SPOILER - Where do they come from...?

[Boonatix]

This is spoiler so if you have not finished the game, be aware :)

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I just wondered where all those eggs in the nest are coming from? We did not see any queen... and then we destry the big nest, just to get dragged in another one at nearly the end of the game with more eggs... now where did those come from??

Any suggestions / theories? As this is like the only part of the game that is really irritating me and just does not fit :(

[cobalt358]

it's a debate that's been going on for some time. there's been quite a few threads about it already.

some people think an unseen queen, others say egg-morphing. it's really open to debate, the game gives no solid answers.

[Jhea]

in the ridley scott alien universe there is no such thing as an alienqueen.
the xenomorph itselfs lays the eggs
it showed in some of the deleted scenes on part one of the movie, when there is dallas woven into the net that appaered on the nostromo

in the james cameron alien universe there is the alien queen... we all know and love or hate ;)

in the stever perry alien universe the drones can spontanouisly morph into a queen, when there is no queen arround. (it's a from a book series, it's also mentioned on AVP wiki) (that's the reason why earth was overrun in the book series ;D which takes place after the second or third movie...)
the queen however then controls the drones per thelepathy or something, and if that signal is missing, PLoff. 1 drone less, 1 queen more.
and then there is the uberqueen, queen of queens if you so like


choose whatever explanation fits you best ;)

[Cable Salad]

The most common explanation is egg-morphing but the fact you didn't see a queen doesn't mean there is no queen.

[Cable Salad]

Originally posted by Foxi:

in the ridley scott alien universe there is no such thing as an alienqueen.
the xenomorph itselfs lays the eggs
it showed in some of the deleted scenes on part one of the movie, when there is dallas woven into the net that appaered on the nostromo

in the james cameron alien universe there is the alien queen... we all know and love or hate ;)

in the stever perry alien universe the drones can spontanouisly morph into a queen, when there is no queen arround. (it's a from a book series, it's also mentioned on AVP wiki) (that's the reason why earth was overrun in the book series ;D which takes place after the second or third movie...)
the queen however then controls the drones per thelepathy or something, and if that signal is missing, PLoff. 1 drone less, 1 queen more.
and then there is the uberqueen, queen of queens if you so like


choose whatever explanation fits you best ;)

I can imagine why they discarded the egg-morphing idea. It's just...dumb. The alien has a cumbersome reproduction cycle, already. With egg-morphing it would take 2 hosts to spawn an alien, which is absolutely retrded from a biological/evolutionary point of view. Nobody would have engineered that, either.

[Snort Cannon]

well its not one Alien in the game. Maybe all of them sealed off the part of Sevastapol and made a nest there.

[RetroReplicant]

Well even though I loved ALIENS, for the love of god please NO Queen in the dlc or sequel...

[doubleo_maestro]

The developers were very based on following Alien, not Aliens. So it is unlikely they would go the queen route. However the Alien movie did address the lifecycle. The Alien can cocoon a victim and then morph them into an egg.

A cumbersome lifecycle until you take into account that the Alien gets to take qualities of it's Host in order to be perfectly adapated to the environment it's going to be in.

[Unders]

Plus there's the speculation that they're genetically engineered bioweapons, so engineering a cumbersome life cycle into could be one way to marginally keep the things in check.

[Noob Van Noob]

first off, do we even know thats why the alien did the morphing thing at all? perhaps it was converting them into a substance that's consumable by it, much like a spider does to its prey

[Purity+Control<]

obviously egg morphing, no queen here and I dont understand what people argue about when it comes to that. In every game / movie when theres a queen, she has her eggs around her in her chamber, with that big disgusting thing that is attached to her that lays eggs.

In alien isolation, there are eggs spread all around the reactor place and small places that she could never reach because of her size. I mean seriously, just look around in the game, its no freaking rocket science. Plus a complete absence ingame of any descpription or conversation/log that hints at the possibility of a queen.

[doubleo_maestro]

Originally posted by Student of Strategy:

first off, do we even know thats why the alien did the morphing thing at all? perhaps it was converting them into a substance that's consumable by it, much like a spider does to its prey

Yeah we do. In the actual scene of Alien were Ripley finds the Hive, Brett who was taken first and been there the longest is already becoming an egg (you can see the lips of the pod around his head). I do believe as well in certain documentaries on the film, it's been discussed that was the 'behind the scenes' decision on what was happening.

[Boonatix]

Interesting, never heard of that theory before ... did some googling and saw the deleted scene, pictures and some topics in forums about it, even though I have seen all the movies I never heard of this before... very interesting, thx a lot :)

[Cable Salad]

Originally posted by Matthias T Undercroft:

Plus there's the speculation that they're genetically engineered bioweapons, so engineering a cumbersome life cycle into could be one way to marginally keep the things in check.

Nobody with half a brain would willingly design a complex organism as a bio-weapon, let alone pour the insane amount of research, resources and testing, no matter how far advanced you are in genetics. The creature is simply too unreliable, risky and uncontrollable for anyone with half a brain to consider it a weapon...well, other than us humans of course, but we're the same guys who think taking a dump on our planet for the sake of economy and industry is a bright idea, too.

If any advanced race would design a bio-weapon, they would probably do it as efficiently as possible and that means sticking to simple germs rather than complex organisms. Why? Simple. It's cheaper, less complex to engineer, more efficient, more subtile, easier to control, more predictable, way safer for your own people and easier to get rid of once the job is done. It simply doesn't make any sense to artificially design a creature like the alien.

