2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the orginal Alien film. I had hoped for some pretty cool happenings surrounding the anniversary but I may have to bite my tongue on this one.
Here we go again. When the gaming industry is at one of its high points companies go and make strange decisions like this one. Alien Isolation was a fan-favorite video game released for PC and consoles back in 2014. The game was a horror-survival that followed Ripley’s daughter Amanda as she evades a xenomorph on a space station. The game is awesome and we patiently waited for more news regarding a sequel. We enjoyed Brian Wood’s Aliens: Defiance in which Amanda made a cameo. Then we heard that Amanda’s story would pick up again in an upcoming Dark Horse Comics series entitled Aliens: Resistance (also written by Brian Wood) hitting shops on January 23rd. Then the news of something new started popping up on social media, here’s what was teased on Twitter:
Daughter. Rebel. Hero. Her story deserves to be told…
#Whois #AmandaRipley #ReadPlayWatch #Daughter #Rebel #Hero pic.twitter.com/NMwdK60oGU— Alien (@AlienAnthology) January 5, 2019
40 years ago, the Nostromo disappeared… In 2019, Amanda Ripley will uncover the secrets it left behind — no matter what. #AmandaRipley #ReadPlayWatch #January pic.twitter.com/N5XybNB1Tj
— Alien (@AlienAnthology) January 5, 2019
So naturally it was a little exciting to see that perhaps we had a multimedia event upon us. Then I woke up to this today…
She thought she could run… she thought she could hide… Help #AmandaRipley fight off the Xenos in the new mobile game @AlienBlackout available January 24. #ReadPlayWatch pic.twitter.com/C6QIU3ayIX
— Alien (@AlienAnthology) January 7, 2019
Can you survive? All that matters is that you escape before THEY come out of the shadows… Preorder Alien: Blackout today.
Preorder App Store: https://t.co/K8L8PHy23G
Preorder Google Play: https://t.co/RScHVIvfR4 #ReadPlayWatch #AmandaRipley #AlienBlackout pic.twitter.com/72NmbzNwF4— Alien (@AlienAnthology) January 7, 2019
A mobile game. Listen I’m not going to sit here and complain fully about the world’s shift to mobile gaming. There are positives and negatives on both sides but my issue here is why? Why not make a console game? Maybe it has to do with FOX losing its assets to Disney or maybe it has to do with Creative Assembly not being involved. Who knows to be honest, but I feel that this is not living up to the full potential of what this game could be. Are companies just getting lazy to where they don’t want to spend the resources to make a game? Whatever the case may be there is no comparison to the feeling that you got when playing Isolation on a big screen in the dark. Tell me how we are going to emulate this? Maybe if I play on a tablet? Meh. In a day and age where geekdom reigns supreme we are more deserved of a proper gaming experience. The only positive I could see coming out of this is if they made it available on 3d devices so you could immerse yourself into the game. Mobile gaming works for some things but not for others and I wish that companies would discover this already.
Aliens: Blackout is due out on January 24th from D3 GO!, so check out the media surrounding it and you can also preorder it for your mobile devices here.
