I would honestly go so far as to say thatAlien: Isolationis one of the greatest horror games in recent memory. This terrifying love letter to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece has shown that it’s still possible to do a successful adaptation of the iconicAlienuniverse.
Ten years on, and people are still getting the shit scared out of them. In fact, according toSteamDB(as reported byPCGamesN), many have flocked toIsolationrecently. Over the last 24 hours, 1,839 players have been creeping around the Sevastopol station, hiding in lockers. While it doesn’t sound like a lot, that’s an increase of 328.7% when compared to July.
Given thatAlien: Romulusreleased to cinemas a few days ago, it’s not hard to see what’s caused this spike in popularity forIsolation. Indeed, it kind of makes me want to go back and play the game. Again.
Not an isolated incident
The film seems to be doing pretty well, which is positive, seeing as the last installment, 2017’sCovenant, didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Before that, we gotPrometheus, a prequel to the original 1979 film, which was received pretty favorably, but still had plenty of criticisms. At the time of writing,Romulushas anIMDb scoreof 7.5, so it’s doing alright so far.
To add onto that,Alien: Isolation‘s spike in Steam playerbase may also be down to the fact that the game is currently80% off on PC, with generous discounts on PS5 and Xbox as well. The promotion is ongoing for the next few hours on Steam and the next few days for console if you haven’t checked out the game yet. No doubt these slashed prices are to coincide with the launch of the new film.
It’s no surprise to seeAlien: Isolationincluded in a list of thebest sci-fi horror games of all time, up there with the likes ofDead SpaceandSystem Shock 2. It’s a terrifying ordeal having to outwit the intelligent Xenormorph that stalks the halls with pretty advanced AI. I remember the first time I finished playing it. Steam clocked me in at around 28 hours in total. I’m pretty sure at least 23 of those hours were me cowering in lockers.
It is a shame Creative Assembly hasn’t given usIsolation 2– especially as the first game is nearly a decade old at this point – but we can at least look forward toAlien: Rogue Incursion. Well, if you have a VR headset, that is.
