I haven’t played alien isolation in years so I might misremember parts of that game, but I do recall that the alien could not be killed. As a player, that tells me every situation is winnable no matter what equipment I have. Compare that to dead space where inventory management comes into play. While playing dead space, I become concerned about my remaining health boosters or ammo, I begin to wonder if I have enough resources to make it to the next save point. Or what happens if I save now but don’t have enough resources to beat the next upcoming encounter? To me the risk of failure adds to the horror, as well as the immersion.