This early year, I interviewed Feral Interactive about them porting the game to mobile and asked about a potential mobile version of Alien: Isolation ($14.99) and was surprised at the response I got. Back then, I thought Nintendo Switch port Current means it will come to mobile eventually, but I don’t think it will this soon. Creative Assembly’s survival horror experience has not only been ported to mobile by Feral Interactive, it’s also received an incredible transformation.
Alien: Isolation on iOS including the base game, all seven DLC packs including Crew Expendable, Last Survivor, and Survivor Mode, all with an asking price of $14.99. This is a lot less than other platforms and less than half of Feral Interactive’s Nintendo Switch port from last year. I expected a lower asking price for the platform, but I continue to be impressed with how the game runs on every device I’ve tried so far.
Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation Set 15 years after the original film and you take on the role of Amanda Ripley. Amanda learns that the flight recorder on board Ellen Ripley (her mother) has been restored. While Amanda tries to investigate the Sevastopol space station, the Xenomorph comes out in full force. What makes you worth the experience is how the aliens seem to adapt to come after you and how you use the great sound design to make sure you avoid it when possible. Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game with occasional save points. You’ll explore, go into vents, hide in various places, and more as you strive to survive and progress. The save system is very different from what I expected. When you find a new save point and save it, you can’t save it immediately, you have to wait a certain amount of time. This adds to the stress and strategy when you have to decide when to save because even if it’s not immediate.
When Alien: Isolation Launched on PS4, Xbox, PC and more than half a decade ago, it was praised for its atmosphere and behavior of a single alien constantly trying to find and kill you. Alien: Isolation was a great looking game at the time, and it has aged brilliantly in most ways. Without the stale looking character models, the atmosphere is amazing. The AI behavior of the alien hunting you is also understandably commendable as it gives the impression of learning and improving as the game progresses. The only frustrations some players may have is about the save system and the lack of tolerance checking system that modern games have.
Considering Alien: Isolation originally a PC and console game, I’m hoping to at least have strong controller support. Alien: Isolation on iOS with full touch screen support works great, full controller support, and even keyboard and mouse support on iPad. In terms of touchscreens, haptic feedback is also included on supported devices. On the controller side of things, it has native prompt button support for PlayStation controllers as well with rumble. I used my PS5 DualSense controller to check for controller support and it immediately detected the controller and showed me the PlayStation button prompt.
We already know Alien: Isolation Plays great with a controller, but I’m curious what it would be like as a touch-only experience. It took me a bit of time to get used to the targeting and interaction, but Feral Interactive’s interface here is great even if you don’t really play on the touchscreen very often. Tried Alien: Isolation across multiple setups on iOS and iPadOS, my ideal setup would be to use my headset, iPad Pro, and PS5 DualSense controller to play iPad or wireless headset and iPhone with touch controls to play iPhone. It’s interesting to see how some interactions have been slightly altered for touch controls compared to how they would be with a controller.
Feral Interactive usually tweaks the graphics and performance options on each device perfectly, but I’m glad the studio has begun to allow players to control this aspect of the experience. recent release. Alien: Isolation lets you play at default graphics priority choosing the highest quality image, performance mode with a higher frame rate target (on devices I’ve tried it on), and battery saver mode. Although I don’t have access to the latest iPad hardware with the M1 chip, Alien: Isolation looks great on my iPad Pro and iPhone 11. have been shipped Alien: Isolation for macOS and Nintendo Switch, Feral Interactive is clearly the best choice for the iOS release.
In my testing, the graphics mode with the seemingly 30 fps target also had a decent frame rate so there was no sense of unevenness. Performance mode has a small drop in overall image fidelity if you look closely, but it’s well worth it given the smooth (apparently 60fps target) performance only possible on Xbox Series and of course PC can’t get this new mobile version. There are even options for film grain, chromatic aberration, and FOV options (47 to 75). While some mobile versions of PC and console games offer players customization options at the expense of polish, Alien: Isolation having both and every setting feels like it’s been tested to make sure there are at least or no possible issues during gameplay.
As with other premium Feral Interactive conversions, file size is a concern. When you launch Alien: Isolation, you are prompted to download the DLC packs. You can do this now or wait to do it via DLC management in the game later. Survivor mode is an additional download with the game’s total install size around 11GB. I wish Apple would increase the file size limit for certain developers on the App Store as this only adds extra work for the developer and the extra steps sometimes take too long for the user. Thankfully the Feral Interactive implementation is great and I had no issues on two different connections on the 4 iOS and iPadOS devices I tested it on. Alien: Isolation above.
In addition to control options and controller-related features, Alien: Isolation has iCloud save support. When launching the game on another device, you are prompted to choose whether to save locally or save to the cloud to continue. I had no problems with this last week on my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020). I know some people take iCloud save support for granted, but there are too many portals released these days that don’t have it, and those that have it feel a bit buggy. I wish more games had reliable iCloud save sync like Alien: Isolation and other Feral Interactive releases.
Alien: Isolation is the rare iOS port that I don’t have anything bad to say about it. It has every feature that I consider necessary for a mobile gateway and many more. A couple of things I’d like to see in future updates are gyroscope support for targeting and 120hz support if that’s even possible on newer iPads. I know Feral Interactive has been resolved Supports 120hz on iPhone but hopefully future iPhones or current iPad Pro might have an optional mode for it. Without those features, the only thing I would want is limited Apple storage on the App Store. Hopefully by 2022, Apple allows at least developers like Feral Interactive to release larger games without forcing users to spend time downloading content at launch.
If you haven’t played yet Alien: Isolation Before that, the mobile version was phenomenal. Not only is it a good value proposition with all DLC included at a low $14.99 asking price compared to other platforms, but it looks and runs great even against the Xbox versions. and PS4. I know Feral Interactive has magical mobile conversions, but this Alien: Isolation on a completely different level. Tried it on console including new Xbox Series X where it got FPS Boost through backwards compatibility, iPad version with good headset and optional controller outperforms all other console versions of the game. If you are looking to experience Alien: Isolation, which is a great way to do so, and one of the best iOS converters ever.
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