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The Perfect Organism: The AI of Alien: Isolation
The xenomorph AI in Alien: Isolation set the benchmark for antagonists in horror games. I take a look at the AI techniques used and the design choices made to maintain the terror throughout the campaign experience.
This article is an edited transcript of the AI and Games YouTube video linked to above. AI and Games is a crowdfunded series on Patreon.
One of the biggest AI-driven titles of modern times, Alien: Isolation brings the terror of the xenomorph to video games. While the alien, LV-426 and many other key elements of the franchise have previously been explored, Alien: Isolation takes a different route. A horror game steeped in the aesthetic and style of Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 movie: in which the player is trapped on the Sevastopol space station with a single, intelligent, near-invincible alien. For this experience to play out as expected, the alien itself has to carry a large amount of the experience: a demanding feat for any AI in an industry in which non-player characters are either heavily scripted or suffer really short life spans.
So how did developers Creative Assembly pull it off? The short answer is through tried and tested AI techniques, designed in a manner that breaks from many traditional game-design concepts.
The Design of the Xenomorph
The team behind Alien: Isolation