The Alien is one of the greatest monsters of all time. It is scary on a physical and psychological level; a creature that works both as just a straight up cool monster and as a representation of our fears of sexuality and bodily functions. Within the many sequels, spinoffs, comic books, and video games, it has seen many interpretations. The most popular by far is James Camerons, which saw them as basically space termites. They structured their society like a hive, with one queen directing thousands of soldiers in the pure biological drive to spread and reproduce. Since Aliens is the most popular film in the franchise, this is not surprising. As a result, almost all future creative material followed the Aliens model, especially video games. Some may disagree, but while Camerons interpretation worked in his film, its popularity has been detrimental to the image of the Alien. In the first film, the Alien is so deadly that only one is enough to wipe out an entire crew. Yes, they were mostly unarmed, but it was smart and knew how to use the environment to its advantage. As Ash says, it is the perfect organism. Then Aliens reveals that they are actually dumb space bugs directed by the more intelligent queen. It makes sense that video games would embrace this interpretation of the Alien, as it integrates well with video game design. It has given game developers the ability to populate their games with a variety of enemies for the player to kill, which fits best in the first-person shooter genre, of which there has been countless featuring the Alien. However, the downside of this is that the Alien is no longer scary, or at the very least isnt as scary as it could be. They become cannon fodder. Aliens: Colonial Marines is the most egregious example by far, with the creatures being so weak and stupid it would be comical if it werent so offensive. For an Alien fan, Isolation, in concept, is a dream game preciously because there will only be one Alien throughout the entire game. Thats right, one Alien. Taking inspiration from the first film, Isolation will see you navigating a labyrinthine environment while being stalked by a single deadly Alien. And make no mistake, this is the originalAlien. The developers have modeled it after H.R. Gigers original psycho-sexual killer, not any of the other films' designs, as most games do. And in an inspiring bit of design work, the Alien AI will apparently operate on a sensory system of interaction, allowing for dynamic and nuanced behavior, thus making the creature feel truly alive and menacing through its ability to adapt to your actions. This will hopefully make each new encounter with it more difficult, as you wont be able to just watch its predetermined behavior long enough to learn its patterns and evade properly. Instead, youll have to rely on strategic thinking and split-second decision making to advance. The game will be an intense cat and mouse chase between you and the Alien in a dark and creepy space station, which is awesome in its simplicity. From this news alone, the Alien looks to finally return to its horror roots. You cant kill it, all you can do is pray it doesnt find you.
