Alien: Isolation is one of the most terrifying games I’ve ever played, and even its own writer admits it’s straight-up too scary for a lot of people.
Chatting on the FRVR podcast, former Creative Assembly writer Dion Lay shared a “famous” story about a journalist who visited the Creative Assembly studios to “play for 20 minutes” and “have a chat” about the game, but who ended up playing for an hour because they were too scared to leave the locker they were hiding out in.
“I love that. I think there’s a bit of worry, like, ‘is it too scary?’ And [for] a lot of people, it is too scary,” said Lay. “And I know we probably could’ve sold more if we’d watered it down, but I’m so proud that we didn’t and that it’s really scary.”
For me, one thing that makes Alien: Isolation’s masterfully crafted tension so hard to endure is that it’s sustained over an unusually long horror game. Lay said during the same podcast that the roughly 20-hour game is only that long by accident, as the Xenomorph’s AI became better at adapting to players’ strategies during development, thereby extending playtime.
I will also say, as a massive horror fan with the unfortunate ailment of being an equally massive scaredy cat, I’m so glad Alien: Isolation doesn’t hold back for the sake of more mainstream appeal. It makes beating it all that more rewarding, and it really is singular in its ability to present mercilessly stressful scenarios. Remember when I said it’s one of the scariest games I’ve ever played? I take that back, it’s the single scariest game I’ve ever played, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Find out where Alien: Isolation ranked on our list of the best horror games ever made.
