Fan’s of Ridley Scotts 1979 SCI-Fi horror phenomena have been running rampant on the internet as of late with the announcement of the brand new Alien: Blackout. A survival horror game which will star Amanda Ripley, the protagonist of the amazing 2014 Alien Isolation. Yes, fans who have been waiting the past 5 years for a sequel might be a little upset to discover that the canonical sequel to the game won’t be on PC, Xbox, or PS4 but rather IOS and Android come January 24.
Official Alien: Blackout Reveal Trailer
The official description of Alien Blackout reads as follows: “Try to stay alive while trapped aboard a crippled Weyland-Yutani space station carrying a deadly Xenomorph as it tirelessly hunts you and the crew. Outsmart the perfect hunter by making perilous choices. Players must rely on the damaged controls of the space station or risk sacrificing crew members to avoid deadly contact, permanently altering the outcome of the game.”
The developers behind the latest installment in the Alien franchise, FoxNext, D3 Go, Theory Interactive, and Rival Games are offering fans seven levels to play through that tasks you with surviving against the deadliest species in the universe by “using only the station’s emergency systems,”. Players will make use of a holographic map, surveillance cameras, and the classic motion tracker to try and guide their crew to safety. Yes, it looks like one of the best Alien games ever made will have a Five Nights at Freddy’s rip off for a sequel.
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Okay, that might be going a bit too far but after the name Alien: Blackout was trademarked in November I think we were all hoping for a genuine sequel rather than a mobile game. Now there are some utterly fantastic mobile games out there but large franchises also have a tendency of driving their licenses into the ground with rushed out, micro-transaction filled fluff pieces which do not live up to fans expectations. Just look at the likes of Diablo Immortal or Command and Conquer Rivals. If done right Alien Blackout could be a nice addition to the franchise to tie fans over but if they mess this up they will burn what fans haven’t already condemned this game. However, fans of Alien: Isolation and Amanda Ripley do not threat because it appears her story won’t end here.
The apparent tag line for the franchise, at least for the near future is “Read. Play. Watch.” with the official Alien Twitter account being particularly vocal on the “WATCH” part. I would expect Amanda’s story to continue in maybe a comic run or even a graphic novel of some kind, and as for the “play”, well we still have an Alien shooter being developed by Cold Iron Studios which was set to reveal at last years Game Awards but never turned up.
Ultimately there still seems to be plenty install for the Alien franchise in the future but leading with an announcement for a mobile game nobody wanted was a poor decision and has already lead to many fans giving up on the game before it’s even had a chance. We’ll just have to wait for Jan 24 to see how worthy of the Alien title, Alien: Blackout really is.
