Alien Isolation (PS4/Xbox One)

humanji

I heard a rumour that an announcement for this would be made today, then forgot all about it and noticed it on Gamespot:

This week, Sega revealed it is working on yet another game based on the Alien film series. The website for the Japanese's publisher's UK-based studio, the Creative Assembly, reveals that the shop is working on a console project based on the sci-fi intellectually property. Besides showing a picture of one of the iconic xenomorph eggs from the four films--Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection--the website also displays the logo for 20th Century Fox, the movie studio behind the series.

Sega is hoping to successfully hatch another Alien game.

The Creative Assembly's website provides no other details on the game, other than over a dozen job listings for the console project. However, gaming blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun was on hand at the studio when the announcement was made, and gleaned some further details. The new game will be based more on the more suspenseful Alien rather than the military-heavy Aliens, but will still be an "action" game. Development will be handled by the same team which made 2008's Viking: Battle for Asgard, with the Creative Assembly's entire headcount bulking up to 200 for the project. It is also reportedly opening a new 10,000-square-foot facility to aid with the staff expansion.



The new Alien project marks the fourth title based on the property since Sega landed the license in December 2006. The publisher first commissioned a role-playing game set in the sci-fi universe from Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas) before canceling the project in mid-2009. The company also hired Gearbox Software (Borderlands) to work on the first-person shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines, which is still in development despite having never been shown to the public. In February 2010, Sega released the Rebellion-developed Aliens vs. Predator to lukewarm reviews.

After the unintentional horror of Aliens Vs Predator and the cancellation of the Aliens RPG, I've been hoping for a decent game to come out. I keep getting the sinking feeling Colonial Marines is going to be axed, so at least now there's two chances instead of one.

Also, since they're apparently basing it on Alien, I'm hopeing for something along the lines of Dead Space, but with more atmosphere.

This all gives me a hankering to play the old Spectrum ZX Alien game...

richymcdermott

The creative assembly havent had the greatest start on the console market , they sure do make a awesome rts game but anything can happen, i liked the avp game only letdown was the lag with the online modes was fun

ShadowHearth

They are good, but wtf do they know about horror survival games?

I loved avp 2, was So atmospheric. I loved to play as marine, felt like plaing a medium rare steak with pepper souce in "biggest losser" camp. Was awesome!

Heard new one was rubbish . Let's hope this will be good.

landsleaving

Was Viking any good? I don't remember it getting great reviews. Would be brilliant to see a good new Alien game though, I loved the AVP games about... 10 years ago :eek:

richymcdermott

landsleaving wrote: »

Was Viking any good? I don't remember it getting great reviews. Would be brilliant to see a good new Alien game though, I loved the AVP games about... 10 years ago :eek:

Viking was ok havent gone back to it in bout 2 years

Grumpypants

Make Colonial Marines right now

That is all.

Jonny7

I love the film Aliens, have seen it 30+ times

Alien3, on the megadrive, was the only game to even come close to what a good "Aliens" game should be, they just cannot cannot get it right

I admit, they've come close a few times, but as of yet, nothing

We need a mod for Crysis, or Crysis 2 (even half-life 2 engine) multiplayer, aliens v marines

It could be done with the basic model being Left for Dead, i.e. a handful of marines vs waves of aliens, including and/or controlled by 'player' aliens

Or it could be akin to the amazing mod, Natural Selection - which was basically influenced by film

Either way, I pray they get this new venture right, meh but hopes aren't high

BlitzKrieg

Alien3, on the megadrive, was the only game to even come close to what a good "Aliens" game should be, they just cannot cannot get it right

The two pc avp games are the best alien franchise games.

And Alien Trilogy/Resurrection for the playstation 1 were better then alien 3 on the megadrive (hell alien 3 on the snes was better then the megadrive version and more in tone with the movies)

also the aliens game in the arcade where it was streets of rage with machine guns was pretty cool.


As far as movie franchises go the alien series has faired much better then most others in the video game market.

