Alien: Isolation

[Silva]

Can someone explain to me how the heck...

Spoiler

the nest appears in the reactor core out of tin air like that ? I mean, there is no Queen/Mother alien around to build it or to lay those eggs, right ?

Is this explained somewhere in the story ?

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Is this explained somewhere in the story ?

Not really. I didn't find all of the logs, but to my knowledge there's no proper explanation. The game ends, however, on a cliff hanger: the circumstances Ripley finds herself in as the credits role can't be how things end, given that the reference to her in Aliens states clearly that she dies of old age. In other words, they clearly have more story to tell, which may or may not explain what you find in the reactor core. There's been some speculation that the life-cycle hints suggested at in the deleted scene from Alien where Ripley finds the creature's nest are at work, but that's just speculation.

 

[Astral Rag]

Alien: Isolation's fifth DLC add-on The Trigger out today

Three new maps for use in classic Survivor mode, and new playable character Ricardo, Sevastopol Station's Deputy Marshall

Meh

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/238021/How_Creative_Assembly_Brought_Fear_To_Alien_Isolation.php

...

“If you're going to dedicate years of your life to creating something, make sure it's something that you care about,” he advised. “It may place a lot of strain on your team, but having a dream and a strong vision is crucial. Maintaining your confidence is difficult when attempting something different. But if you are successful in this, anything is possible.”

Aye.


And then there's this:

 

[DragoFireheart]

I am so glad they chose first person and not third.

 

[Outlander]

Yeah, it looks kind of... silly.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Yeah, it looks kind of... silly.

Being able to view the Alien while safely in cover completely changes the dynamic of the game. It removes much of the tension that I experienced.

 

[cherry blossom]

Can someone explain to me how the heck...

Spoiler

the nest appears in the reactor core out of tin air like that ? I mean, there is no Queen/Mother alien around to build it or to lay those eggs, right ?

Is this explained somewhere in the story ?

My first thought was that (spoilers for game & the Director's Cut version of the film)

Spoiler

they went with the bioengineering aspect of the Alien as seen in the deleted scene in Alien Director's Cut where Ripley finds Dallas, half-alive in the process of dissolving and turning into a cocoon who begs Ripley to kill him, and a dead Lambert Brett in the process of turning into an egg ("eggmorphing"). So I thought that Creative Assembly went with that explanation.

Thoughts: Honestly, the first time I saw that scene in Alien Director's Cut, I found it stupid and annoying merely out of habit and comfort; I had grown up with the idea of a Queen from Aliens. In time, however, I've come to appreciate that capability of the Alien, a self-sustaining killer and natural bioengineer, and the sheer horror of turning people, dead or alive, into cocoon and eggs while I came to find the very idea of a Queen sort of insulting, reducing the magnificent biomechanical killing machine that is Alien whose "structural perfection is matched only by its hostility" as Ash says, down to mere bugs with a buglike reproductive cycle and group behaviour. So I was very glad to see a reproductive cycle without a Queen in the game.

I still find that that deleted scene breaks the film's pace, though.

Read more about "eggmorphing" here with notes and anecdotes from people involved with the film:
https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/egg-morph/

HOWEVER, Gary Napper, Lead Designer for A:I at Creative Assembly said in an interview:

Spoiler

"We wanted to imply that a Queen was on board but it didn’t feel like facing off against a boss Alien Queen was very… “Alien”. We were caught in a riddle of, “If we show an Alien Queen, the player will expect to fight her” and “If we don’t show her, people will ask where the eggs come from”. In the end we figured it was best to preserve the suspense and mystery by not explicitly showing her."

So while it is not set in stone in game terms, we can pretty much assume that a queen was responsible for those eggs. If there will ever be a sequel, a queen will most likely be a part of it.

Huge disappointment imo. Then again, the game took a nose dive at the reactor.

Recently finished the game. Despite the repetition, I absolutely loved the slow-burn slow pace, up until the nose-dive the game took towards the end. I still liked the end sequence though, no matter how predictable.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First, it was Brett and not Lambert in that scene.

Second, the game took a nosedive just a little before that, when talking to APOLLO. The huge AI responsible for running an entire space station - interfaced from a keyboard in a room identical to the one onboard the Nostromo.

"Insulting" doesn't begin to explain how silly that is.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Most reviews actually say it takes a nosedive after you get the flamethrower. Most reviews are wrong though.

I didn't see any nosedive, it's a good game throughout. And then the worst ending since the Nintendo days ruins it.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Most reviews actually say it takes a nosedive after you get the flamethrower. Most reviews are wrong though.

I didn't see any nosedive, it's a good game throughout. And then the worst ending since the Nintendo days ruins it.

Agreed. Everything was great until the last scene, which didn't feel like an ending to me. It felt like an immediate precursor to an ending.

Loved all the stuff before it, though.

 

[cherry blossom]

Oh, I said Lambert. I meant Brett, indeed.

Don't see the problem with the latter. A direct, high authority communication interface to the governing AI for one single person. Doesn't matter if it's a comparatively tiny spaceship or a huge space station. Do they have giant computers at ISS? No, they have fucking laptops. The same tool they use to get the job done. In the game, they gave APOLLO a good and proper scale on the outside which mattered far more.

