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Alien Isolation will be accommodating to pacifists: you don’t need to kill a thing

alien isolation creative assembly

Everyone got a little touchy when it was revealed that there would be guns in Alien Isolation. This is, afterall, based on Ridley Scott’s horror masterpiece and not James Cameron’s more explosive action flick, and so caution should be at the heart of the action. Thankfully our Steve reported that the guns don’t spoil the game at all, but if you’re still worried listen up: you can get through Isolation without harming a soul, synthetic or otherwise. 

Talking to gamesTM, Lead Designer on Alien Isolation Gary Napper said: “You can get through the entire game without killing someone. It’s something that was, not so much a challenge, but something I felt was what the character would do,”

“We’re talking about a member of the Ripley family—they’re not like characters in games that gun down civilians because they’re in the way to get to the switch.”

If you can resist the temptation of blasting a hole in someone’s face to make a quick and messy escape, you can indeed remain as true as you want to the core Amnesia-style horror of Alien Isolation. It’s what Ripley would have wanted. Of course, stepping the path of the pacifist means that when you inevitably have to revisit an area, those people/robots/creatures will pose a threat once more. But even if you do opt to blow the opposition away, the game’s adversaries can move around and make a once-cleared area their home.

“As you progress through the station and unlock more areas you can always go back to the areas you’ve been through,” explained Napper. “A big part of that was making sure that when you go back there’s still things going on, so it didn’t feel like ‘I’ve done this area, I’ll be fine’ – the alien can actually be anywhere… It’s very much a Metroidvania style of unlocking things.”

Thanks, PC Gamer.