When Alien: Isolation was first revealed on the Xbox Games Store, it was listed as featuring online multiplayer and co-op. However, it now seems that was a mistake, as it has been announced that the game will be single-player only.
We detailed the problems we thought a survival horror game with the word isolation in its title would face with allowing you to experience it alongside your friends, and it seems that developer Creative Assembly are on our wavelength.
Speaking to RPS, creative lead Al Hope said: “It’s very much about a single player experience. We did think about [multiplayer], it’s not like we never considered it – and we had some pretty neat ideas around that. But for us the focus always was that single player experience. And I think because you have this dynamic Alien and it’s about the player’s choices while they play it, it does mean that you can go back and try different stuff out. So I think there is a lot of scope to have players go back and do things differently.”
Lead UI art and design Jon McKellan agreed with Hope, saying: “I think that as soon as you up the amount of humans then you’re no longer as ‘outnumbered’.
“You know, if you had two or three humans facing up against one alien it’s a completely different experience where you’re working together to overcome it rather than just trying to survive. It just felt better to leave it single player.”
We’re glad to hear it. We’ve played enough Aliens games to know that increasing the number of players does nothing but lessen the scares, so we’re excited to see a game based on the film franchise that forces us to go solo.