What I did find silly was the EMR-like machine interface for androids. Androids are supposed to be on a direct wireless interface with APOLLO. That shit was poorly thought out.

 

[Jick Magger]

I honestly disagree, I thought the game was getting padding problems leading up to the reactor, and the game should've ended after the reactor blew up. After that point the game just stopped being scary, the alien(s) encounters stopped being tense and started being annoying, and the levels just boring. Not to mention the already extremely weak story got stretched to its breaking point.

 

[chestburster]

Most reviews are wrong though.

You didn't use the obligatory "The reviewers mostly are wrong. Mostly." structure in a thread about Xenos.

I am mostly disappointed. Mostly.

 

[cherry blossom]

The problem I found with the flamethrower was that the Alien didn't adapt to it. This killing machine suddenly found itself having to retreat, it should have ramped up stealth and aggression instead of blind-searching for long paces at end. It should have been able to find places to hide in the environment whether in anticipation of prey or for slumber the same way it did in Alien. Even with the so many crawl spaces you have to go through, I have encountered the creature only once while in one and it was absolutely terrifying.

One of the most terrifying encounters I had with it was running into it completely blind while it was waiting perfectly still around a corner. I had been tracking it, waiting for it to go far enough to advance safely. Once it dropped out of the tracker, I climbed a stairway, opened a door, turned a corner and bam!, there it stood a few steps ahead, just waiting there. Thankfully, I had the flamethrower ready.

Still, pretty fucking thankful this game got made. It's nothing short of amazing. Too bad about the low number of sales.

 

[DragoFireheart]

The problem I found with the flamethrower was that the Alien didn't adapt to it.

This is false.

Early on the Alien would run away from the Flamethrower even from short bursts of flame, but in later levels it would be pushed back... and wait. It would shit check me to call my bluff, seeing if the quick burst was my last and if I was low on fuel. I normally would have to burst it again to convince it to run off.

I have in fact did longer bursts, pushed the Alien back for a brief period, then see it recover from the recoil and come at my slowly. I was out of ammo. Once it realized that, it charged me and I died.

 

[chestburster]

It's not even the same xeno that is chasing you. For all we know, there are dozens of xenos running around in the station. It's not like you can tell them apart anyway, like all asian guys look the same to white people.

Some xenos probably only meet you for the first time in the late section of the game. They never saw your flamethrower before.

 

[cherry blossom]

The problem I found with the flamethrower was that the Alien didn't adapt to it.

This is false.

Early on the Alien would run away from the Flamethrower even from short bursts of flame, but in later levels it would be pushed back... and wait. It would shit check me to call my bluff, seeing if the quick burst was my last and if I was low on fuel. I normally would have to burst it again to convince it to run off.

I have in fact did longer bursts, pushed the Alien back for a brief period, then see it recover from the recoil and come at my slowly. I was out of ammo. Once it realized that, it charged me and I died.

Yes, I have noticed and didn't need a second time to figure out that spraying fire in air does nothing but waste your fuel so when it stays back, you ought to walk up to it and flame its ass again to make it go back into the vents.

And it is a nice change once it starts staying back there, almost uncanny, waiting for an opportunity, but that's as far as it goes. As long as you have fuel, you could keep it there forever by simply spraying fire in empty air. It does not adapt.

And they should have sticked with

Spoiler

a singular Alien with a more social environment. Two at most, just to throw you out of your game. But multiple aliens with no practical difference was annoying. Not that you could possibly survive several of them roaming around at the same time.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Yes, I have noticed and didn't need a second time to figure out that spraying fire in air does nothing but waste your fuel so when it stays back, you ought to walk up to it and flame its ass again to make it go back into the vents.

I'm talking about actually spraying it, not just the air.

 

[cherry blossom]

Never saw the Alien stick around after being sprayed the second time.

 

[Jick Magger]

Sometimes I found that it'd just soldier through the fire anyway by doing a big leap the moment I started spraying. That was a shocker.

 

[barker_s]

One time, by the end of the game I was really, really low on flamethrower fuel. I got jumped by the xeno and stopped it for a while, but my ammo counter read 8 - not nearly enough to blast him effectively one more time. So I started to back out, still having the Alien in my sights. I almost shat my pants when, instead of rushing me as he usually did, he started to follow me slowly step by step through the corridor until he got me cornered. It might have its quirks and people might bitch about it, but I really love Alien's AI in this game.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.pcgamer.com/creative-assembly-hiring-for-multi-platform-aaa-blockbuster/

Well, this gotta be A:I 2.

 

[DragoFireheart]

http://www.pcgamer.com/creative-assembly-hiring-for-multi-platform-aaa-blockbuster/

Well, this gotta be A:I 2.

I hope they don't do Marines in any context.

 

[cherry blossom]

At least they got their heart in the right place:

Napper went on to say that the tense, horror experience of Isolation is core to the series' DNA, indicating that the studio is unlikely to produce a more fast-paced affair. "I think the action oriented 'Aliens' style game is very different from what Isolation is," he said.

"If we made a sequel I would like to stick to the same terrifying single Alien approach but do more with the environment and interactivity within it."

http://www.pcgamer.com/an-alien-isolation-sequel-has-been-discussed-says-creative-assembly/

With studio execs at SEGA, however, you could never know.