Why is all the signage on Sevastopol in English and Japanese? Does the station have a large complement of Japanese citizens on board or something?
Considering that in this point in the timeline of the franchise, there are Megacorps, and we know of one that has Japanese incorporated into it: Weyland-Yutani. The Yutani is a Japanese company that incorporated with Weyland Corporation years before the events of the first film.
Except Sevastopol was owned by Seegson, not Weyland-Yutani. The latter corp only appears in the story to 'buy' the station in order to study the Aliens inside.
Do you think that Weyland-Yutani is the only Megacop that has Japanese incorporated into it? It's possible that every Megacorp in the Alien universe has a mix of various different cultures, which more than includes Japanese being the most dominate in them. There's a good chance that Seegson also has Japanese businesses incorporated into it, thus leading to Sevastopol having Japanese and English signage. Essentially, the Megacorps are giant melting pots.
Why is the Alien Immune to Bullets? Wasn't a harpoon gun able to tear clean through its torso in the first movie?
Plot Armor, combined with Conservation of Ninjutsu. There's only one Alien in the game Most of it, anyway, and if you could only take it out with just a few bullets, then the game wouldn't really have much else to go on. Though an In-Universe explanation might be that the revolvers are very weak and weren't really meant to shoot anything that was built to last. That, and it's hard for Ripley to get a clean shot since she's not an experienced marksman and the Alien moves very fast.
Most of the weapons are undoubtedly used by the security on board the station and most likely use a special type of ammunition designed prevent hull breaches. So it makes sense that they can't penetrate the alien's thick armor.
This would actually explain why getting shot by the paranoiacs will injure, but not initially kill, you; they're the equivalent of BB rounds.
Aliens are also very divergent with the one in Alien 3 having characteristics of a dog. It's possible this one is simply a different kind of strain than his brethren.
But it came from the same batch of eggs as the Alien from the original movie. Unless its host was taking steroids or something, there's really not much reason why the Drone should be any tougher than that one. Then again, we never really saw firearms get used against the first Alien, so maybe it had the same durability against bullets.
The alien was doglike because its host was a dog. The Xenomorph takes on the characteristics of its host being, therefore this one should be identical to the one from the first film since it was incubated inside a human.
That makes sense, especially since the station may have had families on board, or at least had workers who had pets (if the Nostromo allowed to have Jonesy on board, what's not to say there wasn't someone with other pets on board?).
The answer to this is actually fairly clever. The Alien isn't immune to your weapons, your guns just aren't of sufficient quality to kill it instantly (compare with the weapons used in the sequel which were top of the line military grade weaponry.). You likely kill several Aliens during the game, they just survive long enough to escape and die out of sight and get replaced by another one without your knowledge.
Plus, in most scenarios where you are firing your weapons at the Alien, you are not likely going to be alive long enough to see it die from its wounds.
The alien will actually bleed if you shoot it but it won't kill it (and fortunately its blood won't kill you). Its likely the the alien can survive a mere bullet wound as they are touted as the Ultimate Lifeform. The guns used in Aliens fired an explosive bullet which is why it so deadly.
This is reinforced by a quick scene in Aliens. In the vents, Gorman goes back to rescue Vasquez and a Xenomorph climbs out of a grate. Gorman fires off a few headshots with a pistol which do nothing but skim off with a few sparks; it's likely the Xenomorphs have a level of resistance to gunfire, depending on the caliber and type of ammunition.
This is true, as the M-41A pulse rifle's ammo is described as "ten millimeter explosive-tip caseless. Standard light armor-piercing rounds." That's the reason why the Pulse Rifles are able to shred through the Xenomorphs and Gorman's gun in the above mentioned scene would have likely use regular 9mm ammo, which would explain why the rounds just bounced off of the one he was shooting at.
The harpoon penetrated, but probably not all that deep, and the Alien didn't really seem to be all that injured, just surprised enough to let go of the door. Some media show that Xenomorphs have an impressive Healing Factor, with the novelization of the original film including a deleted scene where the Alien almost gets trapped in an airlock and blown out, but jumps clear and gets its arm stuck in the closing door. It tears the pinned arm free and flees, but when it shows up later there's no mention of a missing limb, indicating that arm fully regenerated in mere hours. Other media credits them with such decentralized internal systems that there are very few vital spots to hit and guarantee a kill, so blowing them apart with high-power weaponry is the only reliable way to kill them.
