Battle aliens and learn humility

Video games often appeal to the human desire for power. In most games, players start with limited powers and resources and as they progress, grow stronger and become better resourced. This is a tried and true formula—research suggests people play video games because it makes them feel powerful and accomplished. In video games, players can save the world.

But our desire to bring salvation, even if only in virtual worlds, is naive. Such games fail to adequately recognize a reality that is fundamental to a Christian worldview—human weakness. In a sea of power fantasies, Alien Isolation, a new survival horror game for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms, challenges players to recognize that we are weak and cannot save the world on our own.

Alien Isolation puts players in control of Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley from the Alien movie series. Early in the game, Amanda is told a flight recorder from her mother’s ship has been found and could shed light on her disappearance. The flight recorder is located on the Sevastopol Space Station. But when Ripley and her crew arrive, they find the station has fallen into utter chaos. The world of Alien Isolation is deeply broken. In fact, the more players explore Sevastopol, the more dangerous and broken they discover it to be.

Initially, the brokenness players uncover comes in the form of the station’s survivors, who’ve turned hostile. They prove a threat to Ripley’s safety, and the player must lead her in using a scant assortment of resources to outmaneuver them. But the more players lead her through the station’s dark and derelict confines, the more they discover about the much more deadly force that plunged the station into chaos in the first place. Sevastopol is haunted by a force too dark and too dangerous to overcome. The further Amanda travels, the more closely she is haunted by an alien creature solely focused on killing her. While Alien Isolation give players new resources with which to manage the chaos found in Sevastopol, it never gives players any hope of using those resources to conquer the Alien.

Ripley cannot outrun or hide from the Alien indefinitely. Even in the most conspicuous hiding places, like ventilation shafts and lockers, the alien can sense her. When Ripley hides in a locker, the Alien draws near and players must move Ripley’s head from side to side and make her hold her breath in a frantic attempt to avoid detection. If the player makes any sudden movements, uses the game’s various gadgets, or sprints for even a short distance, the Alien is likely to hear and advance on Ripley’s position. Progressing in Alien Isolation requires recognizing both the alien’s superiority and Ripley’s weakness. It requires humility.

Alien Isolation reminds players they are weak and there are forces in the world bigger than themselves that they cannot control on their own. Players cannot defeat the evil present on Sevastopol—they can only hope to manage it long enough to hold out for some hope of salvation from outside.

Most video games tend to tell stories of salvation through empowerment, whereas the gospel is a story of salvation through the willing sacrifice of power that can only be embraced from a position of humility. Games like Alien Isolation take a step closer to the gospel, in that they require players to acknowledge the weakness inherent to the human condition and humbly accept our inability to save ourselves.

Alien Isolation is rated Mature for blood, strong language, and violence.