The first time you see the thing is a remarkable moment in PC gaming

Alien’s Xenomorph is one of cinema’s best known monsters, but at what point does the creature become boring? The comics and movies that rose to feed Alien’s hungry fandom have reduced the creature to a cartoon villain. The Xenomorph has battled Batman, Superman, and the Predator. What do you do with a monster that the audience has seen so often?

You hide it. Alien: Isolation’s Xenomorph hunts in the ship’s vents, waiting to drop down on its prey. Directional sound cues hint at its presence, creating excruciating paranoia. Was that clunk some pneumatic operation of the space station? Or the creature moving just above the ceiling panels? Then, when the monster finally descends it uncoils gracefully, enormous and utterly terrifying.

Creative Assembly chose to adapt the Xenomorph from the very first film, before