Alien: Isolation’s new mode asks you to sacrifice success for security

That Xenomorph’s as lethal as ever

Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation is a constant struggle for survival, and maybe more precisely, a neverending search for those few fleeting moments when you feel safe, even if you know danger’s probably mere seconds away. The highly regarded Survivor mode is a concentrated version of that in the sense that thrills come at a rapid-fire pace, except the concept of safety’s exchanged for a high score.

The newest Alien add-on kind of melds those two ideas together. In Safe Haven, Salvage Mode is introduced in which the player is tasked with completing ten different challenges. These take place in a bigger playspace than other Survivor maps, and include not only the Xenomorph, but synthetics and humans as enemies. Along the way, points can be traded in for a save slot, essentially acting as a safe-guard against failure and ensuring that final score and leaderboard position will be diminished.

Safe Haven is available now for $7.99 (free for season pass holders) on all the game’s platforms. It’s the third of five planned add-ons to Alien: Isolation. Something tells me that none of the five will make the Sevastapol a truly safe place.