izigame.me

I'm a massive Alien fan, having adored the series since I was a homunculus, but I missed out on Alien: Isolation initially due to (at the time) not hearing about its release. I played this game a couple months off release on the Xbox One, but never finished it. Came back to it and finished it on PC, and can safely say that this is the greatest Alien game ever made, and a masterpiece of horror.
Alien: Isolation does an absolutely phenomenal job with its worldbuilding, audio design, and claustrophobic gameplay. The developers clearly cared about the original series, with the game looking as if it was directly from the original film. The audio and musical score is amazingly tense, filling the player with dread as they clamber through vents and craft pipe bombs with spare parts.
The star of the game, the Alien, is by far one of the most engaging, terrifying, and wondrous enemies I have ever encountered in a game. At no point does the Alien become boring: even after hours of the campaign and replaying levels for speedrunning certain sections, the Alien never became uninteresting. This, to me, is the most important aspect of the game: the core gameplay of hiding from the Alien is incredibly tense and amazingly terror-inducing. To this day, the Alien's ability to amaze me with its horrible intelligence has yet to be topped by another horror game.
Besides the Alien, the game's combat and stealth is really well done. The Working Joe robots are freaky and do a good job of serving as a secondary antagonist, and although the human sections can get a bit frustrating on the hardest difficulty (while playing pacifist, in fairness), they're still fun to see, and you can always whack your jack on a wall to summon the starbeast as backup.
The story isn't particularly special, but it's still pretty engaging, especially for an Alien title. Nothing too complicated, but it's fun and there are plenty of great callbacks for Alien fans (including a remake of the original LV426 derelict), and the game stays fun throughout. Some might say that it can have a bit of a slow start before the Alien is in full force, or that the campaign can drag on a bit, but I can't say I agree. Best of all, the two DLCs for the game let you play through two iconic situations from the original film, with the original actors reprising their roles as voices in audio logs and gameplay. It's pretty fun.
Overall, I'd say this game is a modern classic, and ought to be considered as one of the best horror games ever made. It's a lovingly crafted gift, dedicated to Alien fans and horror enthusiasts alike. Although it's a shame that it got a lukewarm reception on release, its quality has been better appreciated over time, and I hope that by playing it, (you) can see how great it really is.
You can buy it on sale, since it goes for cheap often, but I'd 100% endorse purchasing it at full price. The two story based DLC are also highly worth it if you're an Alien fan. The other DLC are challenge levels, so it really depends on whether you enjoy that gamemode and want more variety in the levels. If you ask me, buy the game and both story DLC: you won't regret it!