Looking at: Alien Isolation

In Space...

Amanda Ripely, spitting image of her mother

Everyone remembers Aliens, the 1986 James Cameron sci-fi classic that pretty much shaped the modern sci-fi world. It's a great film, another example of James Cameron's amazing film-making abilites, and it's easily one of my all time favorite 80's movies, right up there with Cameron's Terminator 2.

What a lot of people don't remember, or don't remember as well, is the predecessor to Aliens, Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). Alien is a decidedly different film from Cameron's choosing to focus on a small cast, few action scenes, and a great horror vibe. It's this smaller, more intimate feel of Scott's movie that we find the setting for Alien: Isolation, one of the best sci-fi horror titles since System Shock 2.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

Emergency stations are your save points, and their beeping is an odd comfort.

A:I sees you playing as Amanda Ripley, a last name that should be instantly familiar to any fan of the franchise. Indeed, Amanda is the daughter of Sigourney Weaver's character from the films, and was about 10 during the events of Alien. Now, a decade later, the flight recorder from the Nostromo has been found in a backwater station on the far reaches of space, and Ripley, along with some Weyland Yutani executives, decide to go pick it up.

As you might expect, things don't go nearly as planned. Ripley and co. arrive at Sevastopol station to find it nearly deserted and completely in ruins. The surviving humans have split into warring groups and factions, scrounging around and fighting with each other. The station's AI has gone insane, turning the synthetic robots onboard into murderous killing machines. And there's the Xeno herself, come aboard with the Nostromo recording box and killing without mercy wherever she goes. Sevastopol, in other words, fucking sucks.

Under the Covers

Sevastopol is falling apart, and fire suppression almost never works.

Gameplay wise A:I is largely about stealth over everything else. Combat is hugely risky, the few times you actually can engage in it, and you'll spend most of your time crawling around avoiding a fight. Human enemies are easy enough to engage, and while the game emphasizes avoidance, you can lure single foes away and bean them over the head with your maintenance tool. That only works a fraction of the time, however, and only on humans, who aren't really your main concern. Synthetics, on the other hand, can't be attacked in a stealthy manner, can withstand a fury of blows, and will hunt you relentlessly, even through a hail of gunfire. They're creepy, monotone, grey as the moon, and really hard to kill, making them the perfect enemy for a game all about sneaking around.

Of course the biggest threat is the Xeno, huge, hulking, and black as night. Everything about how the Xeno is handled in this game is amazing, and it makes the whole experience that much more terrifying and authentic to the film it's based on. The Xeno doesn't even show up for the first 90 minutes, rather you follow her path of destruction and death so that when you do get a look at her you're instantly aware of how dangerous she is.

Dangerous indeed, since the Xeno's attack is an instant game over. This might seem aggravating, and it is at times, but it reinforces the idea that you need to avoid her at all costs. A:I is a game that demands patience, and you'll find yourself waiting out the Xeno in cupboards or under tables while moving through her patrol pattern. If you get board easily, this is really not the game for you.

Fear and Loathing

Alien: Isolation's lighting does a great job of creating atmosphere.

There is combat, but as I said, it's mostly a last resort option. There are a few weapons, a trusty revolver or a flamethrower, but open firefights draw the Xeno, and no amount of ammo can take her down. The rare time the game does force you into a fight, it's usually in a way that you can easily control the situation, and only with a handful of combatants.

This is for the better, since A:I might be one of the worst shooters I've played in a while, strictly speaking as a shooter. Weapons handle like shit, and they're just not fun to use at all. Again, this all feeds back into the stealth and avoidance, but when you do have to pull iron and fire it's a horrendous experience that almost made me long for Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Just kidding, no one has ever longed for that pile of steaming Xeno shit.

Thankfully the stealth works great, with a full compliment of leaning controls and the ubiquitous motion tracker from the films. It's easy to avoid a fight, and that works very well in the game's favor. To compliment this are a handful of tools you can craft, everything from smoke bombs and noise makers to pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. Let me tell you, there's no more satisfying feeling than nailing the Xeno with a Molotov, and it's probably the only effective way to get some breathing room.

Crafting itself is handled pretty well, sort of similar to The Last of Us. There's several types of crafting components scattered through the levels and the different items require combinations of them. Medkits are, of course, the easiest thing to build, but some of the better weapons, like the aforementioned Molotovs or pipe bombs, can require a bit of time to put together, and it makes using them that much more costly.

Gunmetal Grey

The ubiquitous motion tracker, capable of tracking the Xeno and other living beings.

There's an art to making something as boring (relativity speaking) as a space station look good and A:I nails this perfectly. Sevastopol is a dilapidated derelict falling apart and on the edge of complete breakdown. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the tunnels of Metro 2033, and it's a dark, gloomy and very claustrophobic affair. The station is absolutely cramped, with no breathing room, and it actually manages to justify the lack of a jump button. Even better, is that it actually looks lived-in, with clutter everywhere, rather than just a boring run-of-the-mill space station. It's possible to believe that, until recently, Sevastopol was a bustling industrial station, now it sits in ruins falling apart at the seams.

