ALIEN: BLACKOUT: A light from the darkness?

There’s only one thing to surface so far about the much-rumoured new Alien game now in the works and it’s this recent twitter clip from an official twitter account.

Amanda Ripley Returns: ‘Daughter. Rebel. Hero.’

Folk have said that it has nothing to do with Alien: Isolation, however the character of Amanda Ripley and the intriguingly dark title 'Blackout' seem fairly in-tune with the (infamous) former title. Having said that, no one is even sure yet if this clip has anything to do with the Alien: Blackout project.

Alien: Isolation was much more a thinking-person’s survival-horror ‘experience’ (and homage to the first Alien film) that some gamers - even - made it all the way through [brave souls!]. Remember you could even play a special level that re-enacted the final, harrowing scenes of Alien. 

So what might be the next Amanda Ripley 'story’? A return once more to the USCSS Nostromo, apparently ‘lost without a trace’ (from the first film, Alien) and what might this ‘secret’ be? Will it be another uncomfortable stealth-orientated game, or with more action and less... hiding... inside lockers?

For anyone still locked in a locker and innocent to what the Alien franchise is all about, and are not especially into horror, be sure to watch the ultimate (and most accessible) instalment of the franchise: James Cameron’s influential Aliens (1986, special edition). It pretty much set the standard for many science-fiction movies we see today, yet it used minimal CGI, if any.

We think that a good follow-up idea post-Isolation might be a dark FPS experience similar to this cult sci-fi classic, but with less emphasis on shooting and more just ramping up the tension and scale, and ditching multiplayer for a completely independent add-on later. I’m not sure if anyone has actually made such a really great movie-game adaptation yet.

(Marine 'motion tracker' from 'Aliens')

We’ll have to wait and see. Let’s hope there’s as much homage and attention to detail as in Sega's Alien: Isolation. It was certainly a game rich in atmosphere with flashes of design genius.

As a big fan of such attempts (not 'Colonial Marines' though) we here at Gaming Impact will keep locked and loaded and will be sure to return to you from the fray alongside Amanda Ripley and report close-quarters.

The xenomorph nightmares are not over since H.R. Giger laid down the first conceptual artwork (and now unleashed... they may never be!)