A group of Creative Assembly developers have released another video about Alien: Isolation’s development, this time going into Amanda Ripley’s character and the space station she’ll be visiting.

The video opens with, “It’s been fifteen years since Amanda Ripley’s mother disappeared with the Nostromo. [Amanda has] been looking for answers ever since.” Amanda Ripley is motivated by the need for closure, to understand what fans of the Alien franchise have long been wondering: What truly happened and why? “Now a Weyland Yutani employee, she discovers the flight recorder from the Nostromo has been recovered.”

Creative Assembly is putting a great effort into the characters and story behind Alien: Isolation “Much like the original film, this is a credible world filled with believable characters, characters we want to care about.” They’ve used motion capture to record their cast of actors in the effort to add that next level of realism.

Though the Alien will be the game’s primary monster, the space station Amanda Ripley finds herself on will offer its own frights. “There are actually other threats aboard the station that [the player] will have to worry about…. [The] station has fallen apart, and the population is dwindling. This means there are many people trying to survive in anyway they can”

Alien Isolation is set to release October 7th.

My Opinion:

I have a great many opinions about Creative Assembly’s use of Ripley’s daughter, and none of them are good. Question of canon aside, to bring in Ripley’s name feels cowardly, as if the game needs to overuse the franchise’s well-known hero to sell units. The universe Alien is set in is huge with so many untold possibilities, yet we are back with Ripley. It’s sad.

I get the want for closure, but it seems like a universe with space travel would understand that accidents happen and sometimes ships just vanish.

That being said, I’m excited for this game. Creative Assembly seem to care, and even though Gearbox gave us that same song and dance, I guess I’m apt to believe Creative Assembly. Sega can’t afford another lie, and the people hosting these videos don’t seem to be lying.