Alien: Isolation

The single greatest survival horror game ever made. The initialism "AI" for Alien Isolation doesn't seem to be a coincidence, because the AI for the Xeno is truly the star of the show. The design is perfect, the sounds are also perfect... but somehow the AI itself overshadows all other elements of the Xeno because it is simply THAT GOOD. It learns from your behaviors, if you hide in lockers too much it'll start checking them. If you use the flamethrower too much, it'll slowly become less and less afraid of it. If you're hiding under tables too much, you bet your ass it'll start checking under the furniture. Beyond that, it's always utterly unpredictable. You can load up the same save 20 times and you're going to get 20 different ways to die. It'll hide in the walls or ceiling and wait for you to talk by. It'll start a random patrol around the area it last heard you. Add in the fact that there are other humans on board, and you have an ever changing terrifying puzzle to solve in real time. One of my favorite encounters was when I was stuck in a hallway where I knew the Xeno was behind me lurking somewhere, but in front of me was a well lit room with 2 humans standing in the way. Humans throughout the station can either be hostile or neutral, and there's not always a good way of telling which is which until you've made yourself known. So, anxious to make a move, I decided to just pop out of cover and try approaching to just see if they were gonna shoot me. Sure enough, the guy screamed at me and took a pot shot. I immediately ducked behind cover and IMMEDIATELY after I hear the loud pounding footsteps of the Xeno in a dead sprint coming out of the dark hallway. I'm thinking I'm so dead, even about to hit Esc to reload a save... but instead the Xeno tunnel-visioned on the shooter and ran right past me. While I'm hearing the shooter get disemboweled, his companion sprints back toward me, passes me, and into the dark hallway with the Xeno sprinting towards him just afterward.... leaving me with a clean exit out of the area! Problem solved! Anyway, it's just incredible, there's very little to complain about and the game has aged like fine wine with how well the 70s retro-futuristic style still works. Some people don't like how long the game is, if you're struggling a lot with out maneuvering the xenomorph you may very well end up taking 20+ hours to finish the game. There IS significant backtracking in some sections, which is a turnoff to some. But if those things don't bother you, and you want to feel some of the most tense horror/stealth available in gaming.... boy do I have a game for you!

Alien: Isolation is one of the few horror games that still makes me nervous even when I know what's coming. The Xenomorph doesn't feel like an enemy with scripted movements it feels like a predator that is actively hunting you. Every time you hide in a locker or crawl under a desk, there's a real chance that it will find you. The motion tracker becomes both your best friend and your worst enemy, because hearing that beep usually means trouble is getting closer. Overall: 10/10

The scariest horror I've ever played. Unkillable, smart and very unpredictable AI. When the alien isnt hunting you, the androids are, worth playing on nightmare.