The Best Survival Tool In Alien: Isolation Is Your Ears
On my first playthrough of Alien: Isolation, my eyes did most of the work. I spent the vast majority of the game carefully poking my head around corners, desperately trying to keep the xenomorph in my line of sight. I felt like if I could see it, I'd instinctively know the best way to slip past or distract it. This is a perfectly valid way to play the game, because there is a lean button after all. But now, a hardened Alien: Isolation veteran, I look back on my past self with pity. This poor, confused fool, relying on sight to survive. It's all about the ears, man.
Related: The Best Weapon In Alien: Isolation Is The Alien Itself
The sound design in Alien: Isolation is exceptional throughout. The oppressive, claustrophobic corridors of Sevastopol are alive with sound: creaking bulkheads, chirping computers, steam-spewing vents, Working Joe androids muttering sinisterly to themselves. You even hear the rubbery squeak of Amanda Ripley's canvas sneakers on the floor if you quickly shift position. A lot of attention has been paid to how the game sounds, which also feeds into the gameplay. At a certain point, you can play Alien: Isolation almost entirely by ear.
Now when I play it I try my damndest not to see the xenomorph. For one, the slightest glimpse of the thing is enough to make my Fitbit send me an elevated heart rate warning—even after playing through the game multiple times and knowing it inside out. It's just so damn unpredictable. But secondly, and more importantly, I don't really need to. Thanks to that peerless sound design, I can almost always tell where the alien is and what it's doing by just carefully listening to it. Luckily for Amanda, and for me, it's a noisy fucker.
The most terrifying sound in Isolation
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