The overly trigger-happy human survivors on the station, and their unchallenged habit of performing Poor Communication Kills. Why can't Ripley just yell "Stop! I'm not your enemy!" or something like that when she's confronted by them? The survivors are paranoid and on-edge, sure, but they're (hopefully) not psychopaths. This is a survival horror game, so you should be able to avoid violent confrontations unless they're absolutely necessary, right?
By this point, it's safe to assume that the inhabitants of the Sevastapol have degenerated into groups of looters and survivalists, fending for themselves and skirmishing with other bands of people over what were once simple amenities like food and water. Even if you were to wave the white flag and scream your lungs out about your harmlessness, they almost certainly wouldn't believe you. Worse still, they probably wouldn't even care, but rather concerned about what goodies you might be carrying...
Yeah, but there's something really odd about this: One creature starts running loose on the station, and everyone's gunning for each other and looting the place? Why not just group together and hunt down the thing so that everything can go back to normal? Even if they were supposed to be opportunists that were taking advantage of the chaos, why not just try hunting down and trapping/killing the Alien so that (for all they knew) they could get a handsome reward from the Marshals or whomever's still in charge of the place for disposing of a dangerous fugitive? that's gotta be worth more than a few half-eaten bags of chips, right?
I figured the reveal that there was more than one alien was kind of an immediate Author's Saving Throw. People were getting dropped and going missing left an right, and panic quickly erupted. Also, I assumed the Alien's invincibility was to show that Ripley never tried killing it in conventional ways, its highly possible that groups of survivors have killed a few, only for their acid blood to dispose of the evidence, and ten more to be attracted by the commotion.
There are also occasions where some groups of survivors will regard Amanda with hostility, but not aggression, raising their weapons and giving her a chance to walk away or they open fire. Presumably they got jumpy because some other groups of survivors have been taking people out to loot them for their stuff, and Paranoia Fuel set so they assume someone is hostile unless they know them very well.
The real problem is the way they'll wildly open fire on sight, even if they outnumber you and you're all the way across the room from them, not looking at them, and they know the invincible killing machine roaming the station is attracted to sound.
Its a weak excuse but...sometimes you'll overhear the other survivors griping that they can't remember the last time they ate/slept/etc. My guess is that most of them are delirious on top of being justifiably paranoid. Also as someone indicated above, there probably were more groups of people that were helpful but the continued attacks caused order to break down into the few pockets of hostiles you see in the game. As far as why they fire a gun if they know the alien is sensitive to sound, almost everyone that discovered this were in a position that they didn't live long enough to report it.
1.) According to the background info, Sevastopol was crippled by its bad economy and already had an issue with crime and violence (imagine if Detroit or Chicago was locked down, had martial law declared and had a bunch of Xenomorphs running around). 2.) As mentioned above, most of them are half-insane from sleep deprivation and fatigue. 3.) Most of the time, they'll warn you to back away before firing. 4.) The crisis has been ongoing for nearly a month. Imagine going a month with law and order breaking down and hyper-lethal creatures killing people.
Another thing to consider: Some groups may have gotten the idea to prey on the others' willingness to help their fellow survivors, and repaid that kindness by stealing their supplies and/or attacking them once their backs are turned. The hostility despite Amanda's attempts to talk them down may just be from being unwilling to let themselves be tricked again.
It's also very likely that by that point many of the survivors had some idea about how the aliens reproduced, or were at least aware of the parasitic nature of how they're born. To them, every new person they encounter is not just someone who may already be impregnated, but someone who will almost certainly become impregnated. The less people they allow to live,the less xenomorphs can breed.
