7 Things Alien Isolation Does Way Better Than Colonial Marines

5. A Meaningful Challenge

Cheating virtual death has been a staple in video games for as far back as we can remember, but the essence of imminent death and narrow escape only becomes a tangible dynamic if the stakes are equally palpable. Dying only matters if the consequences are successfully communicated in a way that doesn't trivialize victory over defeat. Gearbox's game provides no such experience. Aliens: Colonial Marines did its damnedest to pass off a barrel full of bullets and a ton of Aliens as mortal tension. The entirely misguided logic of this execution was made all the less effective by abysmal AI, dog-paddling through swathes of scenic clutter while aimlessly assaulting anything within claws reach. Weyland's goons weren't much better, not even taking care to focus fire on Xenos in a three-way combat scenario. With Aliens as underpowered as these, we can hardly blame the Mercenaries for not taking them seriously. When a higher difficulty means Aliens can simply take a few more bullets, we reach the capacity of Colonial Marines' ability to deliver a poignant challenge. There will always be hard games, but we're thrilled to see the resurgence of playful punishment that has taken root in hardcore survival-horror games. Isolation is right up there with Amnesia, Slender and Outlast. Death is a way of life, or more accurately... the way of more death. But this kind of death doesn't run full speed at your face in the form of endless, mindless hordes. It comes at the crux of a few desperate strangers fighting for survival. It comes as a punctuation to the otherwise slow burn of stalking along an ominous hallway. It comes suddenly and without warning. If it does come screaming towards you, it's with wild and ferocious purpose, and by then, it's far too late... Death is brutally real and unpredictable. You'll use every faculty of perception available to you. You will devise quick and dirty plans on the fly, crafting invaluable gadgets to distract and disable threatening lifeforms and unhinged automatons. Sometimes you'll find yourself cursing that insufferable beast for seemingly singling you out, but it all serves to add authenticity to the random chaos of this uncanny survival simulation.