In a fall gaming schedule that contains many long-awaited titles such as Dragon Age: Inquisition, Super Smash Bros., and Far Cry 4, it’s tough for more “niche” games and genres to get noticed. Games based on movies have also historically been looked over for their reputation of being generally awful. But Alien: Isolation has proven that not only is the horror genre very much alive and well, but that games based on movies aren’t automatically terrible.

Alien: Isolation, developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega, is set 15 years after the events of the first Alien film, and 42 years before Aliens. The story follows Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, as she investigates her mother’s disappearance. As she attempts to recover the Nostromo’s flight recorder, she and her crew become trapped onboard a space station with a familiar foe.

What makes this game truly horrifying is the fact that the Xenomorph is not only perpetually hunting the player during the story, but also cannot be killed; players are forced to hide rather than fight. Players are given a flashlight and a motion tracker in order to detect the alien’s movements, but these create sound and light that make them easier for the monster to find. The best part? The Xenomorph learns from its experience in hunting the player, and will not behave the same way during each encounter.

Alien: Isolation is available on PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, and currently holds an average of 78/100 on Metacritic, with the PC version ranking highest. The game can be purchased at any major gaming retailer.

For more information on the excellent writing of the Alien franchise, have a look at “Writing an Alien” in the Did You Know section.