10 Brilliant Video Games That Surprised Everyone - Commenter Edition

10. Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation was met with a mixture of caution and dread from the get-go for one very depressing reason - Aliens: Colonial Marines. As that game's disastrous development cycle and release is now more well documented than the Second World War, it'll suffice to say that it was truly, madly, garment-rendingly awful in every respect, especially considering the hype that had built around it over several years.

Isolation developers Creative Assembly, however, were unperturbed by the worry that was beginning to set in. While Colonial Marines took after James Cameron's 1986 action sequel, Isolation was based firmly on Ridley Scott's original (and far superior) horror classic. Their vision was delivered impeccably. The Sevastopol space station captured that same spirit of grimy, 1970s sci-fi - all clunky machinery and CRT monitors - and the horror aspect was front and centre.

Alien: Isolation is terrifying. An excruciatingly tense, unforgiving struggle between woman and beast, the single Alien that remorselessly stalks Amanda Ripley through Sevastopol is unmatched in its hostility, waiting for that one wrong move that will surely mean instant death. Compared to Colonial Marines' hordes of dopey Xenomorph cannon fodder, this monster - and indeed the entire game - was structural perfection.