Have You Played... Alien: Isolation?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

Creative Assembly, a studio known for the historical strategy of the Total War series, doesn't seem like the obvious origin point for one of the great modern horror games. Alien: Isolation [official site] is not only a brilliant, terrifying creation, however, it's one of the best uses of a license we're ever likely to see.

No game has ever recreated the look and feel of a film as accurately as Alien: Isolation. It’s an FPS horror masterpiece that manages to be more than just a generous portion of stealth and scares by capturing the fundamental essence of the world that Ridley Scott and his team brought to the screen three and a half decades ago. Everything from the creature itself to the individual posters and pieces of machinery that fill the Sevastopol has been crafted to fit with the design principles that made the Nostromo such a fascinating and enduring location.

The superbly tense and terrifying game that inhabits those meticulously crafted spaces is a rare example of a big budget licensed game that not only experiments within its genre, but that refuses to compromise on its punishing and intense vision. I still find it hard to believe that it exists.