Alien: Isolation is a great game. As you can tell from my review, I really liked it. The game is a huge love letter to the original Alien film and is effectively a truer sequel to that movie than Aliens was.
The game’s homage to Alien didn’t just end with recreating that film’s atmosphere however. There are two DLCs for it which let you play as the members of the Nostromo crew. This DLC is called Crew Expendable and is a “what if” of sorts. The game takes place shortly after the Alien is born and after it has killed two of the crew members. The survivors hatch a plan of trapping it in an airlock and this is where the game begins.
You can choose to play as Ellen, Parker or Dallas. Their dialogue will be slightly different from one another but the story plays out exactly the same no matter who you pick. You must close off several vents around the Nostromo in order to force the Alien into the central air shaft which will lead it to the airlock. However, you must do this while trying to evade the monster which is actively hunting you down.
Playing Crew Expendable doesn’t feel all that dissimilar from the experience of Alien: Isolation. You still have to use your wits to outmaneuver the creature by hiding in closets, under tables or causing distractions. The biggest differences are that your motion tracker is a lot bigger than it was in the main game which means you can’t use it inside of lockers. Also, you don’t have a flashlight mounted on your head so you’ll need to ready your flame thrower to see while navigating through air vents.
Where the main game felt a bit too long, this DLC feels entirely too short. As you can see from the video above, I was able to finish it in 30 minutes. Yes, I knew what I had to do already but even my first playthrough was just as long. Also, the DLC offers little variety. It is short so perhaps this couldn’t be helped.
With that said, the part where you have to navigate through a maze within the primary air shaft was fantastic. You and the Alien are in tight, dark corridors and the only way you have of knowing where to go… or NOT go… is with Lambert’s instructions. I’m surprised that a scene this intense wasn’t featured in the main game. It can get frustrating if you die a lot and have to suffer the overly long loading screens but it really was a very cool section of the game.
Crew Expendable is kind of hard to fully recommend. While I thought it was neat, it was a bit too short and some people may not feel that it’s worth buying. For the hardcore Alien fan however, I would definitely suggest it purely for the nostalgic value. Yes, some of the actors sound old (especially the men) but it is a nice throwback to the Ridley Scott classic. I guess your decision to buy this is wholly dependent on how much you love Alien or Alien: Isolation.
Alien: Isolation – Crew Expendable is currently available for the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. These impressions are based on the DLC which came with the review copy of Alien: Isolation which was provided to us by Sega.
