Posted Thu Mar 27, 2014 at 08:47 AM PDT by Brian Hoss
Soundtrack notes, light bar info, difficulty and more.
Sega continues to stoke the fire for Creative Assembly's 'Alien: Isolation,' and this time around the information covers a wide range of game aspects. Not only is the game being made with a loud prejudice against the infamous 'Aliens: Colonial Marines,' the team has taken it a step further by focusing on the first 'Alien' film at the exclusion of all other 'Alien' films, games, etc. The other major influence referenced is the survival horror genre of games.
From Creative Lead, Alistair Hope,
"From the start we wanted to make a game that took the player back to the roots of the series — back to Ridley Scott’s haunted house in space. To take the values of the original film but tell a new story, featuring a new underpowered and underprepared character facing overwhelming odds... Our key influence was the original film, but I think it would be fair to say that we’re all big survival horror fans, so our reference points are various and many. From Sega’s own Condemned with its shockingly brutal combat, to older games like the Clock Tower series with its totally underpowered main character forced to hide from the stalking horror... We really wanted to place our story as close as possible to the events of the original film."
This infatuation with the first film has had a major impact on the technology portrayed in the game and the gameplay systems. "Immersion is a critical component of Alien: Isolation, and that extends to the user interface, too... early on we set ourselves the constraint that we would only use reference materials from before 1979. That means the in-world technology in the game is this great lo-fi / sci-fi, push-button tech that’s clunky, glitchy and imperfect."
"We also adopted some of the technology of the era. Filming game content onto VHS tapes, before playing it back on old standard definition CRT televisions and capturing the result. We then take this new 70s recording of the content and put it back into the game giving us a really unique and authentic look and feel to the user interface."
For the PS4 version, the team has been working with the controller's light bar, setting it "to mirror the signal on the motion tracker... increasing in frequency as the Alien approaches."
The message continues to be that the Alien in the game is not a mess of scripting, but an actual A.I. whose actions vary and adapt. "Our Alien is dynamic and reactive — it doesn’t run under pre-prescribed paths or scripts. Instead, it uses its senses to hunt the player down. It reacts to the player’s actions and movements. For example: the player can sprint. This obviously allows the player to move through the world faster, but running also generates a lot of noise and that will attract the Alien to the player’s presence."
"Likewise, the space station the game takes place on is damaged and broken in places, leaving areas in darkness. The player obtains a flashlight to illuminate the world but again, this also acts as a beacon to the Alien, giving away their position. The player must weigh up the risks of every action and be prepared to react and change plans in an instant."
"Alongside being dynamic, the Alien also adjusts its behavior based on the player’s choices. As the player develops certain abilities through the game, so too will the Alien change its tactics in response. For example, the more you use an item or device, the less effective it will be as the Alien adapts its behavior."
'Alien: Isolation,' is tracking for a fall 2014 release for the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360, and PC.
You can find the latest info on 'Alien: Isolation' linked from our Video Game Release Schedule.
Source: PlayStation Blog
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