Alien Isolation video game
Alien Isolation is a first-person survival horror game developed by Creative Assembly and published by SEGA, released on October 6, 2014. You play as Amanda Ripley, an engineer who investigates the 15-year disappearance of her mother, Ellen Ripley, aboard the Sevastopol space station. Her journey quickly turns into a struggle for survival however, as the station has been devastated from years of chaos, all caused corporate negligence and a particular alien hiding in the vents.
The game uses a custom version of Helvetica Bold, dubbed in the game’s files as Isolation, for its body text. Compared to the Linotype version it is seemingly based on, this font has noticeably tighter spacing, soft corners and inconsistent kerning. It lovingly recreates the soft appearance of Helvetica from the 1979 movie. Although, much of those details are unfortunately lost because of how small text in the UI is, especially at higher resolutions.
A custom made pixel font named Jixellation is used as the game’s secondary typeface. It can be seen used in parts of the UI along with Helvetica and is primarily used for the many computer terminals you interact with during the game. The font seems to be heavily inspired from a very low-resolution MS Sans Serif.
Main menu
Amanda attempting to interact with a Working Joe. In typical survival horror fashion, the HUD is minimalistic, only showing the necessities such as a health bar, ammo count and the flashlight counter.
Reading a log from one of the hundreds of terminals that Amanda interacts with on the Sevastopol
Reading an archived log
Amanda’s inventory, where looted or crafted items and weaponry are stored.
The crafting menu
