Ask any snake oil salesman – It’s easier to sell a thing that is there than isn’t. That’s the problem any developer of a Proper Alien Game is faced with. They know an amateur blows their load by throwing a gaggle of green monsters at the player within the first 40 minutes of the game’s opening – so want to communicate an encouraging lack of Alien in a 140 second trailer. The question: what to show in the slimy chap’s stead?
The answer: ‘70s PCs.
Oop, there’s one at the end. Just the one, you understand – Isolation features a singular green giant, and “plays sort of like Amnesia in space”. Read our Steve’s hands on with Alien for more on that.
We put Alien: Isolation on our list of the most important PC games of 2014 for a reason. If it doesn’t work, in the smelly wake of Colonial Marines and the absence of a half-decent film sequel this side of the Millenium, Isolation has the very real potential to sink the franchise to vent-level – where it can join Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg at the bottom of Sega’s property pile.
If it does work, under a new shooter team at Creative Assembly, who haven’t exactly shown their best side lately – it’ll be the most explosive comeback since Take That. Who doesn’t want to see that?