Is Alien: Isolation a First-Person Shooter Video Game?
Alien: Isolation is a survival horror video game, released in 2014. Alien: Isolation (2014) was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Alien: Isolation is a survival horror video game inspired by the movie Alien (1979). Alien: Isolation has been praised for its survival horror gameplay, atmosphere and intelligent enemies, and is considered by some horror video game fans as one of the best survival horror video games. Considering that Alien: Isolation (2014) features a first-person camera perspective, weapons and enemies, players may wonder whether this video game may be considered an FPS, or first-person shooter video game, and whether it is similar or different to traditional FPS video games such as Doom and Quake.
Alien: Isolation is not a first-person shooter (FPS) video game, but a horror game. The gameplay is mostly directed at scarying and frightening the player, a distinctive characteristc of the horror genre.
The Horror Video Game Elements of Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation (2014) is a survival horror video game in which the player assumes the role of Amanda Ripley, and must complete a variety of objectives aboard sci-fi environments. Such as in other survival horror video games, such as Amnesia and Outlast, in Alien: Isolation the player is able to avoid enemies and use stealth in order to progress through the story. The player character is able to crawl in vents, hide in lockers, as well as hide under desks and other furniture. Traditional FPS video games, such as Doom and Quake, generally do not feature hiding and stealth gameplay, but rather most of the gameplay is directed at fighting and defeating enemies. While in Alien: Isolation it is possible for the main character to use different weapons to fight enemies, quite often the gameplay is more directed towards completing objectives and avoiding enemies, especially in higher difficulties, in which ammunition and resources are more limited, and enemies are more intelligent. Moreover, unlike traditional first-person shooter video games such as Doom and Quake, Alien: Isolation does not feature a very high amount of enemies. Instead, Alien: Isolation features tough and intelligent enemies that appear throughout the main story, which will often present a variety of challenges to the player, due to their patrolling patterns and behaviours. Such as in Outlast video games, the player must analyse the pattern of enemies, find their weaknesses, and progress through careful planning and resource management. These are characteristics of survival horror video games, and are often not seen in traditional FPS video games.
While Alien: Isolation (2014) features traditional characteristics of survival horror video games, such as stealth, puzzles and a gameplay directed towards surviving horror situations, this video game also features weapons that can be used by the main game character in order to fight enemies. However, despite the variety of weapons available to the game character, quite often these weapons and their ammunition may not be enough to completely defeat some of the enemies present in the game. While weapons in Alien: Isolation (2014) can be useful as distractions, there are some enemies which are either immune or quite resistant to a variety of the weapons available. For this reason, in Alien: Isolation, in many cases, and especially in higher difficulties, weapons are often used sparingly, and the player may often find better results if the video game is played as a stealth horror video game, and not as a traditional FPS video game.
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The Action Video Game Elements of Alien: Isolation
Although in this article I describe Alien: Isolation (2014) as a survival horror video game, it is also true that this video game features some action elements. In Alien: Isolation, the player character is able to sprint, crouch, use a variety of weapons, as well as fight and defeat enemies. While some of these elements are also seen in action video games, including FPS video games, most of the gameplay in Alien: Isolation is directed towards surviving a horror situation. However, considering that Alien: Isolation features a variety of enemies, and that these enemies have different patterns and weaknesses, there are some enemies of Alien: Isolation that can effectively be fought and defeated using the weapons available in this video game. However, this is not the case of all enemies in this video game, and some enemies have high resistances, and in some cases even immunity to certain types of weapons, and considering that ammunition and resources are quite limited, the gameplay may become quite challenging if Alien: Isolation (2014) is played as a traditional action FPS video game. Indeed, the characteristics of Alien: Isolation as a survival horror video game consittute a video game that is much more similar to other survival horror video games, such as Amnesia and Outlast, than to traditional action FPS video games such as Doom and Quake.
FPS in the Case of Alien: Isolation - Video Game Genre or Gameplay Design?
While Alien: Isolation is a survival horror video game, it features some characteristics seen in traditional action FPS video games, such as first-person camera perspective, a variety of weapons, the abilities to crouch and sprint, as well as enemies that can be fought and defeated. If FPS is considered a genre of video games similar to Doom and Quake, then Alien: Isolation would not be considered an FPS video game, due to its surivival horror video game characteristics that consitute a video game much more similar to Amnesia and Outlast than to Doom and Quake. However, if FPS is considered a gameplay design, in which the video game is played in a first-person perspective and in which the player character is able to use a variety of weapons, then in this case Alien: Isolation would be considered an FPS, such as many other video games which are played in first-person camera perspective and feature weapons, although most of these video games are most often not considered video games similar to Doom and Quake, and for this reason, are generally not described as FPS video games. There are many video games which feature a first-person camera perspective, as well as a variety of weapons, and which are most often not described as FPS video games, due to their differences to classic FPS video games such as Doom and Quake. However, if FPS is used to describe any video game with first-person camera perspective and in which the main game character is able to use weapons, then in this case Alien: Isolation (2014) could be considered and described as an FPS video game.
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