GAME · 2014
Alien: Isolation
- Developer
- Creative Assembly
- Publisher
- Feral Interactive
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 3
67 archived facts 7 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Sep 2026
33 Interesting Facts About Alien: Isolation
- #001
The Alien's AI was programmed to actively hunt the player through sight, sound and smell rather than follow a predetermined path. It was built with a complex set of behavioral designs that unlock progressively as the Alien encounters the player, creating the illusion that it learns from its encounters and adjusts its hunting strategy accordingly. This includes the Alien's ability to investigate disturbances. For example, if it notices that a locker or an airlock is open, the Alien will search for whoever opened it.
- #002
Twentieth Century Fox provided Creative Assembly with three terabytes of archived data relating to Alien (1979) to help it recreate the film's atmosphere authentically, including notes on prop and set design, behind-the-scenes photographs, videos and the film's original sound effect recordings. Among the source materials supplied by Twentieth Century Fox was the film's original musical score; the developers re-recorded many of the original cues with a full orchestra, including some of the musicians who had worked on the first film's music.
- #005
The Alien makes sounds that the player can listen to in order to understand its current intent. A scream may indicate that the creature is about to attack, while other sounds may indicate that the Alien has seen something, is searching, or has lost all trace of its prey.
- #006
The Alien was designed to resemble H. R. Giger's original design for the creature in Alien (1979), including the semi-transparent head with a visible skull beneath it. To give the Alien a walk cycle that could withstand scrutiny during longer encounters with the player, the developers altered its design to have bent legs, in contrast to the more humanoid legs the monster had in Alien (1979).
- #007
Marshal Waits is played by William Hope, who portrayed Lieutenant Gorman in Aliens (1986).
- #008
Although the game is set in the future, its depicted technology was made to look as though it had been designed in the 1970s to match the look of Alien (1979). Only objects from the 1970s or earlier could be used as reference, and in most cases the designers limited themselves to the drawing tools used by the original designers (or their digital imitations).
- #010
Creative Assembly announced two pre-order DLCs. Everyone who pre-ordered would receive a free upgrade to the Nostromo Edition, which includes the Crew Expendable mission featuring the Nostromo's original crew. In addition, players who ordered the Ripley Edition from selected retailers would receive the Last Survivor mission, in which Ellen Ripley tries to set the self-destruct system and escape on the Narcissus.
- #011
This video game takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) — more precisely, fifteen years after Alien, five years before Alien: Romulus (2024) and 42 years before Aliens.
- #012
This game features a dynamic audio engine that causes the music and sound effects to change appropriately in response to the player's actions, such as hiding from or fleeing the Alien.
- #013
The developers were frustrated that they could not talk about this game during the troubled release of Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013).
- #014
Although there is a proper cutscene during Mission 3, when the Alien first appears, it is possible to see the Alien twice before that scene. The first time is at the very end of Mission 2, when you enter the tram car. If you wait a few seconds in the tram car, the Alien will drop from the ventilation shaft onto the tram platform. The second time occurs early in Mission 3. After descending the stairs to reach Tech Support, if you take a quick look into the office with the small window ahead, you will see the Alien jump down from the ventilation shaft and immediately run into the side room.
- #015
Contains a major spoiler — show
Despite descending into a Xenomorph nest, Amanda Ripley never encounters an Alien Queen. According to the developers, showing one briefly was planned, but the idea was abandoned because they did not want to give the player the false impression that they would later have to fight one as a boss. However, the developers confirmed that an Alien Queen is present on the station even though it is not seen on screen.
- #016
The design of the character Amanda Ripley was based on the younger years of the Welsh actress Kezia Burrows and the English actress Elizabeth Inglis. Inglis is the late mother of Sigourney Weaver, who portrayed Ellen Ripley in the film series. Amanda Ripley's first reference in Alien canon was a photograph of Amanda seen in the Special Edition of Aliens (1986), in which she is shown as an older woman in a photo Burke gives to Ripley before the conference room scene. A photograph of Inglis was used for that scene.