It should be also noted that Amanda does actually meet some people who are not trigger-happy paranoid survivalists, and I'm not referring to plot-sensible characters like Axel, Waits or Ricardo, but some random NPCs. First two are in Mission 2, just after meeting Axel, they are trying to activate an elevator and will simply tell you that they want to be left alone. In "The Trap" we can meet some friendly people and warn them to get to safety in the marshall bureau because the creature is nearby. Then, while going to Gemini Solutions, we meet a lonely woman, resigned and sighing, who will ignore us.
Trust was at an all-time low before the murderous invincible alien monster showed up. The place was being decommissioned, people were in fear of their futures, looters were trying to grab what they could before it could be inventoried and shipped out and so the company security and Marshals were cracking down. No one trusted anyone, especially not the authorities, so naturally things went to hell quickly, as none of the regular folks aboard felt they could trust Seegson or the Marshals to actually protect them, doubting both their ability and willingness to do so. Add in that APOLLO sent the Joes into Kill All Humans mode to protect the Alien, and it's hardly surprising that everyone starts to see everyone else as a threat. The Company wants to exploit you, the Marshals want to arrest or shoot you, the Joes want to kill you, the Alien monster wants to do God-knows-what horrible things to you, that guy over there. . . what does he want?
The motion sensor was originally built to sense vermin (ie: bugs, rats, etc.), ostensibly to assist exterminators. That's fine, sure, but...why on *Earth* would a device intended to track small creatures that breed quickly and like to inhabit dark cramped areas glitch out when there are too many targets, or when inside tight, metal spaces? It's completely counter to the basic design intent.
The motion tracker in the game has been modified (Amanda explicitly notes such when she finds it,) presumably after the start of the incident, to track larger creatures and ignore smaller ones. Those modifications could have made it slightly glitchy, especially in tight corridors and when tracking too many things.
It also goes well with the aesthetic of how cut corners are all over the Sevastopol (remember, Seegson is a lower cost competitor to Weyland-Yutani) to have a motion tracker that’s limited and won’t work in tight spaces or with too many targets.
I understand Waits's pragmatic decision to jettison the Gemini Lab with Ripley still inside it. What I don't get is why he waits until she's at the goddamn exit door to do it. As soon as the lab comes back online, he knows the creature is in the central hub with her. So why does he delay until she's two feet from salvation?* Aside from the obvious explanation, that the game designer wanted you to go to one end of the level and then backtrack to the other, that is. That's just going out of his way to be an asshole. I guess Vasquez's last words were right....
Waits might have had other reasons for doing so. Perhaps the xenomorph was in a position where it could have slipped out of the lab and escaped being contained, and he decided to sacrifice Ripley rather than risk the xenomorph getting away yet again.
Is Amanda near the end infected? It seems very ambiguous. I'm inclined to say no, since she'll still be attacked by the aliens, but it's not clear.
It's worth noting that the egg closest to her is still closed, but it is indeed left ambiguous. In my honest opinion, she's not infected.
Facehuggers will still attack you even after the point you were supposedly infected, traditionally they ignore people already infected.
Ripley's daughter is mentioned dying of old age in Aliens, so, no.
Assuming that the information given to Burke in the film wasn't a bold-face lie.
Wayland Yutani might be powerful but they don't control everything. If they spun Ellen Ripley a line about Amanda dying an old woman if she died in her 20s there would have been far to many holes in the story. And indeed what would they have to gain from such a lie? Even if they were covering up their involvement something like "industrial accident" would have been a lot easier a story to create and maintain than several extra decades of life.
I have to say no. The reason why is because if Amanda had been facehugged, she would have never woken up due to dying. You have to remember, though it took a fraction of a second for the Facehugger to attach itself to Caine in the original film, it took hours for it to implant him and then for him to eventually wake up. The station was losing its orbit, and with the same amount of time, Ripley would have been long since dead before the Facehugger could finish implanting it. It's when you take into account the first film does the question of "Was Ripley infected?" get it's answer.
