In a recently released video, Creative Assembly has spoken out on their design choices for the Alien in their upcoming Alien game, Alien: Isolation, which looks to take the franchise back to its original themes of horror and desperation.

“When audiences went to see Alien in 1979, they were introduced to a new creature that was terrifying, unstoppable and totally unique. We wanted to make a game that recaptured that original experience. We wanted to make the alien scary again,” the video says.

This actually comes as a departure to the video-game side of the franchise, which has focused on action and shooting mechanics over the terror the franchise originally aimed for. Aliens: Colonial Marines was all about killing aliens in cramped corridors, the ammo counter never running out. Aliens vs. Predator focused on the close-up action, but was still based around killing swarms of Aliens instead of running from them.

In Alien: Isolation, the tables are turned. Creative Assembly is focusing on making a creature that, “really is hunting” and that reacts to the player and the player’s choices instead of working with predictable patterns or linear events.

“Depending on how cautious players are, we’ve seen encounters in alien isolation last over thirty minutes,” the video says.

In the end, “Alien Isolation is about encounters that are meaningful and terrifying. This is a game where you’ll never feel safe.”

My Opinion

I’m puzzled. On the one hand, Sega and Gearbox managed to hype Alien: Colonial Marines to ridiculous proportions and then failed on delivering what they promised. Fool me once, shame on you. However, Creative Assembly are being much more open about their design choices with Alien: Isolation and everything they say about the game makes me want to buy it. Fool me twice, shame on me, but I can guarantee I’ll be buying this day one regardless of reviews. I have to play this game.