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The hiss and clunk
of the hypersleep
chamber’s door
wakes me from my
deep slumber, but
it’s the sudden
and brief shock of
the cold and clinical floor beneath my
bare feet that jolts me back to reality.
I’m currently onboard the Torrens, a
transport ship bound for Sevastopol
space station. The only thing I can
process is the quiet hum of the ship
interrupted by the clicks and beeps of
a sign-in station nearby, but it’s time
for me to get dressed and check in
with the crew. We’ll be reaching our
destination soon.
I love horror and I’ve never
experienced a game quite like Alien:
Isolation, which is a triumph in the
genre and one of the scariest games
I’ve ever played. It follows the story
of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of
series protagonist Ellen Ripley, 15
years after the events of the first Alien
film. Amanda has been searching for
any sign of her missing mother, and
when a report comes in that the flight
recorder of the Nostromo, the ship
her mother was on that ‘vanished’ all
those years ago, is being held at the
Sevastopol space station, Amanda
doesn’t hesitate at the chance
of being part of the crew to
retrieve it.
Although I’ve played
through the game
before, how long I’ll
last with just one
life is unknown. The
Xenomorph that stalks
you through the station
is an unpredictable entity,
coming out from the darkness
when you least expect it. Every death
is always a surprise.The perfect organism
I arrive at the station, but I’m soon
separated from my crew and left all
alone. The station appears empty,
but I know that’s not true. Crawling
through the bowels of the ship, I
meet a few survivors both hostile
and helpful. My first encounter withthe Xenomorph makes my palms
sweat. The survivor I’ve partnered
up with is impaled by its tail and is
dragged through a nearby air vent. I
instinctively make a run for the tram
system and punch the call button,
knowing I’m the creature’s next target.
With my back to the door, and
without blinking, I watch for
any sign of the monster.
An age passes before the
tram finally arrives and
just as I run in, close the
doors and look back...
there it is, standing just
beyond the threshold,
looking right at me and
sending chills down my spine.
At the other side of the station,
I trigger an alarm and cause a security
lockdown. Thundering footsteps can
be heard above me: the Xenomorph
is on the hunt. I manage to disable
the alarm, and the moment I do the
creature crawls out of a ceiling vent
and lands right in front of where I’m
hiding. All I can do is cower behind
a desk. The temptation to run is
unbearable, but if I do it’s all over.
Drying my palms, I wait for the alien toleave and then slowly make my way
through the ship. I arrive at the lobby
nearby an elevator, where the alien
is preoccupied with some survivors.
After making short work of them,
it quickly vanishes into the ship’s
innards. Once more, I take it slow in
reaching the elevator door, but just as
I’m trying to open it I hear a loud thud
and hiss behind me. Have I just woken
up from a nightmare? No, it’s here,
and it knows I’m here, too. Drenched
in fear, I turn, the towering beast is
standing there blocking my only route
of escape. Standing face to face with
the creature, I accept my fate, just as
it reaches out its arms, extending its
claws, and lunges. Qextra
“The creature crawls out of a
ceiling vent and lands right in
front of where I’m hiding”
Experiencing the terror of Alien: Isolation and seeing how long
you can last with a single life ADAM BRYANT
PUBLISHER SEGA / DEVELOPER CREATIVE ASSEMBLY / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE OCTOBER 2014WHAT IS IT?
A faithful continuation
of the Alien franchise,
and one of the most
terrifying sci-fi survival
horrors ever made that’ll
have you on edge from
start to finish.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 099