Alien remains an unparalleled nightmare, with Ridley Scott’s 1979 deep-space thriller creating an unmatched sense of dread. James Cameron recognized this and crafted his own path with Aliens, a sequel that shifted from minimalism to blockbuster spectacle. Scott also explored new directions with the prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, focusing more on philosophy and mythology. While some entries like this week’s Alien: Romulus have attempted to capture the original’s simplicity, they fall short.
The closest any Alien sequel has come to replicating the nerve-shredding experience of the original is not a movie, but the 2014 survival-horror game Alien: Isolation by Creative Assembly.
Set after the events of Scott’s film, Isolation maintains the tone and values of the original Alien, building tension through quiet atmospheres and thick suspense. It excels in capturing the chilling essence of the franchise unlike any of its cinematic descendants.
In Isolation, players face a single Xenomorph over the story’s duration, echoing the survival-horror style of other games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The unpredictable AI system of the Xenomorph enhances the fear factor, making each encounter with the monster an intense, heart-pounding experience.
Beyond just an immersive audiovisual experience, Isolation plunges players into the emotional core of Alien, allowing them to embody the fear and tension of the film in a new interactive way. It offers a unique perspective that the movies, even the best ones, cannot replicate.
Alien: Isolation is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile. For more of A.A. Dowd’s writing, visit his Authory page.
