Xbox One

Alien: Isolation - The Collection

Adventure

Time to beat: about 21 hours
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Alien: Isolation is a 2014 survival horror game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Based on the Alien film series, the game is set 15 years after the original 1979 film, and follows the engineer Amanda Ripley, voiced by Andrea Deck. Amanda investigates the disappearance of her mother, Ellen Ripley, aboard the space station Sevastopol, which is in disarray due to years of corporate negligence and the threat of a rampant alien creature. The game emphasizes stealth gameplay, requiring the player to avoid, outsmart, and fight enemies with an assortment of tools and weapons.

Alien: Isolation was designed to resemble the original Alien film rather than its more action-oriented 1986 sequel Aliens, and features a similar lo-fi, 1970s vision of what the future could look like. It runs on an engine built to accommodate the alien's behaviour and technical aspects such as atmospheric and lighting effects. Creative Assembly intended to make Alien: Isolation a third-person game, but used first-person to create a more intense experience. Several downloadable content packs were released, some of which relive scenes from the original film.

Alien: Isolation received positive reviews and sold over two million copies by May 2015. Its retro-futuristic art direction, sound design, and artificial intelligence were praised, while its length received some criticism. Considered one of the best games ever made, Alien: Isolation won several year-end awards, including Best Audio at the 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards and Audio Achievement at the 11th British Academy Games Awards. It saw ports to Linux and OS X in 2015, Nintendo Switch in 2019, and Android and iOS mobile devices in 2021. It was also added to the Amazon Luna service in 2021. A web series adaptation was released in 2019. A sequel, Alien: Isolation 2, was announced in 2024 and formally revealed in 2026.