In space, no one can hear you scream.... but the Alien most definitely will. It always does. This is the Alien game we've all been waiting for, a survival horror, not an action game. Not only is it the right type of game, it's been done exceptionally well. If you you weren't terrified of the Alien in the movies, you certainly will be here.
Think Alien (1979) and then turn it into a video game. That's exactly what's happened, with some differences of course. Everything is done down to a T, all the little gizmos and mechanics all appear in the game and as you play you'll recognise them from the movie. Set 15 years after the first film, we play as Amanda Ripley, Sigourney Weaver's daughter, as she attempts to investigate what happened to her mother.
The retro feel it gives you is great, even the 20th Century Fox logo is an old one when the game starts. They didn't change anything, all the old looking, green-text computers that were meant to look futuristic. The atmosphere of space looks wonderful when you look our the windows, it's even better when you're outside of the ship and witness it first hand.
I spent the first few chapters wanting to see the alien, the eventual reveal certainly didn't disapoint. The Alien isn't the only thing ywo fear though, no siree Bob! Rogue androids and other humans aren't always happy to see you either, but they are no comparison to the genius alien. Easily on of the best AI's in a game, the alien will jump out if you're running or making too much noise, it can spot you from a fair distance if you're not hiding and once it does see you, you may as well put your controller die and what for your game to reload, you ain't getting out alive at that point. The alien is so intelligent that you will be hiding in cupboard and under desks for long periods of times, after all the hiding you could still get killed before a save point. If you play smart, you will make it to the end if you stick with it.
It's quite a long game, spread around 18 chapters. It's split up quite well too, at times it's just human enemies, then the alien, then androids and sometimes there's a mix. There's a few mini games to open doors and use computers, there's a nice variation that keep the game fresh. There's also a good arsenal of weapons you can find the more you progress in the story. You also can craft useful items like molotovs and pipe bombs, but the items to craft them are quite scarce. You can use items tactically too, if you've a got a pipe bomb, launch it at a group of hunan enemies and your best alien friend will drop down and clear them out. Two of the most useful are the molotov and flamethrower, these will get the alien off you back and cause it to retreat. You feel much safer armed with fire, but beware, the more you use them on the alien, the more it'll come back to hunt you. I think the motion tracker will be everyone's most useful asset, it'll track any movement and it's your only source of locating the alien without seeing it.
The alien looked great, as did the ship, atmosphere and all the tech. The only thing that didn't look as good was the humans, they were a bit cartoony looking, but they weren't bad. The side characters weren't that great either, not very memorable or interesting. There can be long distances between the save stations, which puts a lot of pressure on you and they're the only saving source. I found it hard to tell the difference between good and bad humans and androids, it often lead to me wasting time stealthing through a room I could've just walked straight through. A later part of the story has you surrounded by androids, they're a lot tougher in this chapter and having used practically all my gear to kill two of them, they just respawned when I progressed further. A couple of glitches happened like a floating flamethrower and get stuck on top of a crate which had me reload. Not many problems in a well made game.
If you're unhappy with how smart the alien AI is, you really need to watch the movies again and listen about how intelligent the Xenomorphs really are, the game did the creatures justice and didn't make them dumb and easy like Colonial Marines. If you're playing this expecting to be able to walk through this game having no problems and the alien never causing you any trouble, you're playing the wrong game. The pattern is always different and they will never walk the same path on a reload, the ceilings drip when the alien is above and is an instant kill if you stand below, the vents aren't always a safe way to traverse as the alien can use them too. You can move around when hiding to get better views when the alien is around, if the alien comes to the locket you're in, you can hold your breath to keep it away, if you keep breathing, you're dead.
A great touch was that lots of the original cast came back to voice their characters for audio logs like Dallas, Parker and Ellen Ripley. Facehuggers even make an appearance and they are deadly if you're not quick to spot them. I have to say the penultimate chapter was much better than the final one, but they managed to get one last scare in and gave us a very interesting ending. Whether we get a sequel I'm not sure, it's certainly possible, but not really necessary. This was the perfect Alien game and reminded us just how strong these creatures are, kudos Sega.
5.9/10
Wait! I mean 8.1/10
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