Creative Assembly is looking to capitalize in a genre where many developers seem to be fleeting with Alien: Isolation. Established franchises like Resident Evil and Dead Space have shifted away from their roots towards more action-oriented experiences, and Creative Assembly has called them out in a recent interview.
Speaking with Edge Online, the creative director behind Alien Isolation revealed that his team has taken valuable lessons from the error of marginalizing the original fan bases for games like Resident Evil and Dead Space. Alistair Hope contests that these games are just “a couple of degrees away from being Gears of War”. The hopes of higher profits through casting a wider net isn’t something they are trying to do with Alien: Isolation, apparently.
When speaking about Resident Evil and Dead Space, Hope says “But those franchises moved in a direction that isn’t… Well, I think that fans of those originals have been marginalised and sometimes it feels like these days they’re just a couple of degrees away from being Gears Of War. Cinematic set-pieces and loads of guns isn’t quite the ‘hiding in the cupboard’ experience I got in the old days of horror gaming. But that stuff has been embraced by the indie community who are producing these high fidelity games that are tense and atmospheric. It’s not often you get to do that in the triple-A space.”
There’s still a lot that needs to be seen from this game before we can anoint it the new king of survival horror, but looking to please this passionate community is a step in the right direction. Alien: Isolation is due out later this year for the Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
