For the last week or so I’ve been playing Alien: Isolation. I love it. This video by Brendan Keogh does a great job of explaining why.
It’s a short, simple four minute video. The title of the video is “just an encounter” and, essentially, that’s all it is but what it exemplifies to me is how genuinely unique situations are created in response to your actions. Moments that are all the more significant for being unique to the player and his experience.
I’ll let Brendan explain for himself:
I’m absolutely loving this game and the unmatched sense of being hunted it offers. The procedural-ness of each encounter is what makes it feel so remarkable. I died and redid this part of the game about four of five times, and how it plays out in this video is unlike any of the other attempts.
The other night there I had a similar experience. I literally sat inside a locker for four minutes listening to the Alien patrol the vents above me, too scared to move, too scared to make a sound. At one point I left the locker, but heard the Alien scatter above me in response. Within 10 seconds I was back in the locker, cowering in fear.
Alien: Isolation is just so good at creating the procedural moments, these tiny little horror-narratives that are unique, compelling and — God, I hate myself for using this word — cinematic. It really is such a genuinely well crafted experience.
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