Poor Creative Assembly. I feel for them, because they have a steep hill to climb with Alien: Isolation, and it’s all because Colonial Marines tried to ruin things by being awful. Apparently, past Aliens games aren’t the only thing causing problems, as the developer noticed an alarming number of players who simply didn’t understand the concept. It sounds as if some people went into the game — despite the myriad screens, developer diaries, and gameplay footage — expecting it to be a shooter, in the same vein as its predecessors.

Why anyone would want another game that’s anything like the last handful of Aliens games we’ve seen is entirely beyond me, but it’s now another hurdle Creative Assembly has to vanquish in their honorable, even admirable, attempt to bring fans the Aliens game we’ve wanted for years.

In a chat with OXM, Isolation creative lead Alistair Hope mentioned reactions from numerous players who didn’t quite understand what the game is about.

“I think what shocked us while seeing people play the announcement demo was the stories people came away with that were so alien to what the game was about,” Hope said. “People would come over and say there were no weapons in the game and no fire button and all you can do is run away from the Alien. The next question was, ‘well how would that last fifteen hours?’

“I remember thinking, ‘well, we definitely told people that there were weapons and we definitely said there was a melee weapon in that one.’ I was thinking about all the information we’d given people, but when people actually sat down and played the game they became so immersed in it they just took away exactly what they thought it was and told everybody.”

I’m not surprised players are hesitant to get excited for Isolation after the abysmal last game, I’ve even seen numerous comments here on Bloody Disgusting that mirror that hesitation. It’s understandable, I was too in the beginning. But this ignorance surrounding its core concept, which sometimes takes a path similar to other successful horror games like Outlast and Slender is a little odd to me. Occasionally, you will be unarmed and hunted by something that wants you dead, but the alien isn’t the only enemy in the game and there are weapons.

Hopefully Isolation’s PR team can find a way to educate fans, because so far, this game looks fantastic.

Alien: Isolation is scheduled to arrive on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 7.