Alien: Isolation 2 Will Stay True to Pure Survival Horror, Creative Director Confirms

Alien: Isolation 2 is set to launch in 2027, and it's ready to remind you why xenomorphs are the stuff of nightmares. At the Lucca Comics and Games Festival, IGN sat down with creative director Al Hope to discuss the core vision behind the sci-fi sequel and why the team is committed to the survival horror genre.

"We feel like there's still so much to mine or tap into in the universe of that first movie," he said. "We feel like in Alien: Isolation 2, the promise is about transporting you back to that time and place, that window of the timeline where just one alien can be absolutely terrifying and an incredible challenge, an incredible experience."

The original Alien: Isolation, released in 2014, starred engineer Amanda Ripley (daughter of Ellen Ripley) as she searched for clues about her mother's disappearance on the space station Sevastopol. We've already heard Andrea Deck, Ripley's voice actor, during a press demo for the sequel, but Hope emphasized that Alien: Isolation 2 is very focused on its new protagonist.

"We're really proud of Amanda, but to be clear, you're playing as a new character in Isolation 2... She works for the company; she hasn't encountered the creature before. And so yeah, I guess we're super excited about Blake."

We already know a little about Blake. She's a manager at Weyland-Yutani and has just arrived on planet LV-921 in search of the lab that was jettisoned from Sevastopol Station by Amanda Ripley, complete with a xenomorph hanging around inside.

You can read the full interview with Creative Director Al Hope and Project Art Director Ana Sopikova here, where we also talk xenomorph design, seeing the first game's save stations appear in Alien: Romulus, and whether or not the games are now part of the official Alien canon.