Alien: Isolation mod messes with events so it technically ends before it begins

Were you one of those people who thought Alien: Isolation went on a bit too long? Would you have preferred it if the much-loved sci-fi horror wrapped things up after 46 seconds? If so, you’re in luck: one enterprising modder has now released an “impossible” mod that slings a chronological spanner in the works so the game technically ends before it begins.

“In an attempt to please IGN,” modder Matt Filer wrote on YouTube (and if you don’t know what that’s about, all should become clear over here), “this mod substantially shortens Alien: Isolation’s playable length by introducing Xenomorphs to LV-426.”

And here comes the science bit. What you’re seeing in Filer’s 46-second video

below is an ordinarily Xenomorph-free flashback sequence that usually takes place a good few hours into Alien: Isolation. It’s a scene that sets the main story – in which Amanda Ripley searches for her mother – into motion, and one that would create a hell of a paradox if, say, someone shoved in a murderous Xenomorph, causing the flashback crew to perish. “As a result of the inevitable fatalities,” Filer continues, “Marlow’s team never discovers Ellen Ripley’s flight recorder, and subsequently never arrive on Sevastopol to cause the Xenomorph outbreak.”

However, the mod does a bit more than add a Xenomorph; it also shifts the flashback sequence to the very start of the game. That both prevents the paradoxical weirdness of having it pop up several hours after Amanda is already (now impossibly) doing her thing, and means that – depending how ruthlessly efficient the Xenomorph is feeling – the entire story “usually ends in under a minute”. Or in the case of Filer’s illustrative video, 46 seconds.

The mod, which can be downloaded on Nexus Mods, isn’t just an amusing novelty; it also serves as an advert for Filer’s OpenCAGE, an open source set of mod tools for Alien: Isolation capable of “asset import/export, level script modification/creation, core configuration edits, NPC and behaviour tweaks, weapon mods, and more!”. And if you’re curious what else it can achieve, Filer has helpfully released a Thomas the Tank Engine mod, as is now obligatory.

Sega recently confirmed an Alien: Isolation sequel is in early development, with the original game’s director onboard. Unfortunately for everyone, Filer’s mod now makes that a temporal impossibility, so expect reality to start collapsing in on itself anytime soon.