Taking place a few years after the events onboard the Nostromo, Isolation picks up with Ellen Ripley's grown daughter, Amanda, going off to investigate a ship that might have found a clue to what happened to her mother. Amanda is a really fun and very different type of video game character. She's not a Colonial Marine, just a worker like her mother, so she's out of her element when the shit hits the fan, but like her mother, she rises to the occasion and in a wholly believable way. Amanda is smart and quick on her feet, the kind of heroine I'm very comfortable with my daughter playing as.
Overall, I really don't have anything negative to say about Isolation. We're about half way through the game I think, and there have been plenty of moments where I'm standing up to play, because I'm too keyed up to sit still. The jump scares are legit and unlike Aliens; Colonial Marines, the xenomorph feels like a real world ending threat. ACM was a fine game for what it was, I guess, and had a comic book action feel, but something about it left me kind of disappointed once we beat it.
Isolation has all the horror and atmosphere of the original film without feeling like a retread of that story. It deepens the Alien lore and respects the source. When people talk about video games becoming interactive movies, Isolation is the perfect example. And check out all the awesome tech easter eggs-like it was made shortly after the original film, there are cassette tapes, boom boxes, arcade games-god, it's awesome!
If I have a gripe, I guess it's the lack of save spots. Seriously. There have been some long runs between save spots that are really annoying the fifth or sixth time.
I've heard talk about a possible Friday the 13th video game, if that's happening, I hope creators take some cues from Isolation!
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