In a superb fan movie, embedded below, YouTuber GalaxyTraveler has recovered a wealth of unused voice recordings from Alien: Isolation's data, then cleverly edited them back into the game to give us an idea of what it might have been like had they made the cut. It's a fascinating watch, especially for Isolation fans, and while I like certain things about it, for the most part I think the developer made the right call in removing these lines from the finished game.
With only a folder full of largely contextless audio files to work with, GalaxyTraveler has had to guess where these lines were supposed to trigger. But even with this limitation, they've done a seriously impressive job of slotting them in pretty much seamlessly. If you've played Alien: Isolation a lot, it's a strange sensation seeing familiar scenes with new or alternate dialogue. The voice cast recorded a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the game.
One of the worst trends in modern gaming is your character having something to say about absolutely everything you do—and I'm surprised to discover Alien: Isolation was once guilty of this. "Maintenance panel," Ripley says when confronted with a locked door. "Plasma torch will cut through that." Later, while searching for a way out of an area: "That's gotta be the exit up ahead." Then, facing another blocked door: "Locked, but it's got power."
It seems Creative Assembly massively reduced the amount of player dialogue in the game, and I'm glad it did. Having Ripley constantly chattering away, stating the obvious about her surroundings, would have been distracting in a game that's all about atmosphere, tension, and using soundto gauge where enemies are. This kind of pointless, ceaseless narration is a blight on modern games, and Alien: Isolation really dodged a bullet here by avoiding it.
There's also cut dialogue that makes it more obvious what you're supposed to be doing next. In the final game, when you have to use a flashlight to find a vent, you get a 'press [button] to use flashlight' message. That's it. But there was a whole conversation here before. "Damn, flashlight's out." says Ripley. "I've got some batteries," Axel responds. "Let me know if you need any more." Presumably if you ran out of power you could return to Axel for a restock.
When you first find the motion tracker, there's some slightly clumsy explanatory dialogue when you pick it up that was cut from the finished product. "Pretty outdated tech," Ripley says, turning the device in her hands. "Let's see if I can remember the trick to this." Then the tracker bleeps as a Working Joe creeps up behind you. "Someone's moving," she says. "Okay, useful." This is all totally unnecessary, and again I'm glad the developer got rid of it.
But there is some cut dialogue I do like. In the finished game, Ripley is almost a blank slate. You don't get much insight into her as a person. She's too busy fighting for her life. But a few cut lines give her a touch more humanity. "Screw you very much." she says when a survivor sees her and flees. "And there was light." she quips after firing up a generator. "Christ, what a piece of junk." she remarks when a monitor sparks and falls from the ceiling.
Some of this is a little out of character, though. Early in the game Ripley finds Taylor badly injured, being tended to by Samuels. In a cut line of dialogue, she says "It's me Taylor. Stay calm, everything's going to be fine." The delivery here is off. It's too soft and reassuring. The Ripley we know from the finished game is pragmatic, practical, and tough. She'd never say something like this, and I completely understand why the developer took it out.
Elsewhere, some conversations are longer. When Ripley and Axel meet a pair of survivors in an elevator, the conversation is bitter and brief. But there were once more lines here. "I'm Relf," the woman says. "Freight coordinator. This is Dinsky, ops and cargo." The man is annoyed. "Don't need to give them our damn life stories. Who are you?" To which Axel responds "I'm John, this is Paul. George and Ringo are right behind us carrying the fucking drum kit."
Speaking of Axel, he has a lot more barks relating to how you play, to the point where it's just annoying. "You're a fucking liability!" he shouts angrily if you sprint. "I know, I'm beautiful, but you're getting creepy." if you stand too close to him. "Stop pissing about!" if you move away from the prescribed path. They did us all a favour by shutting him and other characters up. The sparse, minimal dialogue in the finished game is one of its greatest strengths.
This also has the benefit of making the game more subtle. When you first encounter a friendly Working Joe at the reception 🐷of Seegson Communications, before you know the rest of them have all turned violent, cut dialogue made this encounter a lot more sinister. "Who you are is irrelevant," the android spits. "Please take a seat." In the finished game,☂ he politely asks you to take a seat without any clue about his soon to be malfunctioning brain.
It's amazing how different—and, probably, significantly worse—Alien: Isolation could have been if this dialogue was left in. It would have been nice to get more of a sense of Amanda Ripley's personality, but it's ultimately for the best that she doesn't speak much. If you want to know more about her, you could always read the official novelisation by Keith R. A. DeCandido, which goes into detail about her troubled past. But sometimes it's just better not knowing.
