Alien: Isolation is a shocking first-person survival horror experience that puts us in the role of Amanda Ripley, who will have to survive an Alien on the Sevastopol space station.
And one of the main components of this video game is the active treatment of the music composed by Jerry Goldsmith which adapts to the intensity of the game, the theme “lower Hospital” is heard during mission 10 where we will go to the Gemini Exoplanet Solutions laboratories. in the KG348 Project area.
This work has the peculiarity of having a large echo (Delay Effect) that gives us the feeling of being alone in a large environment (thanks to the time space in which each repetition appears, which is equal to 1 pulse in the work and at the quantity of them). Added to a slow tempo of the work that produces a lot of tension because one is caught in this game. It is worth mentioning that the use of delay as in this work implies a perfect execution of rhythmic figures, since being a machine it will not consider repeating errors.
Melodically there is a very interesting effect, since the first note is harmonized with an Ebm chord, which is a melancholic, reflective chord, and the second note with an Esus2, which is an expectant, suspenseful chord. Then the next group of 2 notes does something similar, first note the Ebm chord and second note the E7sus4 chord (gives variety and maintains the aforementioned concept)
And it happens that when you have such a spectacular motif but want to give it movement without losing the sensation, direct modulation is used (going to another tone abruptly), jumping from Ebm to Gbm, thus transporting everything composed an ascending minor 3rd . This idea of modulating very quickly and abruptly maintains the audible attention of the viewer and thus prevents them from entering a sonic trance that could produce sonic comfort.
Finally it transports again 2 more times but increases a melody to once again create that sound variety that keeps us expectant during the first moments of the mission.
The music, sounds and technology of the game took great care in trying to recapture the horror and unmatched tension of Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film.
Successes
Social Media Author: Pablo Bobadilla Rider
