The sequel to the critically acclaimed horror title Alien: Isolation, appropriately dubbed Alien: Isolation 2, was announced over the weekend. As for whether fans should expect more of what we saw in the first game, however, creative director Al Hope has said that developer Creative Assembly has larger ambitions with the sequel. Speaking to Xbox Wire, Hope said that the studio wants to “expand and evolve beyond what we did in the first game.”
One of the biggest changes in Alien: Isolation 2, when compared to its predecessor, is the fact that it will take players planetside rather than keeping them confined to a spaceship. This, Hope said, opened the door for the studio to explore how it could tell an entirely new story. However, he also confirmed that this new story would still be “closely connected” with the first Alien: Isolation.
“Coming out of the tin-can-in-space experience into a new world, onto our planet’s surface, and really opening the canvas and telling a new story – which is still really closely connected to the first game,” he said. “Having this new outpost, Kurosaki Station, that we could bring to life, which would have those claustrophobic interiors where the player feels trapped – and is super familiar to anyone who’s played the first game – but now also allows us to have these hostile exteriors that you’re going to be hunted in.”
Alien: Isolation was highly praised for its effective use of audio, and Hope has noted that this aspect remains one that the studio is highly focused on. He described audio design as being a great shortcut to make players feel tension and fright. This, along with the concept of an “information war” – essentially the difference between what the player knows and what their enemy might know – will play a key role in making Alien: Isolation 2 a frightening experience.
“Audio is half the experience,” explained Hope. “It’s such a massive component of any horror experience, but for us, it’s enormous. It’s kind of our shortcut to helping steer how you’re feeling and thinking; a shortcut to your brain. One of the other ways we think about the Isolation experience is like an information war – what do I know versus what the enemy knows? And then you have all these modifiers that play with that to either enhance it or take it away. And weather is this great disruptor for all those bits of information. We’ve got so many ways we can have weather influence the experience. It really kind of gives us a really definitive way of expanding the core Isolation experience.”
Alien: Isolation 2 will be a first-person horror game. Taking place a few months after the events of the first Alien: Isolation, the title will also feature a brand-new protagonist in the form of Weyland-Yutani employee Blake. While not too many other details about Alien: Isolation 2 have been revealed yet, the game’s reveal trailer did confirm that there will once again be a Xenomorph that players will have to hide from and sneak around.
Alien: Isolation 2 is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
