Alien: Isolation 2 – A Sequel's Sisyphean Task!
Alien: Isolation 2 – A Tall Order After a Decade!
Get ready for some seriously exciting news, Alien fans! After a whole decade, we finally get news: Alien: Isolation 2 is coming. This announcement also happened recently, mere months after Alien: Romulus—another stellar entry—had major critical and box office success! The similarities in these releases are notable; showing how well those specific plots, styles, and aspects really were for modern audiences and what these projects truly needed.
Alien: Isolation totally nailed the vibe; this critically-acclaimed title kept the story incredibly focused, mostly following the events of the original Alien movie. The daughter of the iconic Ellen Ripley— Amanda is thrust into an insane situation within that claustrophobic space station and pursued relentlessly by a relentless, menacing Xenomorph; that is pure horror, pure suspense. Alien: Isolation's plot is very similar to the original film's storyline – a solitary protagonist utilizing resourcefulness to fend off a Xenomorph and in the case of the game— the ultimate confrontation to kill it before escaping!
A Sequel's Biggest Problem: One Xenomorph or a Xenomorph Horde?
This is an impossibly difficult problem. The challenge? Where exactly do you go from here? Amanda Ripley has already encountered that super-creepy Xenomorph—and destroyed its nest! The original game's brilliance centered around the awesome Xenomorph AI: relentless, improving as Amanda played, learning her habits and truly mastering those specific hunt-and-avoid mechanics within that very limited space—pure terror!
So, here's that near-impossible decision: One awesome Xenomorph (just like Alien: Romulus)? Or, multiple Xenomorphs in those hordes of intense battles as depicted in Aliens? A multitude would cheapen Alien: Isolation's signature dread—which makes this almost an unsolvable dilemma— and is completely unnecessary. Doing one Xenomorph might be similarly impossible: doing only one is a hard task and could really never duplicate the level of gameplay mastery found within that incredible Alien: Isolation!
Alien: Isolation – Already Perfect?!
Can you actually top perfection? Many might say Alien: Isolation already is the perfect Alien game! That insane Xenomorph AI, the atmospheric perfection of a decaying, eighties-era space station – this made many aspects that simply cannot be replicated easily. Its level of detailed, thoughtful, design would truly take a supremely skilled and creative individual to surpass. Even that aesthetic detail was absolutely perfect, even a decade after this highly-lauded game came out. This would seem impossible, really, and many agree it could only have come into existence this once. This incredibly successful masterpiece of suspense; could this truly ever be matched?
Can a Sequel Survive the Shadow of Its Predecessor?
This is impossibly difficult; no other option. No matter what; creating an improvement means having something superior in most every aspect. However, that is actually possible, folks. That Alien: Isolation sequel already has huge opportunities given the recent success of Alien: Romulus—renewing interest in those Xenomorph adventures; making those gameplay opportunities become more apparent in modern game design. So getting better graphics and gameplay is likely! It may easily become one of the best video game sequels ever created!
Conclusion: A Scary Challenge with Massive Potential!
An Alien: Isolation sequel's massive challenge comes from needing to improve upon greatness, an established title, especially with its incredible AI. The storyline options seem really limited; which means that developers must have serious thought involved into every decision, including environmental aspects. Even choosing a different storyline could mean major difficulties and might fail as they attempt to surpass that well-crafted predecessor and might not necessarily be well-received, unlike what happened after Alien: Romulus’s recent release!
Yet those same challenges could yield an amazing result! New tech can mean insane improvements to that suspenseful experience that will be incredibly well-received by audiences and fans everywhere. A really interesting experience remains to be shown!
