Changes: Working Joe

Revision as of 01:00, 30 October 2014

"Working Joes: Brilliantly simple and simply brilliant."

―APOLLO (from Alien: Isolation)

Working Joe is a line of rudimentary androids manufactured and sold by Seegson Corporation. They are encountered aboard the decommissioned space station Sevastopol Station in 2137.

Overview

Unlike the human-resembling synthetics of Weyland-Yutani or Hyperdyne Systems, the Working Joes feature hairless rubber skin, LED eyes, robotic voice and lack facial movement.

Seegson offers the Joes as a package of androids and an APOLLO governing artificial intelligence. Its marketing approach is twofold:

The package of androids and centralised AI is more cost-effective than competing synthetic solutions, where each unit is a stand-alone artificial intelligence.
The obviously-synthetic Joes are actually less disquieting than human-resembling synthetics; people immediately know that they are dealing with an android instead of discovering that what they thought was a human being is actually a synthetic lifeform. As the Joes themselves often say, "You always know a Working Joe."

The majority of Working Joes are the standard model, identifiable by their industrial overalls.

Variants

"I will find you, you know."

―Hazardous environment Working Joe

Also present on the station is a more advanced model wearing full body hazardous environment gear. They are often encountered around APOLLO's core and Reactor Maintenance, and are more resiliant to damage received by firearms and craftable items.

Characteristics and Behavior

"Running causes accidents."

―Working Joe synthetic in hostile mode

The Working Joes possess little independent operating capacity and are completely subservient to the directives of their governing APOLLO A.I. they operate in two modes, identifiable by the colour of their "eyes":

When a Joe's eyes white, the Joe is operating per normal parameters. Unless it finds the player in a restricted area or committing a breach of station protocol, it will acknowledge the player's presence but go about its own business (unless its business involves serving the player's immediate needs, like the Requisitions Android).
When a Joe's eyes glow red, the Joe is hostile. It will approach targets at a brisk walk and attack, grasping, striking, throwing and throttling them, doing damage until they are killed.

During the course of Alien: Isolation, every Hazardous environment Joe encountered operates in hostile mode.

Interactions with Xenomorphs

"Uncategorised species. What are you?"

―A Working Joe to a Xenomorph

If the Alien and a Working Joe encounter each other, the android will most likely enquire about the Alien's nature and state that it is logging its presence with APOLLO, neither the Alien nor the Joe will interact with each other directly. However, the presence of a dismembered Synthetic in the Gemini Exoplanet Solutions lab module implies that there may be circumstances in which the Alien will attack a Working Joe.

Despite any programmed safeguards, a Joe will not act to protect human beings from the Alien.

Quotes

What are you? (Noticing a Xenomorph)
Unspecified species. (Noticing a Xenomorph)
How may I help you? (Friendly)
You are carrying some dangerous items. (Friendly)
Your presence has been logged. (Friendly)
Good day. (Friendly)
Hmmm (As hostile, when noticing)
This could require my attention. (As hostile, when noticing)
Something amiss here? (As hostile, when noticing)
Strange. (As hostile, when noticing)
A gun. I should investigate. (When noticing a gun)
Something still amiss here. (Investigating)
I will find you, you know. (Investigating)
A synthetic's work is never done. (Investigation finishes)
Abandoning search routines. (Investigation finishes)
I've been looking for you. (Finding you hiding in a locker)
Come with me, please. (Chasing)
Running causes accidents. (Chasing)
Don't run. (Chasing)
I just want to help you. (Chasing)
Why not ask me about Sevastopol's safety protocols? (Chasing)
You and I are going to have a little talk about safety. (Chasing)
You're making me waste company time. (Chasing)
Let me help you. (Attacking)
Are you quite finished? (Attacking)
Tut, tut. (Getting attacked)
Now, now. (Getting attacked)
That stings. (Getting attacked)
You are becoming hysterical. (Getting attacked)
This is futile. (Getting attacked)
My turn now. (Getting attacked)
Really? (Getting attacked)
Good day. (Killed someone)
I only wanted to help. (Killed someone)
Let's resolve this amicably. (Only heard when killing Hughes)
Hold still. (Only heard when killing Waits)
It's my chance to dream. (Gurgled when being killed)

Gameplay

Much as with the Alien, Joes can be hidden from. Hiding under a table, desk or bed is less effective than against the Alien; Joes are more likely to keep line of sight with a player under a table and will kick them.

Lockers are also effective, although less so against hazardous environment Joes who are often slightly more aware of their surroundings than the regular model.

Working Joes are surprisingly resilient. Attacking at hand-to-hand range is very risky; a regular Joe is dextrous enough to catch most swings with a Maintenance Jack and punch back while holding the player in place.

Striking with a stun baton will temporarily short a regular Joe out, allowing the player enough time to kill a them with just the Maintenance Jack, even if the Joe has full health. Similarly, the EMP mine will cripple any Joes in its blast radius.

Shots from a .357 Revolver, even to the head, are unlikely to do destructive damage, although two to four headshots will typically bring a standard Joe down. A shotgun is a better choice when available. A flamethrower or Molotov will set a Joe alight but will likely not kill it as Joes are very resilient to fire. However, although not recommended due to the amount of Flamethrower Fuel required, continuously firing the flamethrower at the Joes will eventually kill it.

Hazardous environment Joes are much tougher; EMP mines, flamethrowers and Molotovs will have little appreciable effect on them.

The most effective anti-Joe weapon is the bolt gun. Though it takes time to load and aim, the bolt gun will down any Joe of either variant with a single clean headshot.

Appearances

Alien: Isolation

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 [[File:engineering-joe-1.jpg|thumb]]
-Also present on the station is a more advanced model wearing full body hazardous environment gear. They are often encountered around APOLLO's core and Reactor Maintenance.
+Also present on the station is a more advanced model wearing full body hazardous environment gear. They are often encountered around APOLLO's core and