Alien: Isolation

Genre: First-Person Stealth / Horror Game

Players: 1

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Review:

Alien: Isolation is a First-Person Horror game with Stealth elements that was originally released on multiple platforms in 2014, with a story set between the films Alien and Aliens, focusing on the character Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley’s daughter, who embarks on a journey to retrieve the flight recorder from her mother’s doomed vessel to try to find out what became of that ship.

This Nintendo Switch port has garnered a lot of attention, and for good reason – the game manages a 1080p dynamic resolution in docked mode (720p in handheld mode), and it mostly maintains that, with an extremely stable 30FPS framerate. However, this version of the game adds improved anti-aliasing that actually makes it look better than the PS4 and Xbox One versions. Hey, don’t take my word for it – that comes from the experts over at Digital Foundry. Alien Isolation is the rare example of a Nintendo Switch game that looks better than its Xbox One and PS4 counterparts. In fact, in terms of graphical quality, this may very well be the best current-gen port to Switch ever. That’s not to say that it doesn’t make some very well-judged cuts to the graphics here and there to make it work on Nintendo’s less-powerful hardware, but overall it’s generally agreed that the game just overall looks better on the Switch.

It bears mention that this is an improvement over a game that already looked fantastic. Some things like character models look a bit dated now (except in pre-recorded cutscenes, where they look spot-on fantastic), and in particular whenever characters speak, their mouths don’t properly match what they’re saying. However, just about everything else about this game’s visual design looks phenomenal, with amazing light and shadows, subtle reflections, volumetric fog, surprisingly vast environments in some areas (namely, when you can view outside the ship), and an overall visual design that does a perfect job evoking the films that inspired it.

Credit also needs to be given to this game’s sound design and voice acting, which both carry a great deal of weight as well, making you feel every creak of a massive ship falling apart piece by piece, as well as hearing the terror in the voice of every character trying to survive in the frightening situation they’re in.

The gameplay itself has some of the typical mainstays of more modern horror games – an emphasis on sneaking and evasion over combat, and even those damn flashlight batteries make an appearance (though thankfully this game doesn’t require their constant use like some in the genre). However, this game cleverly stages most of its gameplay as a cat-and-mouse game, with the alien proving to be a very clever cat indeed – much has been made of the creature’s diabolical AI since the game was originally released, and it still remains impressive, constantly hounding you with new tricks to kill you time and time again as you play.

This game also has you fighting crazed gangs of paranoid humans, as well as out-of-control androids, and while these fights don’t carry the same dramatic weight as those times where you’re avoiding the alien, the emphasis on running and hiding largely remains due to limited ammo, as well as usually being outnumbered by your hunters.

The main complaint many had of this game, that undoubtedly still holds true here, is that it’s too long, but I generally don’t see that as a flaw, but more of an indication of another issue – this is a game that shows off all of its best tricks early on, and after you’ve gotten used to its amazing presentation and the thrill of being hunted by the alien, there’s little left to shock or impress you, since many of the story beats either don’t carry the weight they try to bear, or are simply repeating the same notes of the films. If you guessed the evil corporation was responsible after all, you get a cookie. It’s not bad, but I’d say that the best part of this game is the first few hours or so, and after that it gradually tapers off. But man, what a hell of a few hours (and the rest honestly isn’t bad, it’s just not as amazing as the game’s opening).

Before getting to the end, let’s get a few things out of the way here – the Nintendo Switch version of the game includes all of the game’s DLC included in with the game. In addition, the game adds optional gyroscopic aiming (but only when holding weapons that require aiming), as well as some additional display options not in prior versions of the game.

All told, the Nintendo Switch version of Alien: Isolation is a master class in how to port a game to the Switch, and the game continues to be a master class in how to adapt a film license to a videogame. While the character models haven’t aged well outside of the cinematics, and the game’s best tricks are revealed within its first few hours, overall this is still one of the greatest Horror games ever made, and the Switch is the best version of the game (outside of the PC version, at least). If you’re a fan of Horror with a Switch, this game is an absolute must-have.

tl;dr – Alien: Isolation is a port of the 2014 First-Person Horror game with heavy Stealth elements following Ellen Ripley’s daughter as she investigates her mother’s disappearance. This version adds graphical improvements that actually make it look better than the other console versions, and this is on top of an already-impressive game with a stunning presentation and some great cat-and-mouse gameplay. If you’re a fan of Horror with a Nintendo Switch, consider this game an absolute must-have.

Grade: A

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