Graphically A:I looks amazing, with stellar lighting effects that help sell the mood perfectly. Smoke effects look great and the art direction of Sevastopol is top notch. Character models all look pretty good in-game, but it's in the cut-scenes that they really shine, and we dip deep into the uncanny valley with some of the characters.

My favorite part of the visual design of A:I is how it approaches it's look. It's a retro-future feel that fits perfectly with the original movie, considering it was made in the late 70's. Computer screens are mono-chrome green, with scan lines, and there's chromatic aberrations on every screens, making them look like old worn-out CRT technology. Everything is bulky and old-fashioned, exactly like they would be in a future created back in 1979, and it's an extra touch that does a lot to sell the game as part of the franchise.

On the audio front, the game is equally great. Sound design is excellent, with Sevastopol creaking and moaning, creating a tense atmosphere that something isn't right. You'll constantly hear the Xeno hunting you from the vents, and enemy footsteps and conversation pieces echo through the abandoned halls alerting you organically to their presence. The machinery littered throughout the station beeps and blips and computers all sounds like they came directly from the early 80's. Most importantly is the save stations, who's beeps can be heard a mile off. At first they seem annoying, as the beeping is constant a la the low health warnings in Zelda, but as you progress you begin to savor this annoyance, as it's a sign that safety, however relative, is nearby.

Voice acting too is really great. Ripely sounds decent enough, considering the wide range of emotions that she has to go through. Other characters sound good to, and there's no one that stands out as annoying or particularly bad. The synthetics deserve special notice for being so monotone and creepy that the very sound of them unnerved me to no end.

Game Over Man

The Xeno is a terrifying sight, and often spells the end.

In a lot of ways A:I shouldn't be as good as it is, and there are some complaints I have against it. There were parts that I just found aggravating, especially one early encounter that became almost Hotline Miami-esque for me and took me several dozen tries and completely breaking the game to move past. The loading splash screens may say Ripely isn't a violent person, but in my hands she sure as hell was.

Alien: Isolation reminds me of games like Metro 2033, Bioshock and the aforementioned System Shock 2 in the absolute best way possible. It's a scary game the emphasizes the idea of survival and patience, and flies in the face of other games in the genre. It's certainly not for everyone, but Alien: Isolation is easily one of the best sci-fi horror games I've ever played.

Looking at: XCom 2012

Disclaimer: This review is based on Xcom: Enemy Unknown, Xcom: Enemy Within, and the fan made mod Xcom: The Long War

Legacy of War

The Geo-Scope, the greatest tool for fighting the alien threat.

The original Xcom might be one of the most terrifying games ever made. Based on sci-fi classics like Aliens and Starship Troopers, it put you in command of a squad of elite soldiers sent to tackle an alien threat. It wasn't just as simple as dropping in a bunch of bad asses and cleaning up the alien filth though, you had to think and plan your moves, both on the battlefield and off. It's mixture of business simulation and tactical turn-based strategy was certainly an interesting far cry from most other games on the market and it's since been a certified classic.

The terror of the original was that you never knew what was around the next corner. You'd be advancing your squad down a hallway, only to run smack dab into an ambush that would wipe you out. Your machinegunner's mind could suddenly be taken over and on top of fighting the aliens you now had to contend with that. The structure your men were taking cover behind could be blown to smithereens and now they were completely exposed to gunfire. The game was top notch when it came to creating organic, unscripted tension and thanks to the low-poly graphics and spooky sound track it still holds up well in this regard.

Xcom spawned a few sequels, including the underwater themed Terror from the Deep and the smaller scale Apocalypse before the strategy games went dormant for fifteen years. Despite being the inspiration for dozens of other TBS games, it never got a proper sequel before the IP was picked up by Firaxis in 2008. This would prove to be not only one of the best TBS games ever released, but also the Xcom game we had always wanted.

Enemy Unknown

Not all foes are carbon based, or even land based.

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The setup for Xcom is simple: There are aliens invading Earth and it's up to Xcom, a multinational coalition of super soldiers, to stop them. You are the newly appointed chief of the Xcom project, an as such it's up to you to control every aspect of the team, be it upgrading your base, assigning engineering or science projects, dealing with the various coalition countries, or sending your soldiers into battle.

This might sound like a daunting laundry list of tasks, but thankfully except for the last item most of it is relatively straight forward. Ostensibly the game is split into two parts: managing your base and fighting aliens on the ground. You only need to worry about one base this time around, rather then the myriad of small bases from the first game, and it's upgrades come in the form of new rooms added to the layout. Even when it comes to interior planning you'll need to think tactically, as certain rooms offer bonuses when placed right next to each other. Build an engineering workshop right next to a satellite feed and your satellites will be that much more effective. Stack your generators next to each other and you'll get a bit of extra power output. Nothing in Xcom can be done blindly, and everything needs to be considered before hand.

No where is this more important then in the second half of the game, the combat. Battles are long winded affairs, and it's a good thing there's a lot of downtime between them. Despite the relitvly small maps and minuscule unit count, each fight can seem like it's own minute war. You can only deploy a small handful of troops in each battle, meaning it's that much more imperative that they survive, and you'll always find yourself outnumbered. You can't out gun the enemy, there's to many for that, so you'll need to out think them, sometimes with only seconds to spare.

