All the way back in 2014, we had the great pleasure at being at an early preview at E3 of the original Alien: Isolation. We then in turn, named it our first Game of the Year in 2014. It was a gripping survival horror experience. One that forced you to make courageous choices in the face of impossible odds. Set in the legendary sci-fi universe, Alien: Isolation took a more intimate look at the terrifying xenomorph, forcing the player to find a way to survive while being constantly hunted by the ultimate apex predator. It was with great pleasure that we had the chance at Summer Game Fest Play Days this weekend to sit with Creative Assembly’s long in the works sequel Alien: Isolation 2. The SEGA area was set up where you had to head down a set of narrow stairs into a lower level. The lights were turned down way low, and the demo area was a hushed darkness as media settled into private pods to delve into the ominous, new title. If the game already wasn’t scary enough, this setting really drove the feeling home.
Much akin to many stories within the Alien film franchise, this story starts with the characters on another remote planet far from earth. A new main character is being driven by two subordinate employees to the local installation. The weather already hints at a massive storm incoming. In just a handful of seconds, they’re both confronted with a blinding white flash. After an earth-shaking boom, they quickly puzzle out that a derelict spacecraft has crashed nearby. Our new lead character orders her team to head towards it to investigate, even over their protests. In classic video game fashion, we learn the basics of running, crouching, turning on a flashlight and traversing the landscape. Herein was the only real failing in this demo experience. In our demo instructions, it was made abundantly clear that the “Alien” in the game could hear you, see you and smell you, so anything you do could be why he finds and kills you. So of course, we were cautiously inching along expecting the monster to appear at any second, when in fact, it becomes powerfully obvious he has arrived once he is present.
It is a testament to the James Cameron-esque design of the game, that it literally feels from the first minute the Alien might strike at any second. So we inched along, hunched over and patient heading towards this giant spaceship expecting imminent death. The ship’s internal power system was offline, so we had to find components to fix the local systems. It’s then when the ferocious Alien arrives with a giant thud from the ceiling. Different media has depicted the alien in a multitude of ways, but this presentation of the fearsome beast is almost ten feet tall, crazy strong and lightning fast. We huddled under a table as it stomped back and forth nearby, convinced prey was close. Each step it takes is a thunderous boom, boom, boom. The only silence is the moment it is clearly pondering how to vary its approach to the problem, and you hear the trademark acid-soaked snarl it emits. Eventually, you have no choice to just take a risk and pray you don’t make so much noise it hears you. We dropped into a ventilation duct and started inching along. But there’s no map. No real sense of direction. And within seconds, you’re traipsing through a flooded section. Your every move makes an unmistakable “slush slush,” and you’re sure you’ve already blown it. Eventually we found the way towards the ship exit heading back up to the main floor. But true to form, the Alien doesn’t just stay pacing around the original entry point like the AI sentries of old from Metal Gear Solid or Horizon: Zero Dawn. It followed us out to the main hall. The cat-and-mouse effort continued as we tried to shuffle around a column avoiding it, but eventually it stopped as we kept moving and the only choice was to run.
We got, oh, a solid ten feet before a jagged, spear-like tail pierced right through our heart. No real surprise here, this is a nail-biting, fever-pitch pressure cooker where your heartrate and your anxiety will be put to a pulse-pounding test.