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Could the Alien in ‘Alien: Isolation’ Be Too Smart?
SEGA has been showing off Alien: Isolation quite a bit since its reveal back in January and, from everything I’ve seen, read and heard, it sounds like the game is shaping up nicely. It looks terrifying, and more than that, it has the potential to be the redemption the franchise needs after the abysmal Colonial Marines — and, let’s face it, pretty much every Aliens game before that.
One of the features developer Creative Assembly is really pushing is the alien, a lone xenomorph that will be hunting poor Amanda Ripley for a significant portion of the game. They’ve clearly invested quite a bit of time into making sure this alien won’t be used for target practice, as its brethren have in previous Aliens games.
This guy is unpredictable, a real threat that actually comes off as intelligent, thanks to its ability to make decisions and react on the fly.
In an interview with Edge, Alien: Isolation back in February, creative lead Alistair Hope went into detail regarding how they’re making the alien so complex and cunning. “The alien is systemic across the board. We can just drop the alien into an area and see how it behaves. It knows when it sees something and it knows when it just suspects something.”
According to Hope, the alien can learn and adapt. It can seek you out when you hide, even when you’re in the assumed safety of a ventilation duct.
“You might hide in a vent,” Hope continued, “but the alien can come in there with you. That’s a massive moment in our game. You realise you’re not safe anywhere. But when the alien is hunting you, he doesn’t hear your position, he hears the noises from the vent. So he goes to the mouth of the vent to investigate.”
That sounds great, until you look at it as an antagonist in a video game. The potential problem here is that encounters with this big baddie could get frustrating. When it finds you, you’re dead. In most cases, your only option will be to run. If you’re not fast enough, you’re dead. If you’re not quiet enough, you’re dead again. Not resourceful enough? Dead. Not aware enough of your surroundings? Dead.
I’ve considered the possibility that this could become an issue since Creative Assembly first started talking about how unpredictable and advanced their alien’s AI is, but it wasn’t until I started reading previews of the game where I realized that my fears started to see fruition. Most people’s reactions, whether they’re in the press or your average gamer, have been largely positive. The exception is many of them mention the ridiculous difficulty that is trying to survive when you’re alone and hunted by this particularly cunning hunter.
Like I said, I haven’t played Alien: Isolation and seeing as it’s still a few months off, I’m sure Creative Assembly is still working on balancing and fine-tuning the experience. I only wanted to bring this up to start a discussion and see what you think. Is this something you think could lead to frustration, or are you excited to finally have an alien adversary that’s also a worthy opponent?
Also, if you’re going to attend this year’s Comic Con, you’ll have the chance to play Alien: Isolation — in a sweet alien egg pod — and possibly get a feel for just how capable a hunter this alien is. If you do, don’t forget to return here to share your thoughts with us.
Alien: Isolation is scheduled to release on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 7.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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