This is even backed up even more by the programmers themselves. They reveal in the BTS that Ricardo was to be facehugged during when he lost radio contact with Amanda, and he wouldn't have had any memory of what happened and his death was originally intended to be violent and in front of Ripley with the chestburster coming out. The programmers decided against it and have Amanda find Ricardo already with a facehugger on him because they knew that fans would notice that the time for implantation would have been too short in comparison to what is noted in the first film to be possible. That means they knew that if the implantation time would be too short for Ricardo, the same would have been true with Amanda when waking up on the wall. And given the fact that Sevastopol was losing altitude and about to fall into a gas giant, it's safe to say it wasn't 24 hours later between the moment Ripley was dragged by the xeno to the moment she woke up.
In the Final Dungeon: How did the Aliens manage to create that many facehugger eggs in the second hive on such short notice? If there was a queen in the first hive, it's unlikely she made it out alive, and the only other way to make eggs involves a rather sloooooow process of converting captured humans, and it's unlikely there were that many left alive on the station.
In the original version of the story for the first film, which was re-inserted into the Director's Cut, the xenomorph had the ability to take hosts and turn them into eggs (in the Director's Cut, we see what actually happened to Brett after he was attacked by the xenomorph: it took him and converted him into an egg, which Ripley finds along with Dallas, who had been infected with a chestburster after she starts the self-destruct sequence). So, it's possible that after Ripley purged the nest, the Aliens that go out found nearby hosts, started converting them and then they proceeded to create Facehuggers.
As far as I remember, this way of creating eggs was definitely termed to be non canon, and it's anyway disregarded or utterly contrasted by the following films and anything official related to the franchise.
However, Ridley Scott considers the Director's Cut of Alien as the version of the film he wanted to present originally (with the exception of Ash being revealed to be an android, which he has been vocal about, as being the idea of the producers who wanted it in there). And Amanda Ripley would also be considered "non-canon" by the films and other official related materials released prior to the Special Edition of Aliens being released, as she was not in the Theatrical Cut of the film and her existence only became known after the SE version, which James Cameron also considers to be the version of the story he wanted to tell. So, seeing that the game reflects more of the original film and using ideas that were originally intended for the film in the game, it's safe to say that it's possibility
This still doesn't account for the eggs being created quickly. At that point, the androids have killed almost everyone else on the station, and it's been, at most, a few hours, so there shouldn't be fully formed facehugger eggs available at that point.
Eh, no. When Ridley Scott was asked to make a Director's Cut of Alien, he initially refused, because the the Theatrical Version is basically his Director's Cut. He also talks at length about why the "eggmorphing" scene was removed, it was a great scene and really interesting and explained the Alien's behavior, but it killed the pacing and tension since it happens when Ripley is racing against time to destroy the Nostromo and get away as the only living crewmember, and that's just not the time for her to stop and have a long, emotionally-charged conversation (Ridley is also very complimentary of the Ash as Android twist, saying that it gave the film more meaning; Dan O'Bannon, one of the writers, is the one who dismisses it as "a bad twist done well.") Eggmorphing as been re-added to canon with the RPG, but yes, the Aliens likely wouldn't have had time to Eggmorph so many people. Most likely: They carried intact eggs out of the Hive before they were destroyed by the reactor purge. Yes, we don't see that happening, but we don't see all the Aliens that fled or the ways in which they might have done so, just the ones visible from Ripley's vantage point (and not even all of those, really).
It could very well be that the xenomorphs, being a reasonably intelligent species, realized what Ripley was doing in the nest and started evacuating the eggs by hand before she could totally wipe them out and that's where all those eggs in the new nest came from. It would also handily explain why you aren't totally swarmed by them in the hive—all but one or two are busy trying to save as many of the eggs as they can.
Where did that lone Facehugger on the Anesidora come from? There's no way it could have gotten onto the ship without taking the time to attacking one of its would-be passengers first.
My guess is it was hidden under something in the ambulance Marlow used and took a while to wriggle free.
After Amanda leaves the baggage claim at the beginning of the game, she's treated to a prerecorded message about the station. However, this is the departure lounge. Why would they play an introductory spiel welcoming people to the station when they're about to leave?
The station's systems are all kinds of messed up. Playing the wrong message is not that surprising.
If there's more than one Alien, why did they came one at a time against Ripley than all together? Aliens establish that they would go attack their enemies on huge numbers with extreme aggression when one of their own is threatened?
