*This is part 1 of a five-part series detailing five games that you absolutely have to check out this month leading up to Halloween. 

ALIEN: ISOLATION

WHAT IS IT?
The first title to do right by the Alien film franchise, Alien: Isolation is a terrifyingly nostalgic trip into the far reaches of space aboard the space station Sevastopol. As Amanda Ripley, you’ll search the Sevastopol for the Nostromo’s flight recorder in an attempt to understand what happened to her mother, lieutenant Ellen Ripley, 15 years prior.

WHY IT WILL TERRIFY YOU
Alien: Isolation lives up to it’s name by stranding you aboard a desolate space station that’s been created with the same retro-futuristic feel of the Nostromo from the original film. The Sevastopol in it’s current state prevent’s you from getting to any of your destinations easily, forcing you to venture through narrow and dark corridors, air vents, and even outside of the station itself. It’s as much alive and threatening to you as the Alien that lurks within it.

The Alien, both fascinating and terrifying, is very much alive and pissed off that you’re creeping around it’s new found home. Scripted moments involving the Alien are few and far between making it an ever present danger that you can’t sleep on. Make too much noise while exploring or stay in one place for too long and you’re very, very likely to encounter this dark ominous creature. Should it find you, save for a flamethrower in the later parts of the game, it’s game over man, game over.

WHY I RECOMMEND IT
There’s simply never been an Alien experience this good before that plays just as well as it scares. Honestly, it’s the best thing to happen to the franchise since James Cameron’s Aliens film. The Sevastopol is flawless in it’s creation and the Alien’s frightening and challenging AI is enough to bring me back for more. Despite some odd pacing and a couple of out of place sequences that make the game longer than it needs to be (complaining about the length of a game, weird right?), Alien: Isolation is top-notch and offers plenty of solid gameplay between the various difficulty levels and the (very awesome) challenge missions that allow you to play as the original cast of Alien.

*Thanks for reading the first part to my Month of Evil series! Hope you enjoyed it, let me know in the comments if you played and what you thought of Alien: Isolation. Look for Month of Evil (Part 2) later this week and come watch me stream these games live on my Twitch Channel: ValhallaX27!