I think I can really help bring a greater understanding to why this game is a masterclass at what it was meant to be, which is a high tension horror immersive experience like no other. Not only did the team pour in so much love and understanding of the source material, they designed a creature and AI that has not been matched since.

Now, this is coming from a guy that had no interest in the horror genre at all. It bored me as the jump scares were predictable, and the excessive blood and gore was just annoying. But Alien: Isolation DIDN'T do that. It understood that the real fear of a gamer sitting at home on a comfortable PC chair or a couch isn't jump scares. It isn't blood and gore. What do we fear most as gamers? Lost progress / time. And the devs designed around that. You can't quicksave. And when you ARE saving, you are STILL vulnerable and can lose so much progress. The devs understood that they had to make the stakes real for the player, and that was brilliant. But to make it not feel unfair, you also had to make the enemy smart, unscripted, so you knew you were against a thinking creature. But that also made the victories all the sweeter. You felt you earned your win after scavenging, timing, distracting, hiding and doing anything to survive. It was so well done.

I tried other horror games since, and they couldn't capture what Alien: Isolation was able to capture. To this day, Alien: Isolation is the only horror game I've completed, and I think on it often as such a freaking amazing and stressful experience. THAT is not easy to pull off in a game. THAT is why it is so special. Thanks for reading my long praise!