10 Horror Video Games That Brutally Punish You

8. Alien: Isolation

House Of Velez
Sega

It's proven a tough task to deliver a masterful Alien video game over the decades, but Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation did a phenomenal job of capturing the claustrophobia and sheer dread of the IP when it was finally let out into the wild in late-2014.

Because the game captures that claustrophobic terror so well, though, it's nothing if not instinctive for a player to seek a safe hiding spot any time you think that a Xenomorph is in the vicinity. However, choose to snuggle up to the warm familiarity of safety for too long.

If you think that the best plan in Isolation is to hide out and wait for a Xenomorph to quietly shuffle off and do its Xenomorph thing elsewhere, you'll be gravely mistaken.

Instead, the longer you stay hidden, the greater the chance of the acid-blooded creature successfully hunting you down. It's the ultimate stick or twist conundrum of holding on to your proverbial safety blanket or making a break for it in the hope that your movements don't lead you directly to the very thing you're trying to avoid.

To paraphrase Liam Neeson, the Xenomorph will look for you, it will find you, and it absolutely will kill you.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.