Alien: Isolation
Until Creative Assembly descended from the heavens on a majestic steed made from platinum trophies — or achievements, your pick — with a flaming copy of Alien: Isolation in its armored hand, the Aliens franchise hadn’t had much luck in producing a game that was worthy of the legacy of the films. Isolation changed this by excelling in all the ways the drivel that preceded it failed.
In past Aliens games, the eponymous creatures were little more than bugs to be squashed. They could be vanquished without requiring any real amount of effort from the player. The enemies of Isolation, and specifically the lone xeno that hunts Ripley throughout the Sevastapol, are cunning, posing a much greater threat that requires actual strategy to overcome.
Take a screenshot of Alien vs. Predator or Alien: Colonial Marines and there’s a solid chance it won’t look much different from a screen taken from any other first person shooter. The worlds those games take place in lacked the attention to detail and near-obsessive desire to remain true to the films, so a screen taken from Alien: Isolation is immediately identifiable as belonging to the Alien universe.
Good ideas and solid execution are important, but the real reason this game has been more successful than what we’ve been exposed to in the past is it was made by a team that’s obviously very passionate about the films. That makes a real difference.
