Alien: Isolation redefined Alien games on its release in 2014, bringing the original taut, haunted house theme of the first movie to fans who had mostly been fed action-packed shooters. Cowering under desks and inside lockers wasn’t a new thing; being hunted by an intelligent and lethal xenomorph that could spring down from a duct at any moment was.
“I was thinking about what we could do for a sequel while we were still finishing the first game,” reveals Creative Assembly’s Alistair Hope, creative lead on Alien: Isolation and its sequel. “But we didn’t actually start the project until around the time of the 10th anniversary. We’ve seen the response grow over time, watching [Alien: Isolation] continue to find new players, even though it’s a relatively old game. And they’re surprised there isn’t a sequel.”
Details are slight, but here’s what we know so far: a Weyland-Yutani survey team discovers a crashed vessel on a planet that resembles LV-426 crossed with a windswept forest. It’s a vessel that’ll appear familiar to fans of Alien: Isolation – it’s the part of Sevastopol that the duplicitous Marshal Waits jettisons from the station in the first game, with Amanda Ripley and the alien inside. Ripley escapes. The alien does not. Until now.
“We were super proud of Amanda. She’s really important to the Alien: Isolation experience. But we wanted to tell a new story, in a new location, and to do that, it felt like we needed a new protagonist,” says Hope. That new character is Blake, although Hope is tight-lipped on any details beyond her employer, Weyland-Yutani. It seems likely, however, that this new lead, thrust into the dangerous world of the xenomorph, will follow the IP’s tradition of strong female characters.
A fascinating part of Alien: Isolation 2 will be how the alien reacts to its new environment. “The alien uses its senses to track you down, and it’s very effective in those interior spaces. So we’ve been effectively training it to hunt in the exterior. Those core survival skills that you needed in the first game will be the same – but the player and the alien are going to have to adapt to survive.” That’s not to say Alien: Isolation 2 won’t have plenty of claustrophobic interiors, creating a seesaw of emotions whether trapped inside or exposed outside. “We can play with that, and mess with it. It feels like a really exciting opportunity.”
Taking place months after the events of Alien: Isolation, the sequel will retain the low-fi sci-fi universe, leaning heavily once more on the first Alien movie. There’s a glimpse of a Working Joe in the trailer, suggesting that, once again, the alien might not be the only antagonist the player has to avoid. Could hostile humans enter the mix? Hope is guarded. “Alien: Isolation 2 absolutely is building on that core foundation that we established in the first [game],” he says. “And, yeah, we love that rock, paper, scissors setup and scenario.” Draw your own acid blood-spattered conclusions.
Sevastopol, the decommissioned and slowly decaying space station of Alien: Isolation, became an evocative extra character in the original game. Creative Assembly appears well placed to repeat the trick with Alien: Isolation 2’s forbidding colony world, home to a remote Weyland-Yutani outpost, Kurosaki Station. Just don’t forget your umbrella.
