Alien: Isolation The Novel Bursting January 2019!

[Xiggz456]

Awesome news! Looking forward to all the extra backstory that novelizations usually provide. Time for another play through of Isolation!

[Xenomrph]

No sequel please. Too many entries between Alien and Aliens is rather spoiling things IMO. Just flesh out the characters from the game more.

In actual fact is quite like to see the fall of Sevastopol in a bit more depth. Plenty of scope for sub plots with Ransome and the covert WY takeover.

I'd agree if Isolation didn't end on such a cliffhanger. I just want resolution of Amanda's arc and how it leads into what Burke shows us in 'Aliens'. Does Amanda actually just... give up searching for her mother and die of old age? Does she get killed and there's some kind of corporate cover-up?

[Huggs]

Does Amanda actually just... give up searching for her mother and die of old age? Does she get killed and there's some kind of corporate cover-up?

She won't have been killed. Ripley recognized her in the photograph in the movie, and (If I remember correctly) in the audio drama for Out of the Shadows, Ash learns that she worked for WY, survived classified events and then got married back on earth.

While the ending to Isolation may be somewhat vague and mysterious, it appears she was picked up and likely survived a debrief by the company and then went on to live her life.

But if you ask me, that whole business of an Alien being onboard the Torrens was a nightmare.

What I think really happened there is that she was knocked unconscious when she blasted herself and those Aliens loose from Sevastopol, because (if I remember correctly) she hit something at speed. I sincerely doubt she'd even have had enough oxygen left in her suit (at that point) to escape the Torrens, calm down and go to sleep in space, let alone drift for Lord knows how long.

The light that shines across he face at the end is likely the Torrens, which picked her up within minutes of being knocked unconscious, and transported her safely home. Verlaine would be in a position to help her confirm any story, thus allowing her to leave the company and move on with her life.

[Xenomrph]

Does Amanda actually just... give up searching for her mother and die of old age? Does she get killed and there's some kind of corporate cover-up?

She won't have been killed. Ripley recognized her in the photograph in the movie, and (If I remember correctly) in the audio drama for Out of the Shadows, Ash learns that she worked for WY, survived classified events and then got married back on earth.

While the ending to Isolation may be somewhat vague and mysterious, it appears she was picked up and likely survived a debrief by the company and then went on to live her life.

But if you ask me, that whole business of an Alien being onboard the Torrens was a nightmare.

What I think really happened there is that she was knocked unconscious when she blasted herself and those Aliens loose from Sevastopol, because (if I remember correctly) she hit something at speed. I sincerely doubt she'd even have had enough oxygen left in her suit (at that point) to escape the Torrens, calm down and go to sleep in space, let alone drift for Lord knows how long.

The light that shines across he face at the end is likely the Torrens, which picked her up within minutes of being knocked unconscious, and transported her safely home. Verlaine would be in a position to help her confirm any story, thus allowing her to leave the company and move on with her life.

The problem with that is, would the Company allow Amanda to survive with the knowledge she has of all the corporate malfeasance and the fate of her mother? Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game? And if she didn't, do you think she'd just let the matter drop and go on with her life? Amanda comes across as the kind of person who wouldn't give up that easily.

[Corporal Hicks]

I wonder if the Alien: Isolation comic will factor into this...

There's very little to that comic to factor in.

[HuDaFuK]

Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game?

Fairly sure the message Marlow plays from the black box reveals that she's out in space in a lifeboat.

Thinking about the "partly" comment, I'm wondering if this might be another story set on Sevastopol during the events of the game that intercepts with Amanda/the other major characters at some point.

[Xenomrph]

Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game?

Fairly sure the message Marlow plays from the black box reveals that she's out in space in a lifeboat.

Thanks. It's been a good while since I played through the game again, and my game backlog is so big (and my free time is so small) that I've been trying to focus on new games before replaying old ones.

It is a constant struggle.

[Huggs]

The problem with that is, would the Company allow Amanda to survive with the knowledge she has of all the corporate malfeasance and the fate of her mother? Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game? And if she didn't, do you think she'd just let the matter drop and go on with her life? Amanda comes across as the kind of person who wouldn't give up that easily.

Sevastopol was destroyed. The company has no idea what she knew about their dealings, and no way of knowing she even heard anything from the recorder.

