00:09So I played 20 minutes of Alien Isolation 2 today with a story that features a new playable character, a
00:17setting in a place that I don't think I've ever seen in an alien story before, and an alien xenomorph
00:23that is as terrifying as I remember.
00:31So Amanda Ripley, who was the character in the first Alien Isolation game, she is referenced initially in Alien Isolation
00:392, but you don't play as her anymore, which I find really interesting because we're kind of left wondering what
00:44happened to her.
00:45Here she is narrating the intro, the apparent intro to Alien Isolation 2, but then we're not playing as her
00:52anymore, we're playing as a new character who's named Blake, she's with two other people, and they're investigating a derelict
00:58ship, which is, you know, classic alien story bait, of course.
01:07What I really like about the setup to this, besides the fact that Amanda may or may not be out
01:12there, I kind of feel like we'll see her later, but for now, she's a fun mystery.
01:17But the mystery that I like even better than that is that the ship that you find, your co-workers,
01:24I guess they are, talk about how they don't recognize it at all, they don't even want to enter it,
01:28which, as we know from the Alien movies, is pretty smart to not behave too hastily.
01:32To them, they've never seen this type of ship before. I think they are hinting to me as the player
01:38that this ship should be familiar. Frankly, it's been over a decade, it's not all that familiar to me.
01:44But I find myself pulled into that mystery of, who are these new people? Why are they there in the
01:49first place? Because when they find this ship, this is them going off-mission, essentially.
01:53You know, is this related to Amanda? How quickly will we see her again? What kind of state is she
01:58in when we find her? If we find her?
02:01Again, I think we'll probably find her. I don't think they just brought her back for the narration at the
02:04beginning, but it's all very interesting to me.
02:07I didn't learn a ton about who Blake is yet as the main character. I kind of have a theory
02:12that maybe Blake dies quickly and we switch to Amanda.
02:16That's totally based on nothing. I just feel like that'd be kind of a clever intro for the game. We'll
02:20see if I get that right or not.
02:21I'm also really intrigued by the setting for this, at least in the setup. I don't know where it's going
02:26to go. The first game was pretty long. Some people actually thought it was over long.
02:30Where it starts is really interesting. You actually end up in the woods, as we saw in the trailer a
02:35little bit.
02:36I just really like that because other than some weird vines that wrap around the trees, it kind of just
02:43looks like trees on Earth.
02:44I'm not saying it is on Earth. I'm quite sure it isn't.
02:47But it was just very weird for an Alien game to start me in the woods, walking through these misty,
02:53moonlit trees, and immediately you don't know if you're safe or not in that environment.
03:01It was just a really different place to see an Alien game set.
03:05I hope, because eventually my demo threw me into a ship that was more familiar and was built on that
03:11retro-futuristic tech that we know and tie to the series so much.
03:15I hope we get to spend more time in the woods, or even just any other places that feel fresh.
03:21To me, that's a good way to get us back, but also to introduce us to something new, because it's
03:26been 12 years, they are playing off the old game, but they've got to think of new ways to get
03:31us invested in this, new ways to scare us.
03:34And I just think, to get us out of these, like, pale white ships, as cool as they are, as
03:39much as I love them, as iconic as they've been for 50 years now, I just think it would be
03:44really clever of them to bring us to some places that, not Alien Earth, not Alien any of the sequels,
03:50like, bring us to some place new.
03:52And right away, the intro to what I played today felt new.
03:56Of course, I shouldn't stop talking about Alien Isolation 2 without also talking about the Alien, the Xenomorph.
04:02The Alien in this game is as scary as I remember, and I say that very pointedly, because, one, yes,
04:12the Alien was very scary in the first game.
04:14I loved how it would go off script, you could never quite predict where it was going to be next.
04:20It would climb in the vents, it would climb above you, beneath you, it would react to every little screw
04:24-up you had, I love that, and all that is back.
04:27But, my demo was short enough that I'm still waiting to see if it's going beyond that, you know, I'd
04:34like, I'm hoping to talk to the team soon, I want to find out how the Alien's, like, AI pathing
04:39has been advanced in these 12 years, you know, because my guess is, they brought this back, and tech is
04:46going to allow it to be scarier.
04:48And I definitely was creeped out today.
04:50I died three times sneaking around to this thing, I didn't know my way around, and in the end, it
04:55was funny, I actually was overthinking so much, that the solution that was kind of right in front of me,
05:01I was, like, circumventing it.
05:03Because I was so scared, and I figured, like, I just had to get everything just right, or else I
05:07was going to die, and in fact, a couple times I did die, not realizing that the solution to my
05:11problems was, like, plainer than I was giving it credit for.
05:15I'm sure any devs behind me watching me were probably laughing, because they saw me essentially do half of the
05:22puzzle that I needed to get the heck out of there, and then I just kept walking into my death
05:26a couple times.
05:27But yes, the Alien is back, the Alien is unscripted again, I'm hoping that scripting is more advanced, I can't
05:33wait to play more.
05:34And that's what I saw of Alien Isolation 2 at Summer Game Fest 2026, for more on this scary upcoming
05:41horror game, head to GameSpot.com.
Comments