Interactive Narrative in Video Games

I am in love with Interactive Narrative games. For the sake of inability to go into detail about each one, I'm going to get into my two most enjoyed Interactive Narrative games: The Sims and Alien Isolation.

I have owned all four of The Sims and have bought more expansion packs and DLC than I am proud to admit. You can create a beautiful, utopian family/neighborhood...or you can remove all the doors in your home and watch your sim go insane with incontinence and bad moods. You can do anything with millions of options as far as interactions go. Glitches are always welcome for the entertainment or the horror.

That being said, I think outside of when I owned it on Gamecube, I mainly used Sims for the houses. I just love building/designing houses and interiors. I actually use a lot of other 3D “home building” and contracting programs just for the hell of designing houses without the limitations of Simoleons or unhappy Sims (though I always used cheat codes, I’m that guy).

This is my chance to nerd out about my newest favorite interactive video game, Alien Isolation. This is a daithful adaptation of Alien, one of my favorite movie franchises.  I'm embarrassed to say though, I have yet to actually “beat” the damn thing. It is so interactive and dependent on your actions, that every decision you make (conscious or otherwise) dictates something. This can be the xenomorph learning your moves, other survivors reacting towards you, or the ship itself being "unlocked" by your actions. So many of my actions end up being impulsive and unwise under the pressure of danger (It’s scary, okay).

The story follows Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, on a Weyland Corp vessel where she not only has to cautious of a xenomorph on the loose, but desperate survivors that could betray her. The creators did a fantastic job mirroring the original Alien design of the ship, so of course that's enough to get me fangirling.

If you're not a fan of the standard interactive survival/visual novel/"choose-your-own" adventure game set up with physical paths, you should really give Alien Isolation a try. It is far from dull, you don't really know what your actions are going to result in, and it's really well done.