Alien: Isolation, one of the best horror games of the last decade, is getting its much-deserved sequel. Announced by creative director Al Hope in an X/Twitter post celebrating the influential title’s 10th anniversary, the long-coveted sequel is indeed very much real and currently in early development.
Taking place a good 15 years after the events of the original 1979 movie, Isolation puts players in the role of Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda, who ends up stranded on the decommissioned space station Sevastopol while searching for her mother – unfortunately for her, a deadly Xenomorph is also loose on the station. Not only did the game masterfully re-create the retro sci-fi look and feel of the original film, it also terrified me in a way few other titles could: the alien’s AI seems to almost smell your fear, and the nerve-rackingly tense moments of sneaking towards relative safety while hearing its booming footsteps in an adjacent room are absolutely unmatched. It’s a horror game that makes you feel genuinely vulnerable: almost no area during its pleasantly meaty campaign is completely safe; in fact, the alien can even kill you while you’re trying to save your progress at a save station. It’s a game I keep replaying every few years, and it’s still absolutely brilliant every single time.
Needless to say, I’m excited for the sequel.