Originally posted by JKimble:

obviously egg morphing, no queen here and I dont understand what people argue about when it comes to that. In every game / movie when theres a queen, she has her eggs around her in her chamber, with that big disgusting thing that is attached to her that lays eggs.

In alien isolation, there are eggs spread all around the reactor place and small places that she could never reach because of her size. I mean seriously, just look around in the game, its no freaking rocket science. Plus a complete absence ingame of any descpription or conversation/log that hints at the possibility of a queen.

A drone can easily carry or move the eggs around. Bees, ants, wasps. All of them aren't strangers to moving eggs or larvae around. Since we only saw finished eggs, we can't say for sure how they got there. There might and might not be a queen. Schroedinger's queen, if you want.

[Bru741iX]

Originally posted by shedim:

Originally posted by Matthias T Undercroft:

Plus there's the speculation that they're genetically engineered bioweapons, so engineering a cumbersome life cycle into could be one way to marginally keep the things in check.

Nobody with half a brain would willingly design a complex organism as a bio-weapon, let alone pour the insane amount of research, resources and testing, no matter how far advanced you are in genetics. The creature is simply too unreliable, risky and uncontrollable for anyone with half a brain to consider it a weapon...well, other than us humans of course, but we're the same guys who think taking a dump on our planet for the sake of economy and industry is a bright idea, too.

If any advanced race would design a bio-weapon, they would probably do it as efficiently as possible and that means sticking to simple germs rather than complex organisms. Why? Simple. It's cheaper, less complex to engineer, more efficient, more subtile, easier to control, more predictable, way safer for your own people and easier to get rid of once the job is done. It simply doesn't make any sense to artificially design a creature like the alien.

If a species is so advanced they can travel across space much faster than us, and have had technology that's way more advanced than anything we can even think of, for longer than we can remember, then way wouldnt they be able to create a complex organism as a bio-weapon.

Before we started having seperate buckets overflowing into each other, Prometheus pretty much shows that the Engineers are capable of doing that.
In the original script it was even clearer, but someone at Fox decided that a plothole fest was a much better idea.

In the end, or in the game rather, the main reason the developers left out any signs of egg-morphing and/or a queen is to add to the mystery, and keep fans from both sides happy.

Dont forget it's a horror game, emphasis on "horror".
Most modern day horror games and movies are made to make no sense, have a lot of rollercoasting emotionally, and lousy endings.

Alien Isolation have all of that. ;)

[Cable Salad]

Originally posted by Bru741iX:

If a species is so advanced they can travel across space much faster than us, and have had technology that's way more advanced than anything we can even think of, for longer than we can remember, then way wouldnt they be able to create a complex organism as a bio-weapon.

So you would rather disregard all common sense and pour billions of resources, money and centuries of research into finding out how to genetically modify cats (to the point they pose a threat even to your own people or any life in the universe), only to get rid of mice because mousetraps are so 1899?

Originally posted by Bru741iX:

Before we started having seperate buckets overflowing into each other, Prometheus pretty much shows that the Engineers are capable of doing that.
In the original script it was even clearer, but someone at Fox decided that a plothole fest was a much better idea.

Ridley Scott couldn't make up his mind whether Prometheus is the prequel to Alien or not and in the end he chose it's not and explicitly stated so. Sorry, no Engineers in the Alien universe. Blame Scott if you want.

Plus, they didn't design the Alien and the effects of that black goo (full of space magic) on organic tissue is a plot hole of it's own in a flawed film full of plotholes, inconsistency and a tiring overabundance of religious innuendos. It seems you didn't like the film, either and I can't blame you for that.

The Engineers clearly didn't want to create that kind of life and the simple fact that this black goo is so dangerous, yet they carelessly littered it all over the place in easy to open canisters, makes me question what kind of imbecile would design such a substance in the first place...and leave it in a tupperware...and invite lesser races to come and check it out. Nobody with half a brain would do that. This is mind-blowingly stupid and takes idiocy to a whole new level. No way they didn't know how hazardous that substance is but well, the whole movie is just laughable and the only character in the film who isn't an utterly incompetent tool+manages to appear credible throughout the movie is David.

Originally posted by Bru741iX:

In the end, or in the game rather, the main reason the developers left out any signs of egg-morphing and/or a queen is to add to the mystery, and keep fans from both sides happy.

Dont forget it's a horror game, emphasis on "horror".
Most modern day horror games and movies are made to make no sense, have a lot of rollercoasting emotionally, and lousy endings.

Alien Isolation have all of that. ;)

See? That's what I liked about this game. Both explanations are reasonable and it's up to you to pick which one you like best, since we did neither see a morphed egg nor did we see a queen, hence why both scenarios are possible. This is pretty well made actually but the game sadly also pretty much mirrors your description of modern day horror games and movies. This game has a predictable (but actually enjoyable) story, plenty of rollercoasting and a utterly garbage ending full of plot holes. The game was fine until the point things started to not make sense anymore. When things start making no sense you get the same old same old garbage movies, that turned this once promising franchise into the steaming pile of feces it is today. It's such a shame. Sometimes consulting an expert, such as a biologist would do wonders for credibility and the best horror movies are those where things play with the audience's fear of the unknown yet everything still makes sense and is credible at any given time.