Usually, when a company announces that they are developing a video game based on the Alien franchise, the acceptable reaction is to groan, then forget it exists. At least a dozen games across pretty much every console, and the only one that was next to playable was Trilogy, though it suffered from extreme repetition problems.
Creative Assembly is hoping to change this with Alien: Isolation. In development for three years, the game is to be released as part of the year long celebration of the original film's 35 anniversary. Billed as a survival horror game, it will be released in the late fall, across all the non-Nintendo systems (including last and next-gen consoles, much like Ghostbusters was five years ago). Here is the official description:
When she left Earth, Ellen Ripley promised her daughter Amanda she would return home for her 11th birthday. Amanda never saw her again.Apparently, the lone alien has responsive AI, which means he won't jump out of the same foot locker every time you re-spawn. It learns, and reacts to your actions, which if it works could be properly terrifying. I just wonder how long running in terror from a beastie while the lights flicker is going to stay interesting. Or, when you luck out and kill the thing with a fire extinguisher thirty five minutes in, what does that mean for the rest of the game? If the creature is not driven by a programmed narrative, and the goal is survival, what drives extended gameplay?
Fifteen years later, Amanda, now a Weyland-Yutani employee, hears that the flight recorder of her mother’s ship, the Nostromo, has been recovered at the remote trading station Sevastopol. The temptation for her to finally understand what happened istoo much to resist. When the crew arrive at Sevastopol, they find something is desperately wrong. It all seems to be connected to an unknown menace, stalking and killing deep in the shadows.
In order to uncover the truth about her mother, Amanda is forced to confront the same terrifying thing that separated them.
Via Gamma Squad.