Cover and Concealment

Missions can earn soldiers promotions, provided they survive.

The best thing about Xcom's combat is how well it works. It works so well it's sort of hard to notice. Instead of action points, each unit is allowed two actions per turn. They can move into cover and fire, move twice as far at the cost of firing, or perform an action and end the turn. Actions are anything from firing their weapons, to buffing themselves, using items, or tossing grenades. You'll need to think carefully about what you want each soldier to do, and making the decision between firing on an enemy or moving out of cover can sometimes be the difference between life or death.

Victory or defeat often rests on how you plan your strategy, whether you rush in guns blazing or slowly move up using cover and setting up chokepoints. It's tempting to just constantly move your troops one at a time and use the Overwatch command that lets them fire at a moving enemy, but this becomes tiresome and certain resources are time based. You're simultaneously encouraged to move fast and yet take your time and think, and it creates a tension as you weigh each move heavily.

You will, despite your best efforts, loose men in the process. Xcom is an unforgiving game, and walking away from later missions with only a few survivors becomes commonplace. It's important to always have a B team, and as the game progresses a C team as well. It can be down-right devastating to loose a high ranking soldier to a stupid move, and over time you can get really attached to your men, making their deaths that much more painful.

Enemy Within and the Long War

You'll need to build crack squads to save earth.

Fighting aliens is nice and all, but let's face it: in the event of a global war not all of humanity is going to be against the alien incursion. Enter Enemy Within, the expansion pack for Xcom that adds a new threat, and new ways to fight back.

As the name implies, the new foe in Enemy Within is a human group known as Exalt that infiltrates Xcom. You'll need to divert resources into stopping their advances and occasionally meet them in the field head on. These battles offer a nice change of pace from the standard alien ones, and you'll need to rethink your tactics to overcome them. The AI for Exalt behaves differently then the aliens and it's a great change of pace every once and a while.

If I were to recommend a version of Xcom it would be the PC version for two words: Long War. The Long War is a fan made mod that, like Jagged Alliance 2's legendary 1.13 mod, or ...most of Skyrim's mod repository Xcom is a game made that much better by it's own fan base. The Long War is just that, it expands what was already a lengthy game into a downright epic, stretching the campaign time into the triple digits. It's not just that things are slower, although progression is stymied quite a bit, but the whole experience is re-balanced to let the game take longer to develop. The amount of new content is insane, and I really could write a review of the game just based on this mod

Fog of War

The alien threat isn't always the worst thing in Xcom...

It's to it's credit that the gameplay, balance, and pacing in Xcom is so good because on the technical levels it fails quite a bit. Graphically it's nothing to write home about. It's now three years old, which hasn't' helped, but even in 2012 Xcom was far from the best looking game ever. It's running on Unreal 3, but even then it doesn't look nearly as good as some other games on that engine. It's not that it looks bad, per-say, but muddy and washed out to say the least. There's some nice lighting, and plenty of effects, but over all the game looks drab.

It does pick up a few point when it comes to it's design choices. Objects are simple to identify, and more importantly cover is easy to identify. The levels look like they should, cluttered with random objects with the odd encroaching alien device or poor civilian caught in the crossfire. Even better are the character models, with each of the different types of aliens looking unique and terrifying, from the old classic grey alien of the Sectoid to the hulking monstrosity of the Muton, or the parody of a human in the Thin Man. Equally cool is your Xcom team, covered in armor and hoisting weapons that look like they could do some damage.

You'll loose count of how many times your men fire into nothingness.

Audio wise Xcom is serviceable. There are enough voice actors for your Xcom team to make it feel varied, although consider it's supposed to be a multinational squad it's odd to hear American voices for everyone, regardless of background. The voice acting on the scripted characters is well done and manages to fit well, from the tottering old engineer to the science driven doctor and your no-nonsense commanding officer. The music is a great mix of eerie synth and rock, but nothing worth mentioning. Guns sound punchy enough, especially the heavy weapons, but explosions lack a certain punch to them.

The biggest problem with Xcom's presentation is that it's just buggy as hell. Not that the game will crash, in that regard it's stable, but just the way things work within the game seem off, like it's taking the most bizarre path available to it. I mean that literally, as the pathfinding can be downright hilarious at times, with soldiers going up to the roof of a building only to smash a window and drop to the ground floor, all to move, like 20 feet. Weapon fire will occasionally phase through solid walls, soldiers will shoot at nothing and the bullets bend to meet their target, corpses get stuck in the geography and stretch to horrible proportions, the list goes on. Again, it's never game breaking, but it's strange to say the least.

Overall, Xcom is an incredibly rare breed of game. It's a turn based tactical strategy that rewards good planning. It's a grand strategy that's approachable enough for normal people. It's a reboot of a long dead franchise that actually understands what the original games did right. Xcom isn't just a game worth playing, it's a game that any strategy fan owes it to themselves to play.