Editorials
‘Alien: Isolation’ 10 Years Later – Why It’s a Perfect Adaptation
Alien: Isolation is a special game; every single element of it works. Even in wireframe, without the Alien-themed coat of paint, it makes for a completely satisfying gameplay experience. If you had a different styling to it, the world would still feel fully realized and fun to navigate. The tension of being stalked by a relentless predator would be amazing even if it wasn’t the much-beloved Xenomorph. This all coalesces into a great experience that is only elevated by setting it in a perfect rendition of the Alien Universe.
Many other games have been set in this world, but they often don’t capture the soul of the franchise in the way that Isolation does. The ones that find success usually do so by adopting the tone of Aliens rather than Alien. The faster, more action-packed style is more conducive to the medium of video games, giving you more active tasks to be doing as you progress.
The late 90s/early 2000s Alien vs Predator PC games did a great job of this when you were playing as the marines. There, you’re capable of fighting back against the Xenomorphs, much like the movie Aliens, but their speed and numbers combined with the environments make them a formidable force. Alien Infestation for the Nintendo DS also did a good job capturing that Aliens tone, this time in the Metroidvania genre. You were adequately armed but easily ambushed as you explored the Sulaco.
But Alien: Isolation took on the challenge of capturing the tone of the original Alien film. Instead of giving you action in short, controlled bursts, you truly feel like you’re engaged in a game of wits with the infamous perfect organism. Just like the original film, there’s one Xenomorph hunting you throughout the Sevastapol, and just like the original film, you are not in any way prepared for it. As Amanda Ripley, daughter of franchise protagonist Ellen Ripley, you put your engineering skills to work assembling makeshift weapons from parts you scrounge in order to repel, but never kill, the alien.
Focusing entirely on conflict with the Alien might make the game feel sparse and empty, especially when the creature is run by an adapting AI rather than scripted sequences, so the developer, Creative Assembly, smartly populates the game with other enemies that feel right at home in the Alien Universe. The Working Joe androids that menace you in the halls of the Sevastapol keep you from getting too comfortable while hiding from the Alien itself. Going all the way back to the first Alien film, androids have been a massive presence in the Alien Universe, so it only makes sense for them to be included here.
One moment that always stuck with me from Alien was when Ash finally shows his true colors and tries to attack Ripley by shoving a magazine into her mouth. Everything about the way Ash acts in that scene is so cold and mechanical, making it all the more chilling. The movements of the Working Joes evoke that image, and their calm dialog offering you assistance only doubles down on the tone. Nothing is worse than finally shaking the Xenomorph, only to hear a cold “I will be with your shortly” from around the corner.
[Related] ‘Alien: Romulus’ Teaser Trailer Returns to the Confined Terror of the Original Classic
Alien to me has always been so interesting because it was a group of working class people in space that were caught up in a fight with an incomprehensible creature. They weren’t scientists or a military squadron, so the tech seen on the Nostromo is a lot more low-tech than the sleek sci-fi we’re used to. This created a unique aesthetic that set Alien apart from others in the genre, and it carried forward into other entries into the film franchise.
Creative Assembly was able to perfectly translate this aesthetic as they created the world of the Sevastapol. Every area of the station feels perfectly at home in the Alien franchise. The technology that you use and craft throughout also fits right in. The noisemakers and pipe bombs look like big piles of junk slapped together. The maintenance jack you use as a melee weapon looks is just a wonderfully low-tech tool. Even the stations where you save your game look delightfully analog. All these elements come together to create a cohesive picture that carries the Alien tone into the video game medium with unprecedented accuracy.
Licensed games have always been a bit of a sore subject for gamers, but Alien Isolation shows how you can do it by carefully examining the tone and style of the source material. Every design decision was made to try to emulate the feel of Alien, creating an experience that works for the same reasons the film does. It places the player in a desperate situation where they have to use the meager resources at hand to defend themselves against a horrific monster. Obviously not all movies can be translated this directly to a video game, but Creative Assembly managed the impossible and created a near-perfect adaptation.
This article was originally published for the fifth anniversary on October 7, 2019.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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