E3 2014: Alien: Isolation’s 'Challenge Mode' Isn't Kidding

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On the noisy E3 show floor, no one can hear you scream… In frustration.

By Tristan Ogilvie

It was hard to predict how the team at Creative Assembly was going to demonstrate the tense, deliberate gameplay of Alien: Isolation in the obnoxiously bombastic environment of the E3 show floor. It’s pretty difficult to set an ominous mood when you’re competing for the attention of the player’s senses against a skull-bruising mix of garish lights and dubstep.

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Which is probably why Alien: Isolation’s E3 2014 demo consisted of a level from the game’s supplementary Challenge mode (to read fresh impressions on the main campaign, go here). The mode basically drops you into one closed-off area of the game’s spaceship setting and asks you to complete a certain task against the clock. There’s little time for setting the mood; it’s just you, your goal and a ticking timer. And of course, one terrifying alien out to stop you at every turn.
And stop me, it did. Several times. Right through the chest. I get the feeling that Challenge mode is something intended for players to tackle after they’ve completed the main game and become adept with all of the distraction tools and taking advantage of every environmental nook and cranny. For a first-timer like me, it felt punishingly tough to get to grips with initially thanks to the frequent insta-death the xenomorph dished up.
The task at hand seemed straightfoward enough. Move through a lab environment to a stairwell, climb the stairs to reach and activate a power generator, then make it to the newly-powered elevator to clear the stage.
In my first attempt, I was dead before the time ticked over to 30 seconds – shishkabobbed by the alien as I stomped my way excitedly towards a flamethrower mounted on a wall in the first room. “Move slowly to avoid the attention of the alien,” the loading screen message instructed me (somewhat patronizingly). Got it.

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The second time I made it as far as the stairwell, then as I fumbled with the electronic lock to close the door at the bottom of the stairs I was once again voodoo-dolled by the sharp-end of the alien’s tail. Closing the door is entirely optional, but it has the benefit of both slowing your monster pursuant down and deducting seconds from your overall completion time as a bonus, should you make it out alive. Of course, the thumbstick-based door-locking minigame also leaves you distracted and open to attack. (Apparently there’s a similar time bonus for completing the challenge without ever glancing at the motion-tracker. I look forward to achieving that seemingly impossible task on approximately my 387th attempt).
Yet with each try I made it just a little bit further towards my goal. I learnt to distract the alien with flares and noise-makers crafted from resources found around the environment. I learnt that sometimes running is a legitimate method of escape, but only after you’ve momentarily incapacitated the xenomorph with a lobbed Molotov or a burst from the flamethrower’s limited fuel tank. I learnt to hide under desks, in cabinets and inside air vents – although I also learnt that none of these places are necessarily safe if the alien sees you entering them.
I essentially came to realise that every skill and habit I’d picked up playing first-person shooters over the years simply wasn’t going to be of much use against a single, unstoppable opponent that shrugs off a flame-thrower blast to the face as though it was blunting a sneeze. It forced me to adapt, and that made it feel so much more interesting than the average FPS.

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I never made it out alive of Alien: Isolation’s E3 demo – the closest I got was powering up the generator before being cut down yet again as I broke into a foolishly impatient sprint within sight of the exit. But during my very brief time with it my anticipation for Creative Assembly’s game grew significantly – it may be hard as nails for newcomers but it certainly fully embraces the tag of survival horror.
As a result I now feel confident that Creative Assembly is capable of presenting challenge and nailing the atmosphere of fear and dread that the source material is famous for – even in short, 30 second to five minute gameplay chunks. How the developer sustains that kind of tension and torment for the game’s entire campaign remains the biggest question hanging around the game, but so far the signs are good.

Tristan Ogilvie is an Editor at IGN AU, and doesn’t normally totally suck at videogames (says him). Follow him on Twitter @tristanogilvie

Originally written and published by at IGN PS3. Click here to read the original story.