I mean, only against the Alien (and even that's not true since you can fight it off with the flamethrower). Meanwhile, you can fight humans with anything, and Joes with EMPs/the wrench/guns (and that's before you even get into diversion tactics and crafting). Also, if you're having trouble with humans hunting you, you can just wrench hit wall to call the Xeno so it can wipe (as long as you survive). You've also got stuff like messing with ventilation to lower visibility/make stealth easier or causing alarms to go off in different rooms to lure enemies into traps/make paths. You could also lock off doors and paths to try to trap the Xeno or divert it. Also, unless you play on the easiest difficulty, running is out of the question since that calls the Xeno every time. The Xeno can even hear your motion tracker so you have to use that sparingly. There is so much depth to Isolations gameplay systems, it's insane. It also has the best open map design I've seen in a horror game other than Prey. Sevastopol was a maze you HAD to use your map to get around.
I also don't agree with the Alien not being scary just because you've seen the movies. No one had ever been so intimate with the Xeno before Isolation. The size of it and its pure lethality made it one of the most imposing enemies I've ever seen in a game. One hit kills, it's faster than you, it searches the whole station, and it can follow you into any vent or under the floor grates, or look under desks and in lockers as it hunted you. It's AI and the way it stocked is unparalleled in a video game. The only way to survive was to actually outsmart it and use Ripley's engineering skills. It made Mr. X look like a joke. Also, we've seen Mr. X before in RE games and movies. He was still scary too (until you learned how to exploit his AI; there is no exploiting the Xeno, that thing will fuck you up if you try).
Trying to liken it to Penumbra or Soma (neither of which are scarier than Isolation) seems like you didn't completely get the depth of the gameplay systems like that IGN reviewer. I like Frictionals games, but they are quintessential walking/hiding simulators like Outlast. Isolation is closer to classic survival horror in which you have to manage resources and actually think about your approach. It actually did it better than classic survival horror games. It likely had the depth it did because Creative Assembly is more known for strategy games, and it showed. TBH, if you spent the entire game just crouching from locker to table, you missed out.