“Alien: Isolation” is a 2014 survival horror video game.

If you’ve ever read my stuff on gaming before you’ll know I’m usually years behind everyone else, well this is no different.

By the time I played this game it had already been out for quite a while, I’d heard good things and even had it recommended to me by some Horror fans so I figured it was time to finally see what all the fuss was about, plus I’m a big fan of the “Alien” films so I was actually quite excited to play it.

I remember being blown away right from the beginning. I was absolutely captivated and trust me when I say this, that is a very hard thing to do, especially when it comes to video games. But this game had my whole attention, my focus was entirely on the screen and what was going on, it was incredible.

The games story is set 15 years after the events of the original 1979 film. You play as engineer ‘Amanda Ripley’, daughter of ‘Ellen Ripley’, as she investigates the disappearance of her Mother. When I first heard about this plot I was a little hesitant, how many times have we been here before?

You know what I’m on about, having a character who’s someway connected to the main character of the franchise, more than likely a relation, then try and squeeze in somehow into the story. Well this time it actually works, the story actually makes sense. I feel like they really thought about it with this one.

Now story aside, this has to be one of the most tension filled games I have ever played. Seriously, I could feel my blood pressure rise when I was playing. This isn’t a game you could just run through, shoot everything and hope for the best. No, in this game you have to strategize and hide, lots of hiding.

Your actions have consequences here, want to try to run through and just get away, nope it won’t work. You’ll quickly find yourself being killed by an Xenomorph and have to start over, you start to feel like with every step you take you’re going to be annihilated and find yourself becoming paranoid.

The game makes you pay serious attention to your surroundings, and what surroundings they are. The makers of the game paid great attention to every little detail, in fact you can see a lot of thought has gone into this from every department and as a player you appreciate that and also as a fan of the franchise.

There are more antagonists than just an Xenomorph, the game also has the famous androids that have gone haywire and more to hinder your journey throughout. The journey can be distracting though as the game is visually amazing, at times it feels like you’re really there, on board the ship.

One thing I did notice that I’d like to point out is that when I was playing was the room was silent, if anybody was in the room with me whilst I was playing they were also glued to the screen and you could see they were also pulled in and invested in what was happening. It’s a testament to the game.

I have to say that this quickly became one of my favourite games, though I will admit that I will never re-visit it, once I completed it it was a huge relief. By that point my nerves were shot and I don’t think I could’ve handled much more, between the amount of tension and frustration I was exhausted.

“Alien: Isolation” is a perfect game for fans of the franchise and also for anyone who enjoys strategy games, sadly I thought it was that good that I just don’t see it ever being bettered. I still consider this to be one of my favourite games and I cannot give enough credit to the developers of the game who obviously were fans themselves.