As for Ripley's fate, like Huda said, she knew. But it had been 15 years. By the time Amanda could escape, and find a ship, crew, or a company willing to help her (I doubt she'd have the resources anyway) her mother would've been floating another few years. That's like 16-18 years floating in a non-specific direction away from the Nostromo's blast zone. It would be like trying to find a needle moving in a somewhat "that way" direction, at unknown altitude, somewhere on earth. She'd be impossible to find and likely dead. To search such an expanse would exceed financial and physical limits. Reality set in, and she had to let go.

[felix]

I hope this wil be released in Mass Paperback format. Hardcovers are too expensive and other formats not compact enough.

[The Cruentus]

The problem with that is, would the Company allow Amanda to survive with the knowledge she has of all the corporate malfeasance and the fate of her mother? Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game? And if she didn't, do you think she'd just let the matter drop and go on with her life? Amanda comes across as the kind of person who wouldn't give up that easily.

Yes, because despite their negligence and amorality, they are not straight up murderers, at worst they just have poor judgement in letting A:I's such as Ash and Apollo interprete their orders. They let Morse live after all and he wrote a book about his experience, all they did was get it banned. 
Note that I am only talking about the company as we see in the movies and not the mustache twirling bond villains they became in the old EU and A:CM, because yes, those lot would murder someone for even trivial matters.

Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game?

Fairly sure the message Marlow plays from the black box reveals that she's out in space in a lifeboat.

Yeah, but its on the Anesidora and Marlow doesn't play it, I think Amanda does as its on the console by the glass pane looking into the engine room/core of the ship.

[SM]

If ordering a synthetic that the crew is expendable if they try to stop it isn't murder, it's not far off.

[SiL]

SO-937 is frustratingly vague, though. "Ensure return of lifeform, all other priorities rescinded" reeks of legal speak saying "We're not saying to kill the crew, but..."

[Xenomrph]

The problem with that is, would the Company allow Amanda to survive with the knowledge she has of all the corporate malfeasance and the fate of her mother? Speaking of, did she even really know the fate of her mother by the end of the game? And if she didn't, do you think she'd just let the matter drop and go on with her life? Amanda comes across as the kind of person who wouldn't give up that easily.

Sevastopol was destroyed. The company has no idea what she knew about their dealings, and no way of knowing she even heard anything from the recorder.

As for Ripley's fate, like Huda said, she knew. But it had been 15 years. By the time Amanda could escape, and find a ship, crew, or a company willing to help her (I doubt she'd have the resources anyway) her mother would've been floating another few years. That's like 16-18 years floating in a non-specific direction away from the Nostromo's blast zone. It would be like trying to find a needle moving in a somewhat "that way" direction, at unknown altitude, somewhere on earth. She'd be impossible to find and likely dead. To search such an expanse would exceed financial and physical limits. Reality set in, and she had to let go.

I can appreciate that train of thought, I guess I'd just like to see it broken down narratively in a comic/novel/game and show how Amanda Ripley reaches that point of resignation and acceptance.

SO-937 is frustratingly vague, though. "Ensure return of lifeform, all other priorities rescinded" reeks of legal speak saying "We're not saying to kill the crew, but..."

SO-937 does explicitly say "crew expendable". I mean, yeah, it comes short of outright ordering Ash to kill the crew, but the writing's on the wall.
It's different from, say, '2001' where HAL9000 goes nuts and kills the crew because of a genuine logic conflict in his programming that his creator didn't foresee.

[Still Collating...]

Hell yes! This is awesome news!

[The Cruentus]

If ordering a synthetic that the crew is expendable if they try to stop it isn't murder, it's not far off.

True but again that is Ash interpreting it that way.

Humorously he could have completed his mission if he had simply put Kane in hypersleep, it may not been a guarantee on stopping the process but the crew would have been in cryo and out of the way.

SO-937 is frustratingly vague, though. "Ensure return of lifeform, all other priorities rescinded" reeks of legal speak saying "We're not saying to kill the crew, but..."

It is more like they are just prioritizing the Alien over the crew rather than saying "we are not saying to kill.." They probably don't care or mind that the crew is alive so long as they Alien is too.
There is no order for Ash to kill the crew, it is just as a robot who probably thinks in logical terms it becomes apparent to him that the crew is not going to stop trying to get rid of the alien, so logically the only way to keep it alive is to kill them and he malfunctions while coming to that conclusion.

Apollo did the same thing as Ash. It only started killing the civilians once one of the Aliens was killed thus making it conclude that humans are a threat to what it was ordered to secure and protect.

Both machines acted their own way to the orders, its not as if the company would have condoned it. Once again, talking about movie W-Y, not old EU W-Y.