Alien Isolation Vs Dead Space
Some critics have gone as far as to call Alien: Isolation their favorite “Alien movie” after the original. Creative Assembly’s 2014 horror game felt more like a spiritual successor to the original Alien’s brilliance than most of the following films.
While Prometheus made the future look glossy and sleek, Alien: Isolation returned to the clunky, tactile, outdated tech of the Sulaco spacecraft. In many ways, it also brought Ripley’s unique feminine badassery back to center stage, telling her daughter’s story as she searched for her mother.More than any other entry on the list, Alien: Isolation perfectly translated the anxiety of a hyper-intelligent, stalking Xenomorph to games, with an incredible feat of smart AI that ramps up the tension in every moment. A tension which the xenomorph tracker, reminiscent of Cameron’s motion sensor tracker in Aliens, nailed. System Shock. One of Frictional Games’ many masterful contributions to the modern survival horror genre, SOMA brings the eerie, rusting sci-fi setting underwater. But the deep sea proves just as inescapable and anxiety-inducing as deep space, as the player struggles with the psychological horror of a science facility overrun by unpredictable sentient AI. Word how to go back to the table of content automatically. Like The Company from the original Alien, the real enemy in SOMA is a morally questionable industrial future where we’ve lost sight of the value of human life.
Alien Isolation Vs Dead Space
While unofficial, this 1991 Amiga game series did a much better job of capturing the lonely panic of Aliens than the plethora of other official franchise tie-ins from the era. The run and gun format recreated the balls-to-the-walls chaos of the movie’s battle sequences, while the difficulty constantly reminded players how outnumbered they were in the fight against an increasingly overpowered enemy force. Not to mention the boss fights, which would have any player screaming, “Get away from her, you bitch,” before laying waste to the Alien Queen. Contra and Super C don’t include much of the original movie’s characteristics, but it perfected James Cameron’s horrifying vision of the space marine battle in Aliens in games.
Dead Space is one of my all time favorite horror games. I just started Alien Isolation, but it looks like I'm in for something special. What say you.
In Contra, an elite team of soldiers is sent on a mission to sort out some alien shit that’s going down. Guns-ablazing, both the in-game characters and the player come to the stark realization that they are far outmatched. And that’s not to mention that, in the final level of Super C, you are very literally battling a horde of. The creators of the original Metroid and Super Metroid openly admitted to borrowing heavily from Alien and Aliens, even basing Samus Aran’s appearance partially off of Ripley (oh, and calling their main villain Ridley, which is a pretty backhanded way of giving credit if you ask me). Like the original film did for the horror genre, this classic metroidvania series changed its medium forever.
And while wholly different in tone, both franchises feature a female protagonist who’s better equipped than anyone to exterminate an alien species threatening the universe’s way of life. The recently released takes the open-world approach to a space station overrun by an invasive species that mimics everything, including human life. The gameplay is unyieldingly anxious, perfecting the powerlessness of a surprise horde attack.
The story also recalls the hubris of man: a reminder that we should all just agree to not play with fire when it comes to an aggressive alien species. But Prey’s at the bottom of our list for a reason. Both because it never nails the claustrophobia so characteristic of the Alien franchise—and because it doesn’t stand up next to many of the classics above.is a freelance writer covering the web of internet culture, games, media, and intimacy in the digital age. You can catch her work on Vice, Paste, The Atlantic, Polygon, Glixel, Kill Screen, and Mashable.