Grumpypants

Im just playing dead space extraction with the move and sharp shooter crawling through narrow corridors killing monsters with a machine gun, shotgun and flame thrower and all the time thinking this is basically Aliens, why can't they just make a Aliens game like that its so simple.

BlitzKrieg

and sharp shooter crawling through narrow corridors killing monsters with a machine gun, shotgun and flame thrower and all the time thinking this is basically Aliens, why can't they just make a Aliens game like that its so simple.

they did


twice

alien 3 gun game in arcades by sega

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLSuw3jTPQo

which was pretty good for the time it was made in.

But there is also the awful aliens extermination arcade game that was more recent and is pretty naff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPwbussjHcg

Duggy747

Playing AVP2 on a LAN was fantastic. 4 humans vs 1 Alien or 4 Aliens vs 1 human would be incredible.

Nothing funnier than watching a human marine freak out and start spraying his flamethrower and machine gun in a 360 degree fashion while you watch from the shadows, constantly taunting him with your sounds or leaping in front of him across the room.

Or if you're a marine and your sensor is picking up an enemy but you don't see it anywhere. Creepy stuff when next thing you see a facehugger just fly by your face, narrowly missing you.

Zith

humanji wrote: »

This all gives me a hankering to play the old Spectrum ZX Alien game...

I have the spectrum theme tune on my playlist!

McSasquatch

Finally, some news...

Kotaku are reporting that Alien: Isolation as it's called, will be an FPS with strong stealth and horror elements. The central character is Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen. Hmmmm.

Full story here.

COYVB

Eventually someone will make the game alien deserves. It probably won't be this one though

Andrew76

COYVB wrote: »

Eventually someone will make the game alien deserves. It probably won't be this one though

Alien3 on the Snes was pretty good and the arcade original of Aliens by Konami is excellent (in my biased opinion ).

Sir_Badshot

"you spend most of your time shooting through "clones and soldiers."

Oh God....

degrassinoel

Sir_Badshot wrote: »

"you spend most of your time shooting through "clones and soldiers."

Oh God....

Sounds suspiciously like Alien Ressurection

krudler

McSasquatch wrote: »

Finally, some news...

Kotaku are reporting that Alien: Isolation as it's called, will be an FPS with strong stealth and horror elements. The central character is Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen. Hmmmm.

Full story here.

Dafuq Ripley's daughter is confirmed dead in Aliens of old age, that makes zero sense. Does she go off into space to find her supposedly dead mother or something?

Agricola

I really don't see why they can't just invent a new character with no ties to the films, set it in the Alien universe and away you go. That way they don't have to jump through any narrative hoops connecting it into the films, plus they can just create a story from scratch will far less limitations. This Ripley's daughter thing sounds idiotic.

How has no executive at some point said "Ok, lets just make Dead Space but swap out necromorphs for xenomorphs!" That sounds like a very good starting point at the very least. Every game doesnt need to be a COD clone ffs. The Alien license alone is one for printing money, just marry it to a competent and faithful game.

McSasquatch

As reported by Eurogamer, some screenshots for this appeared on Twitter overnight.









Still incredibly nonplussed by this but I guess deepdown, like most gamers, I long for an excellent Aliens game. So I desperately want this to succeed, but expect it to be a stinky old pile of xenomorph poo.

Tony EH

The Alien franchise has to be one of the most abused lines ever...

Duggy747

AVP2 is the only proper good Aliens game of recent times and that's over a decade ago.

I wonder if we'll expect the actual game to look considerably more shìt than those photos :pac:

Sierra Oscar

Tony EH wrote: »

The Alien franchise has to be one of the most abused lines ever...

Tell me about it! Seems as if there is a new Alien game released every year these days.

pixelburp

Eurogamer wrote:

[...]the game was a first-person shooter that combines stealth and horror to achieve something akin to Dishonored and BioShock[...]

Meh; that sentence reads like an oxymoron: to me, stealth and horror feels incompatible with first-person shooting (if it's referring to the traditional idea of the FPS). Guns in video games are inherently empowering and would surely lessen the power to instill fear or helplessness in a player.
Dishhonoured seems like a poor comparison because even in the shadows the player was still the hunter, an assassin, and thus always had some small advantage over his foes. If all else failed you could still murder your way through the levels. IMO, in a true Alien game the player should be totally at the mercy of the Xenomorphs, effectively powerless & riffing on games such as Amnesia rather than Dead Space or their ilk.

