Is there anywhere safe left on this table?
Alien Isolation Pinball is a virtual Pinball Spin-Off and adaptation of the game of the same name, developed and published by Zen Studios. This pinball table is one of the three tables in the Aliens vs. Pinball collection, a premium add-on for Zen Studios' Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2 and Pinball FX 3, and is also playable on the Aliens vs. Pinball mobile app.In this table, you must relive the events of the game through six missions as you explore the Sevastopol station as Amanda Ripley, while keeping an eye out for the lone, stalking Xenomorph that hunts her down on occasion and fending off other hostile entities, including rogue androids - all with a traditional supply of three balls.
Alien Isolation Pinball provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Feature
- There is a 30-second ball saver granted at the start of each ball, like all other of Zen Studios' pinball tables.
- Kickbacks are easy to activate - just hit the Emergency Target a few times and the kickbacks you earn will persist across balls until they are used up.
- To unlock the Wizard Mode (Final Encounter), you only need to attempt all six missions - and losing the ball during a mission simply skips it. However, if you don't complete any missions successfully and then fail the Wizard Mode, you have to start all over again.
- Bloodless Carnage / Bowdlerize: Alien: Isolation earns a Mature Rating for having a lot of blood and profanity, which Zen's censorship and family friendly policies strip out for the Everyone 10+ Rating.
- Critical Annoyance: If you don't like playing pinball with a red haze clouding the edges of the screen, don't let Amanda's health drop to its lowest from two attacks by the Xenomorph.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: After the player attempts most missions, Amanda can pick up a flamethrower and use it to lay waste to enemy drop targets. She can even use it to drive out the Xenomorph if and when she draws its attention, if the player shoots the orbit during the brief time allotted to escape.
- Get Out!: Amanda screams a variant of this at the Xenomorph after finally cornering it and opening the airlock during the Wizard Mode "Final Encounter", hoping that it would be thrown out into space for good along with the balls the player launches through it in a nearby ramp.
- Kill Enemies to Open: In the two-phase Special Order 939 mission, the player must defeat a slew of Androids in the first phase to unlock the other phase - which is to access the hacking minigame to take control of them.
- Life Meter: Amanda has one and it is divided into thirds, with each third lost every time the Xenomorph attacks her. This can happen either when 1) she draws the Xenomorph's attention and fails to escape, 2) the player makes certain mistakes during missions or 3) the player fails the current mission altogether. Subverted in that the health meter can't reach zero, meaning that she can't die, but the player will suffer score penalties as long as she isn't at full health. Crafting a medkit by spelling MEDKIT on the rollovers and picking it up will bring her back to peachy-keen shape.
- Mini-Game: You can access a hacking minigame that's played like a brick breaker, like Arkanoid. It's mandatory for the second half of the Special Order 939 mission, in which Amanda hacks the androids after disabling them. Otherwise, it can be accessed by spinning a flag at the left orbit enough times, then shooting the bumpers at the apex of the orbit within a 15-second time limit.
- Press X to Not Die: If you draw out the Xenomorph, you have only a brief period of time to hide from it by shooting the Cabinet twice. The first hit opens it and the second hit locks the ball inside it. If you can't, the Xenomorph takes a bite out of Amanda's health.
- Score Multiplier: Raise the score multiplier after performing a certain number of stealth takedowns.
- Skill Shot: The player must carefully adjust the strength of the plunger such that when it launches the ball diagonally across the playfield, it will drop into one of the two lit left inlanes in a procedure called "skill evade". Doing so will increase the amount of time before the Alien gets close to Amanda. After a successful Skill Evade, the cabinet lock will open as the ball rolls to the left flipper, giving the player a very brief opportunity to nail a super skill shot called "skill heal" that will fully replenish Amanda's health.
- Spelling Bonus: As a pinball table, this is pretty commonplace. Spelling out certain phrases, like ANDROID, STEALTH, TORRENS or SEVASTOPOL will start side modes that can be completed for bonus points.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: In a single playthrough, Amanda does this twice to the Xenomorph. The second time is done at the conclusion of the Wizard Mode, in which the player not only throws the Xenomorph out of the station for good, but also all the multiple balls provided at the start of the mode, ejecting them through the Android ramp that happens to be right near the open airlock, which vacuums the balls out into deep space.
- Wizard Mode: Titled "Final Encounter", this mode has the player luring the Xenomorph into a nearby airlock as the space station is falling apart, while juggling four balls to shoot jackpot lanes a cumulative number of times, then hitting the bumpers a certain number of times, before finally throwing the balls out of the opened airlock through a nearby ramp with the Xenomorph as it is finally defeated.
- Amanda Ripley: GET OFF MY SHIP, YOU MONSTER!
