One thing that makes Alien: Isolation such a uniquely tense experience is that it feels so personal thanks to its protagonist, Amanda Ripley, being the daughter of Ellen Ripley, the beloved hero of the original Alien movies. Her desperate search for her mom grounds the story in reality and makes you connect with Amanda and sympathize for her predicament even more.
That said, Alien: Isolation writer Dion Lay wasn't originally on board with Amanda as protagonist and wasn't sold until he realized how much "weight and heart" she adds to the story.
Appearing on the FRVR podcast, former Creative Assembly writer Dion Lay explained how Amanda became Alien: Isolation's player character and why he initially wasn't convinced she was right for the job.
"Now it seems like a no-brainer," Lay said. "And it was so funny because I was like, 'I don't think this is a good idea. What happened was, one of my mates, the guy I was living with, [lead core tech programmer] Chris Gascoyne, he's a coder and he came up to me in the kitchen, and he was like, 'Hey, what about [Amanda Ripley]?'
"I was thinking it's a bit Son of Frankenstein," Lay said. "And it is a bit convenient as well. I was kind of like, 'I don't know, yeah.'"
According to Lay, Gascoyne then pitched Amanda as protagonist to director Alistair Hope, who liked the idea and relayed his thoughts back to Lay. Still, Lay kept thinking, "I don't think so."
It wasn't until Lay's fellow writer on the project, Dan Abnett, "had the idea of how it could not feel convenient, which is, well the reason she's gonna find the alien is because she's gonna follow her mother, literally ... so that it made sense" to Lay.
"Suddenly everything just had so much more weight and heart in it," added Lay.
It's hard to imagine Alien: Isolation without Amanda as its hero, and I'm thankful Lay eventually came around to the idea. The one and only thing I might change about the game is its length, which can make the at-times unbearable tension even harder to endure. According to Lay, the horror gem's longer-than-typical length is due to the Xenomorph becoming more intelligent during the development process and thus demanding more time from the player to beat.
