Until now, most Alien videogames involved a shooting gallery of phallus-headed ETs, spitting acid at your spacesuit while you unload a machine gun into their gurning grills. Not very scary. Rather than riffing on Aliens, James Cameron’s testosterone-fuelled sequel, Alien Isolation harks back to Ridley Scott’s first movie: a haunted house horror at the edge of the galaxy. You play Ripley’s daughter, abandoned on a space station and forced to find a way back to your mothership. Problem is, a silver-tongued alien wants to eat your face.
Alien Isolation captures a ’70s vision of the future: large computer terminals, flashing lights, and corridors so creepy they invade your dreams. Pitching you against a single monster makes for nail-biting tension. Don’t bother fighting this lunatic, you’ll only lose. Instead, watch the ‘ping’ on your motion detector as it approaches, then turn into a gibbering wreck as you hide in a vent. Only poorly drawn characters prevent this from classic status.