph was gone. For the first time in a horror
game, I didn’t just get to the end I felt like I wasn’t afraid. I felt I had
conquered a fear. No game did that to me before. So that why I think Alien
Isolation is the best horror game of all time.
Sadly, just like Half Life 2 and Ape Escape 3 a squeal is
out of reach. This amazing team has been disbanded, and as excited as I am for
Daredevil: Born Again it won’t be Season 4. So, in a weird way I’m glad this
game won’t get a squeal. It doesn’t need it. It is the closest to perfect
horror game I have ever played.
