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There's Finally a Not Shitty 'Alien' Video Game

After years of waiting, 'Alien: Isolation' is the first 'Alien' game not to suck... Ever.
Image: YouTube

Somewhere in a mountain, in a candlelit cave glistening with frozen gold relics, is a never ending scroll of reasons why video game adaptations of movies usually suck. They're usually cheap promotional tie-ins. For example, why did somebody actually pay somebody else to make Wayne's World a video game?

When they are good, they feel like exceptions to the rule, especially in the case of Riddick and The Warriors. Expectations for film games got so low that there wasn't even an outcry when the Avatar game, based on the global blockbuster, was total garbage. Instead, it was just par for the course.

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Now the gaming industry barely even bothers with film adaptations. And if you're going to do it, it's better if the game is only loosely affiliated to the film universe and can stand on their own, like The Walking Dead game, or the Batman installment Arkham Asylum.

Related: What 'Destiny' Tells Us About Sci-Fi Optimism

As for the case of the Alien franchise, well, video game adaptations have always been a complete bust, until now.

'ALIEN: ISOLATION' IS THE FIRST ALIEN GAME BEING TOUTED AS SURVIVAL HORROR, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT SCOTT'S ORIGINAL FILM DID SO WELL

The first film, from Ridley Scott, is a spectacular horror film: tense, lonely, suffocating and muted. The second, James Cameron's Aliens, is a spectacular action movie, full of set pieces, futuristic weapons and eternal one-liners. More importantly, the two films seem to know where one begins and the other ends, a balanced relationship.

But that sure as hell can't be said about Alien video games.

The waiting period between this week's impressive Alien: Isolation and last year'sunimpressive Aliens: Colonial Marines was filled with a public meditation on the opinion that we've never had the single Alien game that does the franchise good. Colonial Marines, the most recent illustration, had big expectations, and turned into a fiasco.

Hopes were on high for Gearbox, the successful Borderlands creators, to take a shot at the doomed franchise, but repeated delays, a slipping visual quality, workplace rumours and, ultimately, a broken and boring game felt like a low for an Alien franchise that never had a huge high.

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The fallout felt more like an ugly divorce than a failed release, with the Wii U version scrapped. Ever since, Gearbox and the publisher, Sega, have been locked in court.

A screenshot from Colonial Marines. Image: YouTube.

As much as Colonial Marines was a disappointment, it was part of a decade-spanning mediocre lineage. The most celebrated games with xenomorphs present were some of the Alien vs Predator games, which began as a beat-em-up before finding itself as a first person shooter on the Atari Jaguar in 1994. In fact, there have been more high profile Alien vs Predator releases than high profile Alien releases, if that's a sign of anything.

But as for games based on the main series, the bar has never been set very high. 1992's Alien 3, one of the first major multi-console tie-ins for the films, had more to do with Aliens than Fincher's prison colony assault (which isn't inherently a bad thing), but an unwieldy camera and hit detection made it frustrating.

The SNES version is known as the best of the lot, while Acclaim's Alien Trilogy felt like a Doom mod. I always thought Alien: Infestation was alright, but stiff, and watching the 2D aliens hop around and dance circles around you looked more goofy than terrifying, well received as it is. Colonial Marines wasn't even the only one late to release, Alien: Resurrection's PlayStation game came three years after the film.

This year's Alien: Isolation is a departure, and not just because it's enjoyable to play. The game also emphasizes why many of the previous games have been off the mark to begin with.

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A shot from the Alien: Isolation trailer. Image: YouTube

While most Alien games just saw you torching space bugs, which is fun, Isolation brings the game back to its cinematic roots. Alien: Isolation is the first Alien game being touted as survival horror, which is exactly what Scott's original film did so well.

The most impressive feature in Sega's follow-up to Colonial Marines is that there is only one xenomorph in the entire game, haunting the player at every turn. One. Singular. The pastiche simulation of Scott's original is impressive, and oddly comforting, but it's the lack of things to fight, and just one to fear, that has people most excited.

Those that have been championing Isolation this week have emphasized that it's a game to be played in the dark. You need to sneak around the ship, trying to keep tabs on an unpredictable hunter, and survive. You, Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen, knows like your mother that once you see the beast it may be too late.

The xenomorph, created by the late H.R. Giger, is a frightening creature. Humanoid but uncomfortably distorted, and more disturbingly, its body sleek and lined with tubes, seems perfect to linger and camouflage on a deep space vessel.

For years that's the creature we've been overpowering in droves with the ABCs of space weapons, mowing it down like the grunts and worms of other sci-fi games. The action packed Alien games have had their time in a distant sun for long enough. It's a long overdue time to be just plain scared of that monster—and Alien: Isolation delivers just that.