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.