Fight For The Top 50 2014 - Alien: Isolation

For last year's Fight for the Top 50 games of the year challenge, I championed a game all about a survivor trying to overcome an alien menace in the far reaches of space. Now I'm back again this year arguing why Amanda Ripley's harrowing adventure in Alien: Isolation deserves to be on 2014's Top 50 Games of the Year list. Creative Assembly's first-person horror game has its ups and downs, but I firmly believe it should be snugly burrowed into our list, like a gestating chestburster in its host.

Learn about Game Informer's Fight for the Top 50 Challenge 2014, happening today and tomorrow.

Alien: Isolation blends together the first-person flight-over-fight survival we've come to appreciate since games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent first terrified players. Playing as Ellen Ripley's daughter, your main objective is to evade and hide from a deadly xenomorph stalking the dim halls of the Sevastopol space station. The titular extraterrestrial can kill players with a single tail stab or bite, so the stakes are always high. Other threats like violent, haywire androids with unsettlingly loose synthetic skin and gun-wielding survivors present additional threats to the roaming H.R. Giger nightmare.

I decided to champion Alien: Isolation for our Top 50 this year because I think much of the criticism surrounding the game (read Jeff M's review) overshadows the polish and authenticity that runs through one of the best horror games ever. Creative Assembly's Sevastopol Station is oozing with atmosphere. Everything about the ship feels like it would fit right at home in Ridley Scott's fantastic sci-fi horror film. The dingy, low-fi computer keyboards, signature bleeps and bloops, and general grime of the station fits perfectly. Sneaking through this locale past a snarling xenomorph and listening for its sick hiss and ominous footfalls is any Alien fan's dream (nightmare?) come true.

Despite my appreciation of Alien: Isolation, I acknowledge and agree with the game's shortcomings. It's too long. Alien: Isolation could've been a tighter, more replayable horror game rather than something that feels padded out. Amanda is sent on so many errands to flip breakers and reactivate power that the banal tasks all blend together. Additionally, the initial introduction of the enemy survivors is incredibly rough, with some players dying dozens of times before finding their footing. Despite these issues, I still consider Alien: Isolation the best Alien game ever made a must-play for any horror fan.

The Top 50 Challenge
My fellow editors at Game Informer have mixed feelings on Alien: Isolation. Many praise the accuracy of its 1970's vision of the future and the unpredictability of the Alien's A.I., but at the same time feel like it's too much of the same repeated over and over for nearly 20 hours. To help gain another perspective I've challenged our PC editor Dan Tack to try his hand at Alien: Isolation. Dan is a big fan of horror games, citing classics like Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly and Amnesia: The Dark Descent as examples of his favorites. If I trust anyone's opinion on Creative Assembly's ambitious contribution to Ridley Scott's seminal horror film, it's his. And most importantly, I know Dan has the gumption to endure each sweaty-palmed encounter the game can throw at him.

Dan was given one day to play Alien: Isolation. Come back tomorrow at 2:00 PM CT to read his impressions and see if Alien: Isolation will get his support for Game Informer's Top 50 Games of 2014.