Warning: the following contains spoilers for the plot of Alien.
Alien: Isolation is out, and we thought it was pretty bloody good. For those of you that bought the Ripley Edition there are two pieces of DLC content in the box: Crew Expendable and Last Survivor. Both are based on scenarios from the original film. The real question is: are you missing out on anything if you didn't stump up for them? And are they worth picking up when they're inevitably released separately?
Of the two, Crew Expendable is the weakest. Picking from Parker, Dallas, or Ripley, players control one of the Nostromo crew in its ill-fated attempt at chasing the Alien into an airlock before blasting it off into space.
A few liberties have been taken with the source material however, and so Dallas (or whoever) doesn't die. Instead, there's a whole other sequence where, thanks to the (implied) duplicity of a crew member, the Alien escapes. There's also an interesting amount of backstory – in the form of logs – that sheds more light on the Nostromo crew's thinking after Kane is infected.
Like the main game, it's tense and atmospheric: the section where Lambert has to guide you through the air vents, as in the movie, is filled with horrific dread. But it's not that long, and it must be said that by changing the movie's plotting the ending feels a little bit weak.
Last Survivor, on the other hand, is much stronger. As Ripley, you have to engage the self-destruct sequence on the Nostromo before getting back over to the Narcissus and making your escape. The scenario starts with Ripley racing to the (attempted) aid of Parker and Lambert, who have been cornered by the Alien. The discovery of the mutilated bodies of both is interesting (more on that later), but Last Survivor really comes into its own in the last few minutes.
With the self-destruct sequence activated and Ripley needing to get from one end of the Nostromo to the other, Last Survivor introduces a time pressure not seen in the main game. Throw in the fact that the ship is essentially tearing itself apart, with visibility at an all time low due to ruptured steam pipes and broken light systems, and Ripley's panicked, unsettling chanting of "you are my lucky star", and you've got an excellent end to good additional content.
It's also an interesting extra in that, by featuring Lambert and Parker's deaths, it forces CA to give its version of what has always been one of the most sinister implied deaths in cinema. Debate still rages as to what happened to Lambert, with some saying she is raped by the Alien, others saying she's torn in half, and all manner of theories in between.
Of course, CA isn't able to use editing techniques to merely suggest Lambert's fate, as Scott did, and has had to make a call on its interpretation of events. The end result is that the developer has made it clear Lambert was violently sexually assaulted: while she's not seen hanging naked from one of the spacesuit room's hooks, as the movie seems to suggest, what is there is possibly even worse. It's a grotesque reminder of one of the more sinister traits of Giger's beast, and genuinely disquieting.
Of the two then, Last Survivor is worth seeking out, but Crew Expendable is, well, pretty much that.
