Alien: Isolation is a video game being developed by The Creative Assembly and being Published by Sega. The game is based on the franchise of the same title and if any of you reading this are at all familiar with the last Alien franchise based video game to be released you are probably cringing at the very thought of playing another game within this universe. Let it be known that I am one of those who did get burned by the Gearbox debacle. As such I am definitely hesitant of a new game based in the Alien universe. One major reason so far to exhale is that Gearbox doesn’t seem to have any thing to do with this game.
There are already some gameplay demos out for Alien: Isolation and I will make sure to include something so you can check it out for yourself. Right off the bat what is very striking about this game in comparison to Aliens: Colonial Marines are the visuals. From what I have seen the graphics really do seem next gen and the lighting really looks good. The next thing of major contrast to A:CM is that you are definitely not a soldier in this game or any kind of formidable combatant for that matter. You play as Amanda, Ripley’s daughter 14 years after the events of Alien and the game is strongly influenced by Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic and not James Cameron’s action heavy 1986 sequel.
From what I have seen Alien: Isolation is the polar opposite of A:CM. Instead of fighting droves of mindless enemies there is supposedly only one Alien. Armed with the classic handheld radar from the movies you slowly creep around a seemingly abandined ship gathering tools to help your escape all the while being stalked. In an interview I heard on IGN about this game they said that the people at The Creative Assembly have put a major emphasis on staying true to H. R. Geiger’s original design of the Alien and even pointed out details of the monster in still shots from the game that include the humanoid skull that is supposed to be visible beneath the creatures frontal lobe.
My impressions from the actual game play are that this game has the potential to be pretty scary. Even in just the first few seconds of the demo the atmosphere is effective in conveying a sense of tension. Navigating in the first perspective the sense of being alone is amplified by an uneasy quiet and the knowledge that their is at least one other very hostile presence on board with you. Your obvious first response is to never let go of your handheld radar but doing so partly obscures your vision and distracts you from possible danger because you are looking down at the radar instead of monitoring your surroundings.
You must consider the consequences of your movements. While it may be tempting to just make a B line for a possible escape route, your heavy footsteps will alert the Xenomorph to your location so it is imperative to plan your actions wisely. Instead moving slowly and choosing your path meticulously will likely award a more prosperous journey, although it will be no less daunting.
When researching this title the people from Outside Xbox mentioned that given that Colonial Marines was so negatively received publisher Sega likely would have scrapped Alien: Isolation if wasn’t for A:CM being pushed back from its initial release so many times. By the time A:CM finally came out A:I was too far in production for Sega to consider scrapping it so maybe something good can still come out of that disaster.
Alien: Isolation is slated for a Q4 2014 release on PS3, PS4, XBOX 360 and XBOX One. While what has been shown so far is promising it will be interesting to see how the game ultimately executes on that promise. For obvious reasons its hard to whole heartedly believe in this game but I am hoping that this will finally be the Alien game that we can legitimately be excited for. In the mean time here is a link from the CommunityGame YouTube channel which not only shows a trailer using actual game play but also contains a brief behind the scenes segment with the developers so you can form your own opinions.
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