The Curious History of Alien Isolation
169,315
Published 2021-04-24
As of the early 2010s first-person survival horror games were a rarity, a space most notably occupied by the likes of indie hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Triple-A games in the genre, the Resident Evils, Silent Hills, and Dead Spaces of the world, had yet to move beyond the tried-and-true third-person perspective. Change peeked over the horizon by the middle of the decade, though, with another indie success, Outlast, and Hideo Kojima’s P.T. demo laying the foundation for a new wave of survival horror. Little did anyone know, an Alien project based on Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic would also move the needle.
The ambitions powering Creative Assembly’s vision for Alien: Isolation were grounded by far more than a shift in perspective. In using the original film as a stepping stone, Isolation tread ground that no other Alien-based video game had dared traverse. Previous interactive adventures through the sci-fi universe placed special emphasis on the action-oriented qualities of James Cameron’s 1986 sequel. Such titles supplied players with advanced firearms and assigned the arduous task of killing Xenomorphs—Alien: Isolation did neither. Creative Assembly instead encouraged players to avoid the creature, hide from and fear it, even distract it when necessary. But fully understanding the core of the experience they wanted to create proved a formidable undertaking for the team.
Four years of production were devoted to the project. A new engine and major gameplay changes imposed several challenges on a studio that lacked a survival horror pedigree. To the delight of many an Alien fan, however, those obstacles culminated in a one of a kind exploration of the seminal franchise.
This is the history of Alien: Isolation.
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All Comments (21)
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Hey everyone, friendly reminder that Alien Isolation is free on Epic Games right now if you'd like to try the harrowing journey yourself! :)
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Arguably the greatest survival horror of the last decade. This game was literally a love letter to all Alien fans. The sound design in this game still blows me away to this day. No game has ever given me so much anxiety, stress and excitement all at once.
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Just when i was afraid that there was nothing to watch while eating
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Extremely proud to have been involved in the development of this game. A great team whose passion paid off. I was pleasantly surprised to see Gamers cover this. I've yet to speak to someone who actually completed the game. Most of my friends gave up for it being too scary :D. If anyone wants to collect my ID I'm in Comms as 'D.Turner' (not my actual name).
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Alien Isolation is a massive tribute to the original 1979 Alien film and the most faithful game to the franchise to this day. By far. 300/10.
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Easily the scariest a Xenomorph has ever been since the first two Alien movies.
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My favorite Horror Game and one of the few Horror Games that actually made me constantly be paranoid
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The part about the play testers choosing not to fire because it would only make things worse is interesting.
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This is one of the few games that were actually scary for me but fun at the same time.
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The narrator has the voice of a story-telling god.
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I’m getting post traumatic heart palpitations just thinking about this game again. Damn near perfect experience.
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This game is a definite masterpiece, people who haven’t played it are really missing out
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This game is a masterpiece. It’s my favorite from last gen and yet it was released in 2014.
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My favorite game of all time. It's a masterpiece through and through.
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This was the only game capable of capturing the true essence of the Alien franchise and one of the most worthy. All the team responsible for it must be praised for their amazing work. Shame on the reviewers who trashed this game upon release. They are the ones to blame for this title never have received a sequel.
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Such a good horror game, the Alien AI was superb, the atmosphere was perfect, I love it.
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Legit one of the best games ever made. The experience was amazing and I still member it well to this day, hope to see these guys bring us more sometime soon, even if its a remake with Raytracing and stuff :D The graphics, the gameplay, the story all was soo well designed.
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I'm stunned by how much your production quality, writing and editing keeps improving so much. One of the channels I'm most proud of being a Patron of! Keep up the great work!
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I played this on release and played it again on PC last October. It has aged incredibly well.
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Definitely the best Alien game ever. Wish we could get a sequel.
