Alien: Isolation devs ‘not distracted’ by Colonial Marines flop

So SEGA today revealed Alien: Isolation, a new game based on the Alien(s) movie franchise. Before even looking at the new game, you could hear the grumbling; after all, the last SEGA published game based on the franchised wasn't anything to write home about. In fact, Gearbox' Aliens: Colonial Marines, while hyped in previews, was a major flop upon release. So it's easy to understand the hesitation when looking at Alien: Isolation. At the very least, you hope the developers at The Creative Assembly were paying attention to the events that unfolded.

Now to Creative Assembly's credit, they've been working on Isolation for more than three years now. The vision for this game existed long before critics and fans slammed Colonial Marines for its many disappointments. The comparisons may or may not be warranted, but they will be made regardless. To that end, here's what a few of the developers had to say when asked if the reaction to Colonial Marines affected their work on Isolation.

"To be honest, we didn’t let ourselves get distracted by anything exterior,” creative lead Alistair Hope told Destructoid. UI lead John McKellan added, "but at the same time, we're so completely immersed in everything pertaining to Alien, we couldn't help but keep up."

"Commenters would say that they want an Alien game in line with Ridley Scott’s movie," McKellan said, "and it was so hard not to post ‘that’s what we’re doing!’”

On the plus side, it appears Isolation has a totally different approach towards the franchise, opting for the more survival-horror feel of Ridley Scott's 1979 film rather than James Cameron's action blockbuster sequel, Aliens, that followed in 1986. One of the biggest criticisms of Colonial Marines was the dumbing down of xenomorphs; rather than lurking in shadows, they would openly run at you with awkwardly stiff animations. There was simply no fear. Thankfully, that doesn't appear to be the case with Alien: Isolation.

It'll certainly be interesting moving forward to see how fans react to the Alien: Isolation news and announcements and whether skepticism will ease as we learn more about the game.