I’m glad Alien Isolation 2 will be a sequel instead of a remake, proving that survival horror has a future beyond rehashing its past

Opinion | Alien Isolation 2 has the opportunity to achieve what the original fell short of

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

The survival horror renaissance is alive and well in 2024, and the latest proof is the fact thatAlien: Isolation 2 is currently in “early development”. Creative Assembly’s modern cult classic is still a terrifying force to be reckoned with, its heart-pounding concoction of claustrophobic cat-and-mouse in an abandoned spacecraft proving prime nightmare fodder even a decade on. If the original Dead Space (and System Shock, to an extent) set the scene for deep space horror to take off, Alien: Isolation took those blueprints and bolted with them.

With the current trends leaning toward remake upon remake of thebest survival horror gamesof yore, though, it’s a relief that Creative Assembly is doing something different. Instead of rebuilding the 2014 original, fans are to be treated to a full-blown Alien: Isolation sequel – and hot on the heels of this summer’s box office hitAlien: Romulus, the announcement couldn’t have been timed better. There’s not much else to go on just yet, but the raucously positive response from the horror community indicates to me that the genre might not be as stuck in the past as I’d feared.

Ellen Ripley’s believe it or not

Alien: Romulus director explains his new film’s big Alien: Isolation Easter egg

You and I might consider Alien: Isolation to be a legendary survival horror game, but it didn’t start off that way. That’s because while critical reception seemed strong enough, with GamesRadar+ giving it a solid score in ourAlien: Isolation review, it seemed a vast majority of mainstream gamers just weren’t hungering for horror the way they are now. Let’s Play content onYouTubeallowed many to experience the terror without having to take part themselves, and what’s more, it was the year of Far Cry 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Dark Souls 2 to name a handful of 2014’s superstars. With no shortage of games on the table for players to devour, Alien: Isolation would slink into the shadows, finding success in a passionate niche of the community instead of the bottom line.

Today, the landscape looks a little different. True, horror is still not the biggest genre in the industry, but its fans have grown louder as the community swells with each passing year. One large, Tyrant-shaped reason for the sudden increased appetite? You can thank the litany of remakes over the past five years. Leon and Claire returned to our screens inCapcom’sResident Evil 2 Remakein 2019, and suddenly, it seemed that atmospheric, nostalgic, run-and-gun horror games were cool again. You only need to look atSilent Hill 2’s immense critical and public success this month, despite years of wariness from its dedicated fanbase, or Motive’s thrillingDead Space remakeback in early 2023, to see the trend for yourself. Thehorror remake renaissancehas been upon us for years now. That much is clearer than the starry skies above Raccoon City.

But Creative Assembly isn’t following that herd in particular. Rather, it’s doing anAlan Wake 2and promising to deliver a brand new terrifying adventure, building on its legacy rather than reconstructing it piece by piece. In a world where new horror IPs are hard to come by in the world of video games, I’ll take it.

There’s something special about a long overdue sequel that broadens appeal tenfold. Drawing in fans of the original is one way, sure, but more importantly, these sequels offer an entry point for new players to get on board too. With enough time having passed since the previous game, there’s enough room for developers to rehash, revise, or reinvent a series in a sequel to ensure the new entry feels relevant to modern audiences. I might be alluding to Alan Wake 2 here – specifically, itsmusical means of recapping eventsfor new players and those with fuzzy memories alike – but this isn’t something we only see in horror. TakeDragon Age: The Veilguard, for example, and howBioware’s confirmation thatonly a few player choices will be carried acrossfrom Inquisition effectively positions the game as a great place to start for newbies. If Alien: Isolation 2 plays its cards just right, opening up the field to temper the familiar with the novel, it could end up being a horror game for the many instead of the few.

That said, working with a blockbuster Hollywood IP like Alien indicates a level of assumed knowledge on the player’s part. Having even a basic grasp of the context, lore, and events of the Alien movies might be helpful, but it shouldn’t be a barrier. The inclusivity of the horror community has always been its biggest strength, and when the time comes that we learn more about Alien: Isolation 2, I’m hoping to see more of that welcoming spirit as we take on the xenomorphs again – or perhaps something else? – more than a decade later.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

There are plenty ofupcoming horror gamesto jot down as well as Alien: Isolation 2, from Directive 8020 toDying Light: The Beast.

Jasmine is a staff writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London in 2017, her passion for entertainment writing has taken her from reviewing underground concerts to blogging about the intersection between horror movies and browser games. Having made the career jump from TV broadcast operations to video games journalism during the pandemic, she cut her teeth as a freelance writer with TheGamer, Gamezo, and Tech Radar Gaming before accepting a full-time role here at GamesRadar. Whether Jasmine is researching the latest in gaming litigation for a news piece, writing how-to guides for The Sims 4, or extolling the necessity of a Resident Evil: CODE Veronica remake, you’ll probably find her listening to metalcore at the same time.

The genuinely scary demo for this PS1-style survival horror game is like Silent Hill mixed with FromSoftware dungeon crawlers and it’s worth canceling your Halloween plans for

Why Silent Hill 2 Remake’s Toluca Prison is even more terrifying than the original

Millions of Fortnite players watch Snoop Dogg and Ice Spice livestream a concert as part of a rap-themed Chapter 2 Remix that includes Eminem and a tribute to Juice WRLD