Isolation’s Xenomorph reveal is a masterclass in quiet terror

Players do get little glimpses of the Xenomorph before this point — they’ll witness it kill an NPC with its tail, hear it stomping around Sevastopol Station as it hunts for survivors, and see the bloody carnage left in its wake. But for the most part, the creature is largely kept out of view during the game’s opening hours, making its sudden appearance later on even more hair-raising. When it does finally show up, it arrives at the perfect moment. Player-character Amanda Ripley (daughter of Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley) is attempting to override a security lockdown when she hears hissing from the ceiling above her.

Typically, interacting with a computer in a video game gives us a safe moment to sit back and digest some new story information, but it soon becomes terribly clear Amanda is anything but safe. The Xenomorph slowly unfurls itself like a nonchalant gymnast, dropping out of the ventilation shaft as Amanda scrambles to take shelter under the security workstation. Like a squid’s probing tentacle, the creature’s long tail flops over the edge of the desk she’s hiding under with a loud thunk, nearly bumping into her leg. Peeking around the side of the desk, Amanda watches as it stands up and begins exploring a nearby hallway, clearly hunting for prey. The cutscene ends, returning control to the player, even though the Xenomorph is only a few feet away.

Up until the Xenomorph makes its grand entrance, Alien: Isolation is a delightfully creepy experience. But after it arrives, the game goes from creepy to downright terrifying. Once it descends from the ceiling, the Xenomorph hunts the player relentlessly for the rest of the game. Even as the cutscene was still playing, I couldn’t help but think, “Oh god, it’s so close — can it smell me?” despite knowing I was safe for the brief duration of this scripted encounter. As Amanda jerked her leg away from the path of the creature’s tail, I found myself doing the same thing in real life.

While the cutscene itself is impressive visually, it’s the seamless transition back into gameplay that really makes things tense. There’s no loading screen to separate this encounter from the rest of the game, and the realization that I was going to be stuck in very close quarters with this deadly monster turned my veins to ice the first time I played. It took me a good 60 seconds or so to pull myself together and finally get out from under the desk, and once I did, I moved like a mouse: quickly, quietly, and constantly on the lookout for potential spots to hide.

Lots of games introduce major bosses or villains with an elaborate cutscene that flows right into a battle. But because Xenomorphs are nigh unkillable, this is not the case in Alien: Isolation. Sure, you can craft noisemakers and other gadgets to distract it, and you’ll eventually gain access to a flamethrower that will temporarily scare it off. But long-time Alien fans will know that firearms and melee weapons are largely useless against this beast, and Amanda’s reaction in the cutscene — hiding and trembling, rather than reaching for a weapon — reinforces that point, making it obvious to both experienced Alien fans and those who have never seen the films that the player is not meant to engage with this beast. Interestingly, the Xenomorph doesn’t engage with Amanda right away, either. The developers at Creative Assembly easily could have used this scene for a cheap jump-scare, having the Xenomorph pounce on Amanda before being distracted by something else. Instead, it ignores her entirely because it isn’t aware she’s there.

While many games feature enemies that absolutely have it out for the player-character, Alien: Isolation takes things in the opposite direction — the Xenomorph doesn’t care about Amanda or hold a grudge against her. It’ll hunt her down if she makes herself known, but in the grand scheme of things, Amanda is just another warm body on a ship full of prey. To her, the Xenomorph is a terrifying menace she has personal beef with. To the Xenomorph, Amanda is insignificant. She’s expendable. When it comes to enemies in horror games, I find silent killers who cannot be reasoned with far scarier than those who chase you around with a chainsaw while word-vomiting a monologue about their evil plans.

The Xenomorph doesn’t get some elaborate grand entrance followed by a boss fight and an intimidating HP bar. It just casually slithers down from the ceiling, and the game makes it clear you’re not meant to fight it. You’re meant to avoid it, which makes for a far more stressful, far scarier experience that fundamentally changes the way you play the game. This flawless introduction of the Xenomorph says so much about the creature — without a single line of dialogue being uttered — and is one of the many reasons I see Alien: Isolation as the best Alien game ever made.