ALIEN ISOLATION
Amanda Ripley s search for her mother.
Alien Isolation as a
survival horror game as opposed to an action shooter. The game is set in 2137,
15 years after the events of Alien and 42 years before the events of Aliens. It focuses on Ellen
Ripley's daughter, Amanda Ripley-McLean. In search of her mother, she
goes to the space station Sevastopol, unaware that an Alien has already taken
it over.
Unlike most other video game adaptations of the Alien franchise, Alien: Isolation features a single Alien for most of
the title's duration that cannot be killed, (yes you heard me, Un- Killable) requiring
the player to use stealth tactics in
order to survive.
Although the
game features some weapons, they will be lethal only against the human
occupants.
So prior to the release of
aliens, (the second movie) the game is set in a period where Ellen Ripley has
already escaped and drifting through space. And her daughter Amanda Ripley has
set out aimlessly with one sole purpose to find her.
Now just a quick head up
here, if you haven’t played this game but you’re planning to I urge to do so,
it’s a lot of fun, especially if you like games in this genre.
BT Dubbs! there are a few
spoiler alerts, so sorry in advance.
Game vs Movie; Alien Isolation video.
THE GAME PLAN.
Let’s dive into the game,
Amanda Ripley is approached by Weyland-Yutani synthetic
Christopher Samuels, who informs her that the flight records of the Nostromo was recently located by a ship named Anesidora and is being held aboard Sevastopol
Station, a remote free port space station owned
by the Seegson Corporation.
And thus begins her
search, According to the developers and I quote “This had to be a horror game,
we wanted to create an experience that was terrifying and claustrophobic, a
game where you’ll spend the entire time worrying about where the alien is”, “instead
of the player cutting down hundreds of aliens we have them focused on a single
creature, and when you meet it your first reaction should be to back away and
find somewhere to hide”, Unquote.
Well I certainly did that,
due to the fact that I can’t kill the bloody thing.
Getting the story right
was really important to us said Sega, the main question in their minds were,
when the Nostromo went missing who will go looking? And that’s when Amanda
Ripley came to mind. But (picture of butt) what would she find if she went
looking?
So..
Samuels offers Amanda a
place on the Weyland-Yutani team sent to retrieve the records, so that she can
have closure regarding the fate of her missing mother. Ripley, Samuels, and
Weyland-Yutani executive Nina Taylor, travel to Sevastopol on board the courier
ship Torrens, owned by
Captain Diane Verlaine.
The group arrive at Sevastopol to find the station
damaged and communications dead. (Sound familiar to you?) Ripley, Samuels, and
Taylor attempt to spacewalk over to the station to investigate, but their EVA line is severed by debris and the
three of them are separated.
Ripley manages to make her
way inside the station and finds a complete breakdown of civil society, with
the station's crew reduced to small groups of frightened, paranoid looters who
hoard scavenged resources and shoot non-group members on sight.
She is briefly held
hostage by a man named Axel, but convinces him to help her in exchange for a
ride off the station aboard the Torrens.
Axel explains that the current situation is due to a "monster" loose
aboard the station.
Playing through the game
you aren't equipped with neither advance weaponry nor military hardware, you
are very vulnerable and isolated, hence the “Isolation” in the game’s title.
Left with only your survival instincts to guide you, you find yourself
navigating through an unforgiving maze set with low level lighting and special
effects reminiscent to the original movie alien.
Having been immersed into
the game you have a sense of urgency to get things done as quietly and quickly
as possible, that claustrophobia that the developers talked about certainly
kicks in as you cower your way through
your missions hiding in lockers and tight spaces in the ship’s interior to
avoid the alien.
The original alien from
the movie is both terrifying and unstoppable; the game did very well in
capturing that originality. It is hunting you! It’s unpredictable and reacts to
the choices you make, so if you’re a poor decision maker, noob moves like
firing a weapon, its game over.
Even though you spend most
of your time pre-occupied by the alien there are other treats aboard the
station that you have to worry about. Sevastopol station is falling apart and
its population is dwindling, survival is of the utmost importance so everyone
is trying to survive in any way they can.
Despite the task at hand
Amanda has to do everything in her power to remain positive and stay on track
including riding Sevastopol of aliens.
So your first mission
immediately after entering the station, is to find the flight records of the
Nostromo, which you eventually did.
So you evade the alien
only to find out that Taylor has been injured, forcing you to retrieve medical
supplies from the medical bay to treat her.
