Alien - Inferno's Fall

Started by felix, Nov 27, 2021, 01:10:15 PM

Author
Alien - Inferno's Fall (Read 60,373 times)

Nelostic

Nelostic

#225
Quote from: Wompdonkey on Aug 30, 2022, 01:54:03 AMEngineers. I kinda doubt Drukathi are canon.

In this book
Is
Miners found Ruins of engingineers?
On what planet?

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#226
Good book, I have some issues with it, but only what amounts to pretty superficial stuff. Sadly overshadowed mostly I think by being released between Prey and Pathogen.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#227
I'm nearing the end of a re-read of this and something I've noticed re: the portrayal of the way the black goo is working.

Spoiler
It's not until the last 50 pages or so that they start to describe all the mutated lifeform as armoured like the normal Aliens. I'd been reading all the other forms as various Neomorph-like mutations.

Which I still wasn't terribly keen on since we never quite saw them mutate that way in the Covenant flashback, but I rationalized as "well, we saw Neomorphic creatures in David's lab, and we know David said it did mutate some creatures" so I rolled with that. By the end of the book, it's even possible that this is a pathogen that David reprogrammed to get those results.

But then the last 50 pages of the book goes into the Fire and Stone realms and seems to depict them as the various LV-223 things like the Xeno-shark where the goo mutated them into something more overtly Alien.
[close]

Feels like an abrupt change that was missed in the editing.

Still Collating...

Still Collating...

#228
Disappointing. This is exactly why I don't want most writers making Pathogen centric books/comics, I don't trust that most have the restraint or nuance to handle it correctly.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#229
So to add to that,
Spoiler
the mutated Engineers are described as blue/black so I'm now wondering if the book is saying they just turned into big ass deacons.
[close]
The over-all descriptions of the various aliens aren't really specific enough for me to really know what creature I'm supposed to be imagining. It's really the only thing about the book that is disappointing me.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#230
But then they're later described as just being black. I don't know. The use and depiction of the goo and the mutations are the only thing I'm unsure of when it comes to Inferno's Fall.

I think it is some of Titan's strongest character and world-building. I really do love the book, it's just that goo that I've got doubts about.

TheBATMAN

TheBATMAN

#231
Finally finished this. Not bad but found the whole thing a bit dull. The characters didnt really appeal to me and whilst I wont criticise the excellent RPG, I honestly feel the over-reliance on its source material is starting to harm these stories somewhat.

Certainly not a bad book, but not one of the better Titan efforts for me.

VeteranSergeant

VeteranSergeant

#232
Quote from: TheBATMAN on Sep 15, 2022, 05:35:40 PMI wont criticise the excellent RPG, I honestly feel the over-reliance on its source material is starting to harm these stories somewhat.

I think the biggest problem with the Aliens license is that it's just not meant for this volume of material. The Alien universe is one of bleak corporate exploitation among the stars in a very near-future setting. The Marines in the movie are f**king bored out of their minds. Their dinner table conversations are about bad food and prostitutes. They complain about not getting into any "stand up fights." As a former Marine, the only people who complain about not getting into any real fights are the people who've never been in one.

Frost says "I got a bad feeling about this drop," and Crowe immediately makes fun of him for it.

The Alien was supposed to be the most exciting thing that had happened to humanity, though not in a good way. The rest of it was terraforming worlds, then pulling natural resources out of them. Space travel is slow, ships are expensive, colonies are fairly small and purpose-built.

The trouble for the license is that because the Alien is the most exciting thing that ever happened, it coming back over and over is the only way to make the setting exciting.

The RPG tried to spice things up with this whole Call of Duty: Space Warfare setting with some three way Not-So-Cold War, but it's almost antithetical to the way the setting has been depicted. The idea of governments fighting over distant planets, when space travel is still so relatively slow, is at odds with a future where corporations have tremendous pull and can control the lives of their employees so completely.

I mean, the RPG didn't even realize that its depictions of Arcturians would be a paradigm-shifting discovery. A near-human alien species that worships a race of other near-human aliens from the sky? It would upend everything we know about human evolution and our place in the universe. The RPG treats the place as a curiosity that only scientists care about. The fact that the RPG seems to dictate a lot of the "canon" for the books is probably a bad thing, because, honestly, the RPG's canon is kinda dumb. A setting looking for a reason to exist as an RPG, rather than a setting so interesting and full of possibilities, it begs for an RPG to be there.

Destroyer of Worlds is a pretty solid example of just how badly written the RPG is a lot of the time. Nothing in the story makes any sense. It's just a sequence of action scenes strung together by a skeletal detective plot. How do UPP operatives arrive on planet if there is one space port? How does a fleet of UPP ships arrive without being detected until they are in low orbit? Why do the orbital defenses only start firing as the UPP invasion is underway? If the setting has no shields, space combat would be incredibly dangerous to all sides, something you'd only engage in if desperate or with some overwhelmingly pressing need.

It's not Firefly or Star Wars with a galaxy full of developer worlds to visit and freebooters with their own Affordable Spacecraft. It's much closer to The Expanse. There's just not going to be a lot you can do with the setting before it's going to feel like everything is a retread, or you have to go so far outside the established canon to introduce anything new. 

[cancerblack]

[cancerblack]

#233
Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Sep 15, 2022, 09:42:49 PMI mean, the RPG didn't even realize that its depictions of Arcturians would be a paradigm-shifting discovery. A near-human alien species that worships a race of other near-human aliens from the sky? It would upend everything we know about human evolution and our place in the universe. The RPG treats the place as a curiosity that only scientists care about.

This in particular drives me up the wall.

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#234
Yeah it is a shit part. But then Prometheus presented itself in a way I also took issue with to that effect. That being the underreaction to other humanoid life.

[cancerblack]

[cancerblack]

#235
I find that easier to handwave since they were explicitly looking for them and then they were seemingly all long dead, as opposed to an unexpected and thriving planet everybody knows about and can visit.

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#236
I agree, but the more Engineer ruins pop up in the setting, the more something like Alien The RPG Arcturians become an inevitability sadly.

[cancerblack]

[cancerblack]

#237
I suppose so.

Nelostic

Nelostic

#238
Need Alien RPG
Engineers!
And I want engineers in
Marvel!

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#239
So I went back to check where the switch into something more overtly Alien comes in, and I think it's Chapter 26.

Spoiler
Quote"The first creature which emerged stood at least three meters tall and balanced on two overgrown back legs with almost hoof-like feet. It carried the same armored carapace and dorsal tubes as all Xenos. The neck arched longer, while the head sported a thick vertical fin that must have come from its host animal. The coloring wasn't black, however. Instead, the creature gleamed with a strange, deep-red armored skin."
[close]

So I'm wondering if it's intended that the goo mutated humans into something Neomorphic, but intended the wildlife to mutate into something more Alien, and I didn't quite pick up on it? I dunno.

AvPGalaxy: About | Contact | Cookie Policy | Manage Cookie Settings | Privacy Policy | Legal Info
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Patreon RSS Feed
Contact: General Queries | Submit News