When they’re chalking up the greatest games of this generation, my belief – though maybe it’s more of a hope – is that Alien: Isolation will find its place amongst the more predictable choices. A extended slice of slow-burn horror, and a smart piece of sci-fi, it’s one of the rare occasions when a licensed game matched up to the source material. For my money, it’s the single best Alien experience since the series’ 80s prime.
Forgive me, then, for getting a bit excited about Observation, because it’s what some of the team behind Alien: Isolation did next. Well, in a roundabout way it is, at least. Jon McKellan worked across various parts of that particular game for Creative Assembly – most notably on Isolation’s exquisite UI – and left shortly after its completion, taking on a short stint at Rockstar on Red Dead Redemption 2 before starting out on his own. McKellan had a killer idea for a sci-fi game, and so recruited his brother alongside a childhood friend to help create it as part of new studio No Code.
It’s not that straightforward, though – life never is – and while the contracts were being drawn up and settled for McKellan’s grand sci-fi idea the team filled its time with a small sketch of a game called The House Abandon. A horror-tinged text adventure, it proved successful enough to spin out a full-fledged game, Stories Untold, which itself went on to win a BAFTA last year. So you might call that a success, too.
Source: Eurogamer Observation is like an arthouse accompaniment to Alien: Isolation