There's a chance that the others were busy. Keep in mind in "Aliens", they went after all the colonists to get them for hosts. The Alien you see throughout the game may, in fact, be multiple aliens you're encountering, with all of them looking for hosts before we discover that they're multiple ones.
Why Ripley doesn't use the little shuttle to dock with Torrens? Furthermore the little shuttle must have had some kind of a radio and a radar. If Torrens was nearby, Ripley should have noticed it, contacted it and docked with it just as easily.
Do you mean the ambulance shuttle she used to reach Anesidora? Well first it was damaged on return to Sevastopol. Second, the shuttle really wasn't designed to operate without support, it's only meant to make short jumps between airlocks on Sevastopol itself. The only reason it can find Anesidora is because Marlow (or was it Ricardo? Doesn't matter) had pre-programmed it's destination. If it has a radio it's unlikely to be more useful than the malfunctioning, static-filled one that Waits was using as a warning beacon. And finally Torrens is not easy to find, given that Ripley needed to use the station's deep space observatory to detect it.
Why is the station such a labyrinth? It is understandable from a game designing point of view, because it gives the player a labyrinth to navigate in and it looks like the Nostromo and the Colony of LV-426 in the movies, but it would be an extremely inconvenient mess of a layout for anyone who would have to live and work inside it. Every place in the game is a tangle of rooms and corridors connecting each other without any logic to it. All the important switches and access panels are sprinkled around random walls and there are almost no directional plaques anywhere. The most eggregious example is aligning the dish, which requires Ripley to go to three different locations, two of which are outside the station. Oddly there is a very long walkway leading directly from the airlock to the controls. Why? Did they suddenly run out of corridors? In the original film Nostromo is a labyrinth of corridors and rooms, but that is sort of justified, because Nostromo is an aerodynamic ship capable of landing on a planet with an atmosphere, so of course the habitable sections had to be built around important systems in the leftover spaces. This same excuse applies to Torrens, Anesidora and the reactor core of Sevastopol station, but it applies to nothing else. Sevastopol is in space, so there are literally no structural constraints to constructing the habitats with at least as much sanity, ergonomics and OSHA compliance as a modern day skyscraper. Maybe the Sevastopol station's head designer was the CEO's inept nephew or something.
It isn't THAT badly designed first off, alot of the places within the facility are laid out logically much like any real life facility. If you take a look at real-life refineries and electrical facilities, they're often just mazes of rooms and computer corridors which appear to be badly designed but were probably designed with utility and function in mind.
I personally think you are exaggerating how badly it is laid out. And with your example of walking along a long walkway from the airlock, that was reaching the manual controls on the dish itself and building a long extra hallway onto the station just for the dish is just a waste given that the manual controls for the dish itself would only really be needed for maintenance in normal circumstances where they would need to be outside for anyway.
I probably missed something, but I'm a bit confused as to how the Nostromo flight recorder is intact when the ship was all but destroyed?
My guess is that ships in this universe have a system in place to automatically jettison the ship's flight recorder when certain conditions are met.
In the DLC where you get to play Ripley in her escape from the Nostromo from the first film, when she records her ending message, there is some graphics that indicate that the Nostromo's flight recorder is wireless and was jettisoned from the ship prior to it's destruction. It's likely that it was ejected during the half-way point of the self-destruct sequence when it was active (the part of the film where Ripley attempted to turn the cooling systems back on but wasn't able to in time). During that time when Ripley couldn't turn the cooling unit back on, the flight recorder may have been ejected from the ship and it switched to wireless recording so that it had the confirmation of the ship's destruction and was still in range for Ripley to record the messages she did (her final log from the film and the message explaining to Amanda what happened to the Nostromo).
How or at what point did Weyland-Yutani find out there were aliens lose on the station?
Considering it takes two weeks for messages to be sent from LV-426 to Earth, there's a good chance that they may have found out after an initial report sent from the station to the company that originally owned it about an alien creature, which may have happened during Amanda and crew's trip to the station. When they intercepted the report, they moved to purchase the station from the company and they transmitted to Apollo that Weyland-Yutani was the new owners of the station.
