There's no doubt that the latest Alien installment is an excellent survival horror and a great candidate to experience in virtual reality. And thanks to a group of fans, it's now possible to play Alien: Isolation in virtual reality. Will you survive the claws of the unique and fearsome xenomorph?
Released in 2014 for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Alien: Isolation takes place fifteen years after the events of Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and follows Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, and her efforts to investigate her mother's disappearance. The game was released just before the Rift and Vive VR headsets were available, but it had a hidden VR mode compatible with the Rift DK2 that could be enabled by editing a configuration file. Unfortunately, the game's sales figures were too low for Sega to justify reassembling the coding team to update the headset feature, but once again the fan community came to the rescue and managed to enable the option, allowing you to play Alien: Isolation in virtual reality.
Several Reddit users have dedicated their time to tackling the problem of re-enabling the virtual reality mode of Alien: Isolation in something that would be compatible with the Oculus Rift. And although the patch is not finished, it can be downloaded as an alpha version. The installation is simple: you copy a DLL file into the game folder, and that's it. You put on the goggles and start playing. It's worth clarifying that this patch still needs improvement, as it has some problems, currently lacking comfort for players more prone to motion sickness (possibly causing dizziness, nausea, and even vomiting).
Playing Alien: Isolation in virtual reality highlights one of the main reasons why this mode was never completed by the developers: there are scaling issues that are not very evident on a screen, with some particular characters sometimes appearing a bit tall or short, and your character's point of view shakes automatically at various points. However, this does not take away the satisfaction that the virtual reality mode is once again accessible, because even with its problems, it remains a fabulous way to experience terror from a new perspective. If you have the goggles and a copy of Alien: Isolation, there's no reason why you shouldn't download this patch right away (just be prepared to take frequent breaks if you start feeling sick).
Download: MotherVR
