Alien: Isolation

Following on the disappointingly received "Aliens: Colonial Marines", comes the latest instalment of the classic Alien franchise in the form of "Alien: Isolation". Set some years after the events of the first film, Amanda Ripley, daughter of series heroine Ellen Ripley, takes to deep space in search of clues of her missing mother. She successfully locates the flight recorder of her mother's ship aboard a space station, but, unfortunately for her, also succeeds in finding one of the terrifying bad guys we know so well from the film series.

This First Person Horror is a real departure from the majority of Alien franchise offerings, forgoing the usual guns and ammo battle with hoardes of Xenomorphs and choosing instead to focus on the clammy tension that made the first instalment the classic it is today. Your aim is not to kill the Alien but to avoid it. To survive it. You don't have an advanced armoury to combat the alien, only a few shipboard tools - again much like the crew of the Nostromo in the first film. Stealth, subtlety and a keen instinct of when to run (very, very quickly) are the keys to completing this game.

The creators have gone to great pains to make everything familiar to fans of the original film, even using similar hallway and technology designs from the Nostromo, giving the game an über authentic feel. The graphics are fluid and incredibly detailed, whilst the minimalistic sounds (again, eerily reminiscent of the original) add to the fraught, tense atmosphere. In addition to the excellent visual and audio, the AI adds significantly to the gaming experience, with your seemingly ever-present foe learning from each encounter to make the following just that little bit trickier.

After a few disappointing instalments in the Alien saga, "Alien Isolation" comes as something of a refreshing reinvigoration in both concept and execution. If scares, spills and thrills are your thing, then this excellently produced new release is the game for you.