Here's why Alien: Isolation's awesome flamethrower also kind of breaks the game. Despite being the film that kicked off the entire franchise, the original Alien was rarely used as inspiration for the franchise's video games. This makes a certain amount of sense, considering James Cameron's trigger-happy sequel Aliens features a more game-friendly premise, requiring players to blast legions of Xenomorphs with futuristic weaponry.
Aliens not only served as the template for most of the franchise's gaming spinoffs such as Alien Trilogy and Aliens Vs Predator, it also inspired countless other titles, from Contra III: The Alien Wars to Halo. The slow burn suspense of Ridley Scott's Alien was a little harder to pull off, but 2014's Alien: Isolation was a near-perfect translation. The game is set fifteen years after the first movie, with Ripley's daughter Amanda heading to an isolated space station to get some answers about her mother's disappearance. Naturally, there's a hungry Xenomorph on board and players have to guide Amanda through the decaying station while a relentless Alien stalks them, with no Pulse Rifle or Marines to help out.
Alien: Isolation was acclaimed for it's intense, claustrophobic gameplay, art design and for actually making the central monster terrifying again. Throughout early parts of the game, Amanda can pick up weapons like a revolver and stun baton, but little that can genuinely hurt the Xeno. This makes for nail-biting passages where players have to stealthy sneak around the near-abandoned Sevastopol Station. The movie series also established that outside of fire the creature is essentially fearless, so it feels pretty good when Amanda finally gets her hands on a traditional Alien flamethrower about midway through.
After feeling powerless against the Star Beast for a good portion of the game, it feels great to dowse it with a flamethrower and watch it frantically retreat. The only issue is that Amanda gets the weapon well before the ending of the game, and while flamethrower fuel isn't exactly limitless, it robs the alien of its menace. Part of the game's early tension comes from not being able to fight back, but with the flamethrower all but guaranteed to repel the beast, he eventually becomes an irritant as the rest of the story unfolds.
The Alien flamethrower is a great weapon and it's not like the rest of the game becomes a cakewalk, but for many, it breaks what worked so well about the game. Alien: Isolation also makes sure players don't get complacent with the introduction of the killer Working Joe androids, and later chapters like the Hive ensure they can't just roast their way out of trouble. That said, the threat of the Xenomorph does notably decrease once the trusty Alien flamethrower is introduced. Towards the end of the game, the Xenomorph is more of an annoyance than a threat, and its tempting to just blast it and run towards an objective than play the game the way it was intended.