The GameOn Magazine - Free Special Editions Alien: Isolation Edition | Page 9

exactly like the ‘not quite 21st
century quality’ visual design of
the original film, for instance.
That’s a tenant taken directly
from the Total War team, and
it’s one that should serve the
game very well.

All in all, it’s exciting to see a
niche developer attempting to
break into the mainstream.
Total War is a fantastic
franchise with a large,

dedicated fanbase, but it’s
unlikely to ever attract the
audience that an Alien game
can muster. The build-up to
launch has got to be both a
nerve-racking and exciting time
for the devs, even more so than
for the legions of fans. But in
that build up, take a moment
to look back at the history of
The Creative Assembly and
appreciate all they’ve brought
to our industry so far - because
if Isolation is as good as it’s
shaping up to be, then the once
small studio could well become
one of the biggest and most
famous in the world. So long
as they keep making Total War,
that’s fine by us.

By Ryan Davies

ARTICLE

Of course, The Creative
Assembly hasn’t always been
the king of strategy. The studio
began to make a name for itself
as a sports game developer in
the early ‘90s and continued
to produce rugby, cricket and
football games up until the
release of Shogun: Total War
in 2000

(with the exception of one PS2
rugby title). What’s more, the
developer has also produced
a collection of action games
including the actually-prettygood Spartan: Total Warrior
and the more recent Viking:
Battle for Asgard. It was the
dismantled Viking team, in fact,
that formed the beginnings of
the Alien project and pitched it
to Sega. Long story short, the
team had plenty of experience
with non-strategy games even
before hiring a whole new staff
base.

9 // Alien: Isolation SE Magazine

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