For some, Alien Isolation is pants-crappingly terrifying. The slow adventure through the imposing, retro-futurist Sevastapol Station is almost scary enough on its own, but the living, breathing, actually-thinking Xenomorph stalking the player at any given time makes the first-person horror game one of the scariest horror games ever made.
While Alien Isolation is a beloved game, it didn’t sell particularly well, hence the long wait for a sequel. Whether it’s the inclusion of Amanda Ripley as the protagonist—which the devs were initially worried would make the game too cliche—or the controversial length of the game, it simply didn’t catch on with many until years after launch.
In an interview on our FRVR Podcast releasing later today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more, Alien Isolation writer Dion Lay explained that the game might have actually suffered because of how scary it actually is. While horror is subjective, many people have reported simply turning the game off due to the feat the hulking Xenomorph instils in them, and Lay believes that may have actually harmed sales.
“I love, I love [that it’s so scary]” Lay explained. “There’s a bit of worry, like, is it too scary, you know? And a lot of people, I think it is too scary [for], and I know we probably could’ve sold more if we watered it down. But I’m so proud that we didn’t and that it’s really scary.”
As a huge fan of horror media across TV, film, game and literature, Lay explains that horror games are unique in the way that they “punish” players, and in Alien Isolation that punishment is unique. Unlike Resident Evil and Silent Hill, where you can learn to run around the majority of enemies, the Xenomorph learns how you move so no playthrough is exactly the same.
“The weird thing about horror games is, because the player goes in with the expectation that this is a horror game, they expect a bit more punishment,” they explained. “And punishment, it changes, it transforms from punishment to thrill because it’s what you came on board for… with horror games and Alien, you don’t get it anywhere else. I fell off my chair when I first started playing it.”
To this day, Alien Isolation stands as one of the most exciting and thrilling horror games of all time, and certain VR mods for the game make it even scarier. At the time of writing, an official sequel is in development at Creative Assembly, which will hopefully be an even more intense, more terrifying version of events, sales be dammed.