Of course, I'm getting way ahead of myself, sounds like the game is in very early stages, and hey: if nothing else it couldn't be any worse than Colonial Marines.

Kirby

pixelburp wrote: »

stealth and horror feels incompatible with first-person shooting (if it's referring to the traditional idea of the FPS). Guns in video games are inherently empowering and would surely lessen the power to instill fear or helplessness in a player.

Not always. Guns don't do anything without ammo and this is how you instil the "every shot counts" fear in games.

The last of us is full of weapons but if you played your first playthrough on Survivor mode, there is barely any ammo. You would frequently sh*t yourself as you knew that around any corner you could get jumped and had nothing to fight it off. The original Dead space pulled this off too.

In bioshock and dishonoured, enemies were always on the same plane as you You always knew where they would be when you entered a room or arena....and they were human. Aliens can potentially have the fear factor as the enemies are lighting fast, and can climb on walls and ceilings.

Limit the ammo and you can terrify people. The security comes from being stronger than everything else in your environment and that's when a game stops being scary. If they make you fight aliens you can hear but not see.....with nothing but a spoon.....they can make it scary.:P

Banjo

I don't think an "empowering" weapon need necessarily be a bad thing either. You have seen Aliens haven't you? They had a lot of ammo and a lot of big empowering guns, the training, the discipline, the tactics... And they were massacred. Placing you deliberately in a safe position of having the numbers and firepower to deal with the threat, letting you feel secure and ready, then having them come out of the god-damned walls picking off your squad before you can fire off a round, leaving you spinning at shadows and firing at blurs - stripping away all of that safe feeling but leaving you with all of the things you though made you safe, so you don't even have the vain hope of getting a bigger gun or more ammo to sustain you - can be just as effective as giving you a spoon and throwing you to the wolves.

Besides, all the fire-power in the world won't stop you peeing just a little the first time your motion tracker goes from silent to a single Blip.

humanji

pixelburp wrote: »

Meh; that sentence reads like an oxymoron: to me, stealth and horror feels incompatible with first-person shooting (if it's referring to the traditional idea of the FPS). Guns in video games are inherently empowering and would surely lessen the power to instill fear or helplessness in a player.
Dishhonoured seems like a poor comparison because even in the shadows the player was still the hunter, an assassin, and thus always had some small advantage over his foes. If all else failed you could still murder your way through the levels. IMO, in a true Alien game the player should be totally at the mercy of the Xenomorphs, effectively powerless & riffing on games such as Amnesia rather than Dead Space or their ilk.

Of course, I'm getting way ahead of myself, sounds like the game is in very early stages, and hey: if nothing else it couldn't be any worse than Colonial Marines.

Dark Corners Of The Earth pulled off the FPS stealth & horror thing pretty well and so have a few other games, so it's not an impossible combination. If they do it right, it could work out well. "IF" being the operative word, though.

Ross_Mahon

The screenshots look a lot like the first movie. I wonder how they will pull that off.

McSasquatch

humanji wrote: »

Dark Corners Of The Earth pulled off the FPS stealth & horror thing pretty well and so have a few other games, so it's not an impossible combination.

A great game. Would love Bethesda to revisit this, or Lovecraft's world in general.

Tony EH

+1

It's unfortunate that it didn't take off. It was actually made by Headfirst Games, who are sadly defunct. Bethesda were only the publishers, so I doubt that they'll be returning to the Mythos any time soon.

Taylor365

People please, your ideas are far superior to any games development team.

Stop teasing us with these examples of the perfect Aliens game!

Its never going to happen!

Aliens is like a licence to shovel crap. Get the name, create tripe, shove it out, profit.

