The Alien has had quite a rough time throughout its now over 30 year career. The creature made a huge impact on the world with the release of Ridley Scotts sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien in 1979. Not only did it introduce audiences to one of the most terrifying and uniquely designed creatures ever created, but it influenced the aesthetics and atmosphere of countless science fiction films to come. The franchise continued to deliver cinematic excellence with the 1986 sequel Aliens, directed by the king of the world himself James Cameron. Aliens gave audiences a different experience, focusing more on intense action, while also exploring Ellen Ripley in a more personal way. The Alien franchise was on a roll at this point, ingraining itself into the public consciousness as one of the best science fiction franchises around. However, like many entertainment properties at the height of their creative and critical success, the Alien franchise began what would become an over decade long degradation in quality, starting with the 1993 release of Alien 3. Directed and eventually disowned by David Fincher, Alien 3 was a mediocre mess due to the studios incessant meddling. Still, it had some good ideas, and the assembly cut delivers a solid movie in itself (some even consider it misunderstood), while giving Ripley a definitive and satisfying ending. Unwilling to let the franchise die, Alien: Resurrection was released in 1997, and while some consider it an improvement over Alien 3, it is by no means a good entry in the series. Finally, the god awful AVP films only threw more dirt on the increasingly deep coffin of the Alien franchise. Oddly enough, the franchise followed a similar path on the video game side of things. In its early days, there were many solid video game releases featuring the Alien. In particular, the Alien versus Predator series, starting on the Atari Jaguar and eventually moving onto the PC, was able to give fans genuinely scary and intense gaming experiences. But over time Alien games became less frequent, until recently, when Sega acquired the rights. At this time theyve released two major games: Aliens vs. Predator in 2010 and Aliens: Colonial Marines last year. Aliens vs. Predator, while a decent game, fell short of expectations. And of course there is Colonial Marines, a disappointment of colossal magnitudes. Announced over 5 years ago, the game was delayed again and again, all with the promise of intense cooperative Aliens style action fitted around a quality story. Instead we got an incomplete, insipid, and all around terrible game in service to a fan fiction quality script. Fans and gamers felt cheated and lied to, and the result was arguably a new low for the Alien franchise. Enter Alien: Isolation. Wed been hearing whispers of a new Alien game for a while now, but it has finally been officially announced. Coming out later this year for PS4, PS3, Xbox one, Xbox 360, and PC, Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game being developed by Creative Assembly. Needless to say, as an Alien fan, I am very (yet cautiously) excited for this, as you should be too. In case you arent yet caught up to speed on this intriguing game, here are 5 reasons you should be excited for Alien: Isolation.