- #017
Creative Assembly created between seventy and eighty different animation sets for the Alien.
- #018
The studio believed that action-focused games such as Dead Space (2008) had marginalized true horror games, so the game included only a limited arsenal of weapons.
- #019
The game is officially part of the Alien canon, alongside Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien³ (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Prometheus (2012), Alien: Covenant (2017) and Alien: Romulus (2024) as of 2024.
- #021
In Mission 14, when the Emergency Purge Sequence must be initiated at two terminals, the screen used is identical to the one seen during the drop sequence in Alien (1979), down to the exact numbers displayed. The reuse of this footage may be a joke; Ridley Scott reused footage for the spinning top's takeoff scene in Blade Runner (1982).
- #022
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Alien is technically unkillable by the player. No matter which weapon is used, it will always escape unharmed.
- #023
Contains a major spoiler — show
Initially, the player was to see Ricardo killed by a chestburster, just as you see a facehugger on him, but the idea was abandoned because of the short timeline of events implied in the original film, in which an alien is born at least 24 hours later.
- #024
This was Yaphet Kotto's final acting role.
- #026
The game is dedicated to Simon Franco, a programmer on the game who died during its development.
- #028
The game features a crafting system that lets the player create weapons and tools for self-defense. Craftable items appear in randomized locations, forcing players to explore the level to find them each playthrough rather than memorizing their positions. Players also encounter computers and other devices they can hack to access information or trigger in-game actions, using a system similar to tracking a video cassette.
- #029
Achievements and Trophies use the same designs as the markings around the Nostromo.
- #031
In this game the computer core is named "Apollo," whereas in the original Alien film the computer was named "Mother." When Amanda enters the Apollo core, the console lights up with a green flashing image identical to the one that flashed when Ripley accessed Mother in the original Alien film.
- #032
Working Joes probably take their name from the idea of the "average joe" (someone who lives a simple life and generally conforms to social standards and norms). All Working Joes are identical, and their function is to carry out the ordinary or difficult tasks that other employees do not want to do or cannot find time for.
- #033
The game's story went through several rewrites that reduced several character roles to brief appearances, such as Dr. Kuhlman, or placed them in audio logs scattered around for the player to find across various maps, with cutscenes scrapped altogether. Among the biggest changes was a cut prologue in which Amanda would find the Nostromo's flight recorder and, with Marlow's help, become the one to destroy Sevastopol. In the original draft of the story, Samuels and Nina Taylor were also written very differently; the pair would try to abandon Ripley on the station.
- #034
If you play the game with a PS camera, it can respond to your head movements and sounds in your room for an even more immersive experience.
- #035
Kezia Burrows, the physical model for Amanda Ripley, and Anthony Howell, the voice of Samuels, both voiced main characters in Observation (2019), where they again portrayed, respectively, a person surviving in space and an artificial intelligence.
- #037
When it was first announced as "Alien: Year Zero", it was suggested that Amanda Ripley was an android, and this was to be revealed at the end of the game.
- #038
Contains a major spoiler — show
The game's title, 'Isolation', is genuinely felt throughout, because you spend most of the game alone and end up as the sole survivor of the Sevastopol station. This is also reinforced in other parts of the game, such as the menu screen, where the space station (the setting for most of the game) appears as a small figure beside a giant gas giant on screen.
- #039
The events of this game take place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986); here Amanda Ripley is the daughter of Ellen Ripley, who is briefly mentioned in the extended version of Aliens (1986).
- #066
For the 10th anniversary of Alien: Isolation in 2024, Hollywood Records officially released the game's soundtrack on vinyl, cassette and streaming services.
- #067
Sega partnered with the Lofi Girl music label on an ambiance music YouTube video tied to Alien: Isolation.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
- Wikipedia Alien: Isolation — Wikipedia
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work