When you reunite with
Samuels and Taylor, the team is taken into custody by the station's Marshal,
Waits, and his deputy, Ricardo. Waits explains that the Alien was brought on
board the station by Marlow, captain of the Anesidora who is under arrest by Waits. After
speaking with Marlow you learn that the Anesidor’s
crew discovered the flight recorder near the planetoid LV-426, where they
also discovered a derelict Engineer ship and a nest of alien eggs. Marlow's
wife was attacked by a facehugger,
seeking help; Marlow
brought her aboard Sevastopol for treatment. Then the Alien hatched from her
and began to wreak havoc on board.
Waits convinces you to
help him contain the Alien by luring it into a remote section of the station
and sealing it inside, you later find out that waits was using you as bait to
lure the alien into the external module.
With the Alien disposed
of, the situation aboard the station appears back under control until the
station's android workforce abruptly starts hunting down and massacring the
remaining crew, including Waits and his men.
You later find out that
Sevastopol was recently purchased by Weyland-Yutani, (spoiler alert) who
instructed APOLLO (the ship’s artificial intelligence) to preserve the Alien
regardless of any human casualties. (These were the same orders given to Ash in
the original movie) Ripley demands to know why APOLLO is continuing to kill the
crew when the Alien is no longer aboard, APOLLO directs you to the station's
reactor core, where you discovers an entire hive of Aliens. You initiate a
reactor purge to destroy the hive, but multiple Aliens escape into the station.
You later learn from Ricardo that Taylor was sent by Weyland-Yutani to retrieve
the Alien, and that she freed Marlow in exchange for the location of LV-426.
However, Marlow took her hostage and fled to his ship. You and Ricardo pursue
them in hopes of using the Anesidora to
escape the station. Upon exploring the Anesidora,
you discover an additional message from your mother, Ellen Ripley, after her
initial report of the events on the Nostromo.
You then discovered that
Marlow is attempting to detonate the Anesidor’s
fusion reactor to destroy the station and ensure the Alien does not come into
contact with humanity.
Taylor helps you in an
attempt to prevent the reactor explosion.
But are only partially successful, as
Taylor is killed by an electrical overload and you escaped just as the ship
explodes. (Spoiler alert) The explosion
of the Anesidora does not destroy Sevastopol, but
damages the station's gravity stabilizers, causing it to begin falling into
KG348's atmosphere. (Some other planet of the game’s Cosmos).
You and Ricardo manage to
contact the Torrens for evacuation, but Ricardo is attacked by a facehugger and
you are forced to leave him behind. You then space-jumps to the Torrens just before Sevastopol loses its orbit
and falls into the planet. Aboard the Torrens you discover an Alien had
boarded the ship as well. Still in your EVA suit, you’re cornered into the
airlock with the Alien moving ever closer toward you. Your only choice is to
hit the airlock's emergency release, and both you and the Alien are propelled
into space. You’re now adrift and unconscious but only to be suddenly awakened
by a flash of light (presumably of an unidentified vessel approaching you). The
end, (spoiler alert).
And now my closing
argument,
The game is awesome, a
solid 9 out of 10 for the story line and capturing the movie original theme.
And as previously stated, I urge you to play it if you haven’t.
But you see the sheer
horror that Amanda Ripley went through, could have all been avoided, after
unfortunately finding out that the data from the Nostromo could not be
recovered why carry on? Why not just say aww well I tried, throw up her deuces
to the aliens, and get the heck of there?
She was determined, with a
strong belief that she would find something, spurred on by hope, a motion
tracker and survival skills that she had to quickly learn on the way; Amanda
wasn’t going to give up. But my friend, you see what she didn’t know was, her
mother was alive.
How do I know this you
ask?
Fast forward to Aliens.
Remember her mother Ellen Ripley
survived the first encounter of the alien, after 57 years in hyper sleep
drifting through space in stasis she was rescued by her employers only to be thrown
back into an alien infested environment, after learning that LV-426, the planet where the Nostromo encountered the Alien eggs, is now
home to a human terraforming colony, called Hadley's Hope.
So to cut a long story
short she went to investigate, killed a bunch of aliens’ battles the queen with
an exosuit cargo loader and escapes back to earth.
So what Amanda Ripley
didn't know was, her trip was pointless. She wasn't going to find her mother
because she was somewhere out in space, snoozing away. with oh.. not forgetting
Jones. The ship’s cat.
So there you have it, her journey was everything but fruitful.
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