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Why yes, that was a micro change in air density you just noticed on your motion tracker. Ten years since the release of horror adaptation Alien Isolation, Creative Assembly have announced that they’re making a sequel.
“On the 10th anniversary, it seems only fitting to let you know that we have heard your distress calls loud and clear,” reads a post from Al Hope, the original game’s creative director, on Xitter. “Today, I’m delighted to confirm, on behalf of the team, that a sequel to Alien: Isolation is in early development. We look forward to sharing more details with you when we’re ready.”
There’s nothing more to say, so you’ll have to fill the void with your inaudible screaming. Here’s a little recap of the 2014 monstrosity to help with that: Alien Isolation casts you as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen, who is stuck on a huge space station with a single, unpleasantly adaptable and essentially unkillable Alien. The whole game is about that relationship, give or take a few bullying androids – as you master various means of distraction and deterrence, the Alien “learns” about you, growing more aggressive and tenacious. The space station itself is a beautiful homage to the film’s aesthetics – dare I call it Nostromantic? – though it’s perhaps a little larger than it needed to be. At 20-30 hours in length, Isolation does come perilously close to wearing out its welcome.
It’s one of my favourite horror games regardless. I remember visiting Creative Assembly’s offices in 2011 or so, after they announced an Alien universe collaboration but before they revealed or said anything about Isolation. After asking some highly fishy, leading questions about recent hires and their vision for the franchise, I threw my hands up in exasperation and proceeded to complain for about five minutes that video games take too much inspiration from Aliens and its Colonial Marines, when all I want to do is be trapped in a big, Gothic labyrinth with a persistent nemesis and no actual gunplay at all.
I was absolutely beside myself when the developers in the roundtable all simultaneously adopted the same expression of glassy-eyed smugness. “We think you will like our game,” one of them ventured. I hurried on home and proceeded to eat my hands for three years, until the formal reveal. Today, I begin to eat my hands anew.
Here is our original Alien Isolation Wot I Think, written by Adam Smith (RPS in peace), who of course is now Duke of Words at Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian. An extract:
Isolation is the best Alien game I’ve ever played, I’m in no doubt about that. Even in its awkward moments it is doing something interesting with the license, exploring the edges of what is possible in its world, quietly and discreetly. I expect the debate about certain design choices to be loud and long. At the centre of the debate will be one of the finest entries in the Alien canon in any medium, and one of the finest horror experiences in ours.
The prospect of an Isolation sequel aside, it’s nice to see Creative Assembly getting work that isn’t Total War. The developers have had a rough year or two, with Sega cancelling their first-person shooter Hyenas amid layoffs, and shoving their noses ever deeper into the strategy game genre. At the risk of being a negative Nancy here, I’d say the new Alien game has a lot to prove within Sega, and 10 years is a long time – how many of the old Isolation team are still there?