History YMMV / AlienIsolation

* CultClassic: Although ''Alien: Isolation'''s sales were underwhelming, the game is still held up as one of the best horror games to have ever been released and ''the'' best ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' game ever made. Even nearly a decade later, the graphics, set design and atmosphere puts most triple A video games released in the 2020s to shame. Fans praised the game for offering a good mixture of the survival-horror genre and the 'walking simulator' horror genre, which prevents the game from becoming dull, alongside the absolutely brilliant AI from the Xenomorph. To this day, people still made walkthroughs, gameplay analysis and video essays on how the Xeno's AI works despite being released all the way back in 2014. For a single-player horror game that released only a few [=DLCs=], ''this is impressive''.

** The game uses occlusion/culling to remove sections of the map the player can't see, saving on rendering time. Occasionally--''especially'' on previous-generation consoles, which can barely run the game--the occlusion bugs out and fails to load environment assets. Nothing breaks the willing suspension of disbelief like opening a vent on the Nostromo and seeing nothing but the skybox beyond, or walking past hovering plastic wrap in Gemini Labs because the game would not load the machinery its supposed to be covering.

* ScrappyWeapon: While usually the game subverts this, in that a number of the weapons seem useless when you first get them but then have a much clearer and better use later, the pipe bomb plays this completely straight. While it's definitely the most damaging weapon in the game, it only startles the Xenomorph and has a rather costly crafting recipe. The much quieter EMP and Molotovs are usually better at taking out groups of androids and humans respectively. It's only superior to those two against the hazmat Working Joes (which have both EMP and fire resistance), but in that situation the revolver, shot gun, and bolt launcher work just as well and don't have the risk of blowing yourself up. [[GracefulInTheirElement There is one area in the game where you don't have the above three and don't have to worry about alerting the alien where the pipe bomb becomes effective]], but [[CripplingOverspecialization outside that one small part the only reason to craft it is to make room for more of its components]].

** During [[HarderThanHard Nightmare Mode]], ''any'' time you're caught in a chokehold by a Working Joe. If you're not at full health and don't mash that A button fast, you're toast. If you're caught and are unlucky enough to have less than adequate health, ''touch is death''.

** The game continues after Ripley apparently [[spoiler: rids the station of the alien]]. But for horror fans this is very difficult to believe. [[spoiler: At this point most players thought the creature somehow survived or there were more aliens aboard. Sure enough it's revealed the station is infested with xenomorphs.]]

* CultClassic: Although Alien Isolation's sales was underwhelming, the game is still held up as one of the best horror games to have ever been released and ''the'' best ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' game ever made. Even nearly a decade later, the graphics, set design and atmosphere puts most triple A video games released in the 2020s to shame. Fans praised the game for offering a good mixture of the survival-horror genre and the 'walking simulator' horror genre, which prevents the game from becoming dull, alongside the absolutely brilliant AI from the Xenomorph. To this day, people still made walkthroughs, gameplay analysis and video essays on how the Xeno's AI works despite being released all the way back in 2014. For a single-player horror game that released only a few [=DLCs=], ''this is impressive''.

** There's a segment in the "Severance" part of the Corporate Lockdown DLC where the Xenomorph [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo7Lq4C3KUM leaves you alone]] because you crawl through a hole it can't fit into...a barricade of [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence hapzardly stacked suitcases at slightly above chest height.]] It being a barricade rather than a solid wall is perhaps necessary for the purposes of the player being able to see over it from both sides (especially since if you crawl through it on one side [[HopeSpot to your apparent safety]] [[SchmuckBait the alien will immediately ambush you on the other]]) but it's a bit of a headscratcher how ''this'' was the best design solution from a developer standpoint, rather than say, ''a glass window.''

** During [[HarderThanHard Nightmare Mode]], ''any'' time you're caught in a chokehold by a Working Joe. If you're not at full health and dont mash that A button fast, you're toast. If you're caught and are unlucky enough to have less than adequate health, ''touch is death''.

** Getting the flamethrower or crafting the molotov and using them for the first time against the Xenomorph to drive it off. There's also an achievement for each of the two flammable weapons.

* DemonicSpiders: The Working Joes. They can take almost all six rounds from the revolver to the [[CranialProcessingUnit head]] (their only vulnerable spot) which early in the game is likely to be the majority of your ammo. They block melee strikes if they can see them coming, so that's not an option. They're annoyingly quiet, so if you don't keep an eye on your motion tracker you can run right over one before you realize it. Finally, if they do see you, they are much more persistent in tracking you than humans, and much better at it. The only thing in your favor is they're [[MightyGlacier incredibly slow]] so you can easily outrun (or even out''walk'' them) as long as they don't manage to corner you. Near the end of the game, an even more annoying version shows up wearing an environmental suit, which renders them immune to EMP mines and the stun baton, two of the four weapons which are guaranteed to stop the normal ones. And the first time you meet said elite variants, your weapons have been taken away, so you're unarmed besides whatever molotov cocktails and pipebombs you've managed to squirrel away.

** The layers of FanonDiscontinuity in the ''Alien'' fandom mean that some players may have been aware of all of the above and still consider this the first ''good'' Alien game.

** The Medical Ward, due to a serious DifficultySpike. It's the first zone where the Alien is an active threat all the way through and the Alien itself is far more aggressive than elsewhere in the game (preferring to patrol on the ground instead of through the vents), and you lack most of the tools needed to ward it off if it spots you. The wards are also full of cramped, twisty corridors which can easily bottleneck you into an encounter with the Alien, and objectives are numerous and sometimes vague (at one point you're directed to stare at a whiteboard for several seconds to activate the next objective, with no prompt given). One particular room features a large table in the middle, 2 glass walls and 2 see-through doors at either end. The alien tends to walk into this room and get funnelled around the geometry of the table, patrolling back and forth for minutes at a time. Combined with the glass walls, it gets what is essentially a 360 degree view of the surrounding corridors and can be almost impossible to sneak past. It comes as a tremendous relief when [[spoiler:the whole place explodes thanks to Waits' tripwires.]]

** On [[HarderThanHard Nightmare Mode]], the mission immediately after [[spoiler:the Xenomorph is ejected into space]], where you have to return to Martial Waits bureau while evading a perfect storm of hostile Working Joes and paranoid Sevastopol citizens equipped with shotguns and riot gear, skyrockets into being one of the trickiest parts of the game. Since you'll only have the bare minimum of weapons and supplies at best, and Joes and footsoldiers alike can kill you in seconds if you make any false move, one either has to be extremely good at either having just enough ammo to kill the Joes or, barring that, evading the Joes or being fortunate enough that the Joes show a rare flash of intelligence and [[AlreadyUndoneForYou march ahead and kill the guys blocking your path.]] To say the least, It can really feel like a LuckBasedMission at times.

* IdiotBall: Arguably, Ripley and the entire crew of the Torrens are holding the idiot ball at the start of the game. They hear a fragmented message from the Comms room of Sevastopol which clearly says "Serious...situation...on...board" and there are obvious signs of heavy damage all over the station from the outside - why on Earth would you still board it?! Ripley barely reaches the docking port after a near-fatal accident during the spacewalk and proceeds to wander around inside muttering "Hmm, I wonder what's going on here?" while staring at deranged graffiti all over the walls saying things like "WELCOME TO THE END OF THE LINE". At no point does she think of walking 2 rooms back, putting her spacesuit on and looking for a way to get out ASAP.