Baked.noodle

It's Amnesia in space, essentially, with Ripley stalked by a lone Xenomorph aboard the station.

http://www.videogamer.com/xboxone/alien_isolation/news/alien_isolation_confirmed_for_late_2014_release_on_ps4_xb1_and_more.html

Just noticed at the end of the trailer it looks like it's coming to PC.

bur

I'd only be able to watch someone playing that game I think.

Duggy747

After countless years of disappointing Aliens games I have no hope for it.

At least that way if it's any good it'll be considered a pleasant surprise :pac:

Gonzo

there hasnt really been a great Alien game since Alien Breed (Amiga) and Alien 3 (SNES).

2Mad2BeMad

after so many dissapointing "Aliens" games in the past few years
I have no hope of this being any better
hopefully it will as I would enjoy a good alien game with scares and jumps in it
but it has not been pulled off yet all action shooter games, stick it too old school if you ask me

KilOit

2Mad2BeMad wrote: »

after so many dissapointing "Aliens" games in the past few years
I have no hope of this being any better
hopefully it will as I would enjoy a good alien game with scares and jumps in it
but it has not been pulled off yet all action shooter games, stick it too old school if you ask me

Doesn't seem anything like an action shooter
check out the gameplay
http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/01/07/alien-isolation-gameplay-discussion

2Mad2BeMad

KilOit wrote: »

Doesn't seem anything like an action shooter
check out the gameplay
http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/01/07/alien-isolation-gameplay-discussion

I'd still wait for reviews to come out when ever its released just to be safe
love survival horror games

richymcdermott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBTHss_1saI

SouthTippBass

Color me skeptical, but Iv heard it all before. Promising looking aliens game! This time its going to be different! Yeah right. I could have done without Riplys daughter being shoehorned in there as well, was that really necessary?

pixelburp

The aliens franchise is 34 years and it's pretty mad to think that in all that time there have been few games to really do a proper interpretation of the first (and third) films, of the Alien as a lone terror and constant presence. I guess the low-hanging fruit was always straightforward swarm shooters than something a bit more psychological.

This looks hugely promising and definitely in that spirit; 'Amnesia In Space' seems like an appropriate comparison all right. I just hope the promised unscripted moments with the Alien aren't predefined areas, with the rest of the game an on-rails event. The tie-in with Ridley's daughter seems a little needless, but it also has the potential for a good character arc too, so fingers crossed.

Also love the look of the game so far - it definitely has that grimy, lived-in look from the films and 70s/80s blue collar Sci-Fi in general. It actually reminded me of a game also in the works called 'Routine'. It's being developed by an indie studio and is on Steam Greenlight atm; it has that same visual style and even the premise is somewhat the same.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92985806

Magill

well.... it can't be any worse than colonial marines lol ! If they have it more horror/survival than action/shooter then it could be good. I mean, the setting and background is perfect for this that type of game.

Apparently there will be no weapons ? promising.

johnny_ultimate

Honestly, this is the sort of Alien game I've wanted them to make for years. It has a lot of potential but the track record for the franchise means I will be approaching it with great caution.

Still, this is the type of route they need to go to recapture the atmosphere and terror of the first film (which I think is by far the best in the series). Make the Alien a genuine threat again.

jenjenten

looks promising.....but will wait for reviews before purchasing.

Myrddin

The only way is up

Duggy747

SeantheMan

bur wrote: »

I'd only be able to watch someone playing that game I think.

*sigh*....what are gamers these days becoming.....

BizzyC

I quite like the look of this approach.

My main concern with Creative Assembly taking the project was their lack of experience at FPS, but they are a crowd who'll take the historical content and lore of Aliens seriously.

With the scope of gameplay made simpler, they can really focus on the atmosphere and experience.

If this fails, I think Sega will have to give up on the franchise altogether.

Ri_Nollaig

looks like the alien game I always wanted!

But if the recent alien games AND the recent release from CA is anything to go by

McSasquatch

I have to admit, I do like the approach CA are taking with this i.e. atmospheric survival rather than all out action. Whether or not that translates into a good game remains to be scene.

Shiminay

Please, please, please don't pre-order this. No lessons will be learned if people blindly pre-order yet another Aliens game and they deliver the same level of horse sht as the last one.