De films zijn de geschiedenis ingegaan als heuse klassiekers. De games niet. De meeste games die de Alien-franchise droegen waren slecht en deden de serie geen eer aan. Ja, we kijken naar jou, Colonial Marines. Ook de ontwikkelaar achter Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly, is het hier mee eens. Volgens hen zijn ze begonnen met de game uit het oogpunt dat er nooit een goede Alien-titel is geweest die ze zelf wilde spelen. En dat wilde ze met Isolation even recht gaan zetten.
Volgens creative leader Alistair Hope is het probleem met eerdere titels duidelijk te zien. Deze vielen allemaal terug op James Cameron’s Aliens. Een film gevuld met actie. Voor Isolation grijpt Creative Assembly juist terug naar de eerste film van Ridley Scott, een film die de horror nog wat meer in zich had zitten.
Games in the past have looked at Jim Cameron’s second film, which was a Vietnam-in-space sort of thing. But we were massive fans of the first film. Then, with Sega having the Alien licence, we saw this as our opportunity. So a couple of us put together a tech demo in the space of about six weeks. It was mainly for us to work out what we are trying to do. But it became a mood piece, in which the climax was this enormous Alien coming down before the player. It was the wow moment we wanted to achieve, something truly unique. And thankfully everyone we showed it to agreed and got very excited.
The Alien is using its senses to look for you and listen for you, and responds accordingly. It’s different every time. One of the scariest things for us is when we build a new world and then put the Alien in it, because we don’t know what it is going to do. We wanted to deliver on that Ridley Scott Alien, that enormous, incredible creature that I was adamant would look down on the player and you couldn’t just sprint past – a monster that didn’t have to be a bullet sponge at the end of the barrel of your gun.
Horror does not have to fit in some statistical, genre box. Your first night in Minecraft, when you have built yourself a rudimentary shelter, it’s really dark and then suddenly there’s someone banging on your door. That’s pretty terrifying. Minecraft is arguably the most successful survival horror game of the last generation.
