The next video game in the world of Aliens will star the daughter of superstar space officer Ellen Ripley, according to a Kotaku source.
The game is called Alien: Isolation, and we hear it will be on both current- and next-gen consoles next year. Isolation is developed by the British studio Creative Assembly (Total War); it's a first-person shooter that uses both stealth and horror elements; and it's inspired by games like Dishonored and Bioshock, according to our source, a person familiar with goings-on at Sega, who spoke under condition of anonymity in the interest of protecting their job.
Perhaps most importantly, our source says that Sega took the critical reception to Aliens: Colonial Marines very seriously, and that the publisher put together a postmortem following the near-unanimously negative reactions to their last Aliens game, which was developed by the studios Gearbox and TimeGate. They want to make sure Isolation is a better game, and according to our source, it's already been delayed at least once—Sega originally planned to announce the game at E3 of 2013.
I first heard about Alien: Isolation this spring, not long after reporting on the disastrous story of Colonial Marines. I couldn't confirm what I'd heard, and I figured that with the game early in development, some of these details would be fluid, so I sat on the info.
But today, news came out that Sega has trademarked the name Alien: Isolation. With the title corroborated, I feel comfortable sharing everything I've heard.
According to our source, the protagonist of Alien: Isolation is Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, the character that made Sigourney Weaver famous and kicked off the ubiquitous sci-fi franchise over 30 years ago. Amanda, who is mentioned in the special edition of Aliens as having died while Ellen was frozen in space, has not yet been the focus of any books, movies, or games in the Alien extended universe.
You, as Amanda, spend most if not all of the game on a single space station, according to our source. There's only one alien for "most" of the game, our source said; you'll mostly be shooting through "clones and soldiers." Vents, lockers, and melee weapons are a big part of Isolation, our source said, and the game is heavily inspired by the first Alien movie.
Keep in mind much of this information is from six months ago; details may have changed over the course of development, as they sometimes do. However, our source re-confirmed many of these details today.
In 2011, Sega announced that Creative Assembly was working on an Alien game, but details have been sparse. Creative Assembly's most recent game, Total War: Rome II, was quite buggy at launch, but Luke revisited the game last week and gave it a positive review.
Sega officially unveiled The Creative Assembly's Alien game as Isolation, a first-person survival horror shooter for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC that's due for release in the second half of 2014. The long-speculated game has been in development at the British studio for just over three years, and firmly traces its roots to the original 1979 film that began the Alien franchise.
As previously rumored, players take on the role of Ellen Ripley's daughter Amanda in a new story that stars the original Alien from the film. Alien: Isolation is set 15 years after the events in Alien, and takes place on a large trading station where a flight recording from the Nostromo has been recovered.
"The thing we're always focused on is that first film," Lead Game Designer Gary Napper told Joystiq at a recent press event. "It's making the game as much like that original experience of being focused on a single alien in a single environment, and not being prepared to shoot it. It's that really close-up, personal, and connected experience with the Alien. That's what we've always focused on and wanted to do."
We played a brief demo at the event that pitted us against the Alien, but Napper told us The Creative Assembly already has a build of Isolation that's "playable from start to finish," and the studio is now in the process of "polishing, iterating, and balancing" the game.
We've also confirmed Alien: Isolation is running on an in-house engine built by The Creative Assembly, and that it features "no multiplayer whatsoever" to use Napper's words. The studio is still exploring console-specific functionality, such as Kinect integration on Xbox One; in the PS4 demo we used the touchpad to bring up and manipulate a pause screen map, and the controller's sensor light flashed with the in-game motion tracker.
For the nittier-grit of our experience with the demo, including how we somehow managed to evade the Alien (at the second time of asking),
In lieu of serving up in-game footage or even pre-rendered cutscenes from the upcoming sci fi survival horror game Alien: Isolation, the developers at Creative Assembly instead offer this behind-the-scenes look at how the team is translating Hollywood-style horror for the virtual world.
The focus of the clip is on the creation of the game's titular xenomorph, and specifically the artificial intelligence ruling its in-game behaviors. According to the game's designers, the alien utilizes a unique set of "senses" to actively hunt players down, leading to encounters with the creature that can last up to half an hour, depending on how cautious a player is in approaching the confrontation. The development team claims this just isn't possible with scripted cutscenes and traditional enemy behavior patterns, but the extra effort poured into the birth of the xenomorph pays off by presenting players with an enemy that is both deadly and unexpectedly cunning.
I was really excited for Aliens: CM but after reading all the reviews I never picked it up. I hope this one is better and has a Resident Evil horror/survival feel to it.
I was really excited for Aliens: CM but after reading all the reviews I never picked it up. I hope this one is better and has a Resident Evil horror/survival feel to it.
It for sure sounds more survival horror. Please do something like Enemy Zero (old Saturn game). Man was that a fantastic gem.
In lieu of serving up in-game footage or even pre-rendered cutscenes from the upcoming sci fi survival horror game Alien: Isolation, the developers at Creative Assembly instead offer this behind-the-scenes look at how the team is translating Hollywood-style horror for the virtual world.
The focus of the clip is on the creation of the game's titular xenomorph, and specifically the artificial intelligence ruling its in-game behaviors. According to the game's designers, the alien utilizes a unique set of "senses" to actively hunt players down, leading to encounters with the creature that can last up to half an hour, depending on how cautious a player is in approaching the confrontation. The development team claims this just isn't possible with scripted cutscenes and traditional enemy behavior patterns, but the extra effort poured into the birth of the xenomorph pays off by presenting players with an enemy that is both deadly and unexpectedly cunning.
Looked like people were expecting another crap shooter not doing the 1979 movie Justice, but here I am playing it for the first time (on a PS4) and it’s absolutely great!! Seven years after it came out on the PS3, and it still holds up!
The crafting, the vibe, atmosphere, Pace, Lighting, Sounds, The focus (between what you’re holding and the background)…etc all superbly done!!
Looked like people were expecting another crap shooter not doing the 1979 movie Justice, but here I am playing it for the first time (on a PS4) and it’s absolutely great!! Seven years after it came out on the PS3, and it still holds up!
The crafting, the vibe, atmosphere, Pace, Lighting, Sounds, The focus (between what you’re holding and the background)…etc all superbly done!!
Ironically the last release on console (Switch) somehow is the best looking of them according to digital foundry.
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Alien: Isolation
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