You gotta keep 'em Isolated

Alien Isolation is yet another entry In a continuing 2025 blog series where I dive into titles I missed during their original release. For the uninitiated, Alien Isolation is a survival horror game set in the Alien cinematic universe starring Amanda Ripley. Amanda is Ellen Ripley's daughter and we find her at the outset of Alien Isolation following in her lost mother's footsteps working for the megacorp Weyland-Yutani. Amanda is desperate for answers regarding what happened to her mother. As an engineer, Amanda has a number of skills that will prove useful in the coming hours of gameplay including welding, electrical and wiring experience, ship systems analytics, and even experience with Extravehicular Activity or EVA. Alien Isolation was originally released in early October of 2014 for PC, Steam, Playstation, and Xbox. And while this may come as shock, 2014 was like...11 years ago. I know right? Anyway...let's dive in!

Alien Isolation was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. The game faithfully recreates the look and feel from the original Alien movie released in 1979. The workstations, doors, tools, and tech are all beautifully representative of the art direction from the original film.

Game setup, rig notes, and ancillaries....

Just a quick note on how I played this game. To my knowledge, which is exceedingly limited, I'm playing the base Alien Isolation game. I'm sure there's been some patches, fixes, etc that have been applied over the years, but it's my understanding the steam version of the game I'm playing is not an enhanced, legendary, or GOTY version of any kind. I don't even know if those distinctions exist. As for my rig, here's my budget battlestation specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700x
• RAM: 32gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600mhz CL18
• Drive: 2TB Crucial P310 SSD NVMe Gen4 PCIe
• GPU: Gigabyte RX9070 OC Edition (hard flashed with 9070XT BIOS)
• Monitor: 1440p 21:9 Ultrawide non-oled with HDR 165hz refresh

I pushed all graphics settings to max and downloaded the "Improved Graphics" mod from NexusMods which uses the ReShade utility to optimize shader settings and lighting. I also made sure to limit the max framerate given that my setup could easily render the game at over 200fps. Running the game at extreme framerates is known to cause some audio issues and other bugs, so i capped the game at a reasonable 165fps to match my screen refresh. About halfway through the game I turned off film grain and motion blur for a cleaner experience, but this is my subjective opinion, your mileage may vary.

2014 never looked and sounded so good

To say that Alien Isolation has held up well would just be such a massive understatement. The game, in my opinion, is an absolute gem. It shines in so many ways. Where to even begin to gush is a real conundrum for me. Let's just start with graphics. Alien Isolation looks amazing and if you told me the game came out in 2022, I'd totally believe you. The game faithfully reproduces the amazing art direction from the first Alien film and no matter where you are exploring, you can feel the environment. The workstations are chunky and make wonderfully mechanical whirring and clicking sounds. The doors and electrical panels are all detailed and tangible. You really feel like you are interacting with the environment. The sound design is also off the charts. Every step, every room, every vent, every tool, sounds convincing and satisfyingly appropriate. Once the tension is set in Alien Isolation, it never lets up. And in a game like this, there's really no higher praise.

Alien Isolation largely takes place on Sevastopol Station - an isolated bastion of aging technology and systems orbiting around a gas giant called KG-348. The story hinges on discoveries related to the Nostromo disaster arriving at Sevastopol during a critical shutdown of the facility by it's parent megacorp Seegson (a Weyland-Yutani competitor).

Why not ask me about Sevastopol's safety protocols?

Alien Isolation isn't just a pretty face, the gameplay is off the charts as well. As Amanda Ripley we are thrust into a desperate plot to learn more about the fate of the Nostromo and ultimately, the fate of our mother, Ellen Ripley. We travel to the decrepit Sevastopol station that is in the midst of being completely decommissioned and sold off for parts by it's parent company Seegson. From our arrival, the game pits us against challenges of all kinds including crew injuries, environmental issues, electrical failures, system cascades, rogue and unpredictable Synthetic characters (the fan favorite Working Joes), violent human encounters, and of course, being relentless hunted by the Xenomorph affectionately knows as Steve (more on this later). At every turn we are confronted with an array of struggles, puzzles, and outright terror. We need to move fast but not too fast. We need to move quiet, but don't let that slow you down. We need to gather logs and information to figure out what is happening on this station, but don't ever linger in a room too long or you'll be an Alien happy meal. The game flawlessly fuses survival horror, exploration, investigation, puzzles and repair elements along with wild and engaging action elements. All mashed together in a perfect fusion of tension salad with a side dish of I think I wet myself.

Oh Steve...where art thou?

I can't do a write up on Alien Isolation and not talk about Steve. Oh Steve. At a certain point in the game it becomes obvious there's something really wrong at Sevastopol Station. You need to remember the timeline here though, at this point in the universe - no one even knows what happened to the Nostromo. It's just some legendary story of a supposed disaster with no supporting evidence of what really happened. Ellen Ripley is still a floating popsicle in an escape pod somewhere in deep space. So when we first arrive on the station, we as Alien fans know what's coming, but the character we're playing as certainly doesn't. In this sense, the game is almost more terrifying. At some point Amanda is going to meet her first Xenomorph, the question is, when? I won't ruin the game for those who have yet to play it, but suffice to say, once we see the Xenomorph, the game's tension is set to 11 and it never again dips below that. The entire pacing of the game changes and suddenly nothing and nowhere is safe.

Alien Isolation lives up to it's name. As we progress through the game we are often completely alone. Navigating dark and treacherous corridors and vent systems. There are brief spats of interaction between characters, either in person or via comms, but they are always short-lived and serve as wonderful set pieces to remind us of how alone we really are when they are viciously ripped away from us - plunging us once again into isolation.

The name Steve, when referring to the Alien, has many facets. It's origin is supposed to hearken back to Ridley Scott, who is said to have called the actor in the Alien suit "Steve". Though, by most accounts, this is just an apocryphal bit of lore attached to the original film. But for me, and I wager many others, the use of the name Steve when referring to the Alien in Alien Isolation quickly becomes entirely necessary. Once the game makes the unmistakable shift from concerned exploration to omg there's a freaking alien stalking me, the tension is nearly unbearable (in a good way, kind of). Every sound becomes amplified. Every footfall. Every bang in a vent. Every distant hiss of a gas pipe (wait, was that a gas pipe?) becomes enough to nearly throw you out of your chair. And when the Alien suddenly drops directly in front of you at a critical moment you can go ahead and yeet the use of "nearly" in the previous sentence. You can't outrun him. You can't out-hide him. While you do receive several tools throughout the game that can help in these encounters, use those tools too much, and they'll suddenly stop being effective. And thus we arrive at the need for Steve. I found myself needing to call the alien, Steve, to genuinely prevent heart failure. Anthropomorphising the alien was, in many cases, my only defense. Too many times Steve would surprise me in a corridor or a vent and, like so many other players I would scream, pause the game out of sheer terror, and do my level best to control involuntary leakages. Eventually I would accept my fate, un-pause the game, and admonish Steve for being so damn good at the whole eradication of the human race thing. Calling the alien Steve is totally a coping mechanism and, I can attest to both its functionality and its necessity. In broad terms and with as few spoilers as possible, there is a point late in the game where you find yourself trying to overload a reactor. This portion is notorious. I have never yelled STEVE NOOOOO so many times in my life and, likely, never will again.

The game has various workstations that can be hacked with a frequency tuner tool. This is vital if you want more information about what happened to Sevastopol and it's inhabitants. The downside is that hacking takes time. This is where the motion tracker comes in. You'll need to use the motion tracker throughout the game to get a sense of how much time you have before the Alien, or other hostiles, converge on your location. You almost never have time to catch your breath in this game. Learn as much as you can, but move fast and with purpose.

Wrap-up

If you look out for sales, you can pick up Alien Isolation for less than a cup of coffee from your favorite barista. And for that low cost, you will get hours and hours of tension filled mayhem beautifully rendered and beautifully executed in an game environment that is so perfectly on point with the art direction of the original film, you will genuinely wonder how many times Creative Assembly must have watched it. The game incorporates elements of action, stealth, and exploration in a rich and tangible world. All the while you'll grow to care about Amanda and see her for the true badass she really is. You'll also be screaming at her to forget the stupid mission objective and just haul ass to the closest escape pod, but I digress. The game controls are tight and intuitive and, elements like the motion tracker and frequency tuner lend an authenticity and unmistakable tension to every moment. There is a diversity of tools and weapons but the game makes it clear that you need to be judicious about how you use them. Getting a flame thrower is awesome, but you quickly come to understand it doesn't mean you're safe. The Alien will adapt to your playstyle. Hide in a locker too long? He'll find you. Run around and make a ton of noise? He'll drop from a vent and tear you to pieces. Use your weapons too much? He'll just become immune to them. To its very end, Alien Isolation is a delightfully terrifying romp through a beautifully created space station filled with easter eggs and homages to the Alien franchise. You don't need to be an Alien fan to appreciate this game for its survival horror chops. But if you are - you'll love it all the more.

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