Anyone who has seen the directors cut of Aliens knows that there is an extended scene early on where Burke informs Ripley about the death of her daughter, Amanda. Surprisingly, despite decades of novels and comic books, this character has never been explored. Maybe no one though of it, but the folks over at Creative Assembly saw the gap and decided to use this untapped character as the protagonist of Alien: Isolation. Taking place 15 years after Alien, Amanda Ripley now works for Weyland-Yutani and is actively searching for what happened to her still missing mother. When it is revealed that there is a possibility of retrieving the Nostromos black box, Amanda jumps at the chance to see for herself what happened. Admittedly, upon face value the story seems pretty dubious. With each new game comes yet another attempt to be an official sequel or side story to the films. Aliens: Colonial Marines touted itself for being the official sequel to Aliens we always wanted, but upon actually playing the game, it was made apparent this couldnt be farther from the truth, especially since it only served to further muddle the increasingly confusing timeline of the series. So youll have to forgive me for questioning the purpose of another game trying desperately to tie in with the film series. This game could have no real story and I wouldnt be any less pumped for it. All that being said, having Amanda Ripley be the main character of this game is interesting if only because it hasnt been done before. There is genuine potential for Amanda to become a respected and interesting character in her own right. And she wont be alone, as she will be bringing along a small cast of new characters to aid in her quest. So while it could be another disappointing side story, there is also the chance that it will be the first compelling story in the Alien franchise in a long time. Creative Assembly has hired real actors to portray all the human characters, even going so far as to model them after the actors themselves. At the very least this shows a dedication on the developers part to giving the story compelling drama, especially if they are following the Alien model of focusing on the characters amidst a terrifying situation. Like everything else, it is too soon to really tell, but Alien: Isolation could deliver us a solid sequel to Alien, and that is definitely something to be excited about.
