Creative Assembly says Alien: Isolation 2's protagonist is a Yutani employee, which offers 'a new perspective to the franchise' — 'Weyland-Yutani is an English-Japanese speaking company, and the Japanese side doesn't really get explored that much' | Tech Radar
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Creative Assembly says Alien: Isolation 2's protagonist is a Yutani employee, which offers 'a new perspective to the franchise' — 'Weyland-Yutani is an English-Japanese speaking company, and the Japanese side doesn't really get explored that much'
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Creative Assembly says Alien: Isolation 2's protagonist will offer "a new perspective to the franchise"
Blake is a Weyland-Yutani employee, with principal environment artist Archie Whitehead saying the Japanese side hasn't been explored a lot
Principal UI artist Laura Mouther says Blake isn't like any other Alien protagonist and "is such an interesting character to explore"
Alien: Isolation 2 will offer a totally new perspective on the Alien franchise by telling a story from the viewpoint of Yutani employee Blake, and Creative Assembly believes players will love her.
Speaking to Tech Radar Gaming at Gamescom, principal environment artist Archie Whitehead and principal UI artist Laura Mouther discussed what they're most excited for players to experience in the upcoming sequel, highlighting the game's protagonist, Blake.
Blake works for Weyland-Yutani Corporation, a mega-conglomerate and the major human-led antagonist throughout the sci-fi series, but is employed specifically on the Yutani side of the company.
It's a viewpoint that hasn't been showcased during the horror franchise before, and something the developers were eager to explore in depth.
"Weyland-Yutani is an English-Japanese-speaking company, and it's something that the Japanese side, I feel like, doesn't really get explored that much," Whitehead said. "It's something we're trying to explore more here because Kurosaki, it's the name of the station [the game's setting] so I'm very interested for players to discover: 'How does that influence the world and the people living in it?'"
Alien: Isolation 2 artist says Creative Assembly has to 'recontextualize' things from the film that would 'be believable' in the game's outdoor setting, and it makes sense 'through the lens of someone from the 1970s'
Creative Assembly says Alien: Isolation 2's custom tech enabled a 'realistic' atmosphere Unreal Engine 5 couldn't — 'We felt that a custom solution would give us that perfect frame response that you want in that kind of really, really dark environment'
Players will need to 'think on their feet' in Alien: Isolation 2's new exterior environments, while the 'perfect hunter' xenomorph will also learn and 'adapt' how to track you down in the outdoors
Mouther added that Blake is "awesome" and "brings such a new perspective to the franchise in total," and her being an employee of this mega-corp will be a much different experience from the first game, where the character where average people.
"If you think back to the first game or even the first movie, it's truckers in space, right? It's average people doing average things," Mouther said. "They're not powerful. They're expendable. No one cares for them. They have to care for themselves.
"But now we have Blake, who is a very Weyland-Yutani employee, and that means that she has some power, right? But when you hear in the trailer that the Japanese voice is telling her, 'You made a mistake. This is your last chance.' She was sent to Kurosaki against her will, and she wants to do well. She wants to be there to redeem herself."
Talking more about the story, Mouther explained how characters in the prologue will talk to Blake with respect and "you can get a sense of her standing," but all Blake is focusing on is trying to redeem herself. That's why when she heads to the crash site and accidentally unleashes the Xenomorph onto the colony, she's made yet another mistake, which the developers said will make Blake an interesting character to play.
"That dichotomy, she is such an interesting character to explore," Mouther added. "And I think the players will really get to know her and love her in the journey; they will make out their own journey [as well]. We tell a larger story, obviously, but similar to the first game, every player will have their own way of telling the 'in-betweens' between that [main] story, and will be so interesting to see."
Alien: Isolation 2 doesn't have a release date yet but will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
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Demi is a freelance games journalist who helps cover gaming news at Tech Radar. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as Game Spot, NME, and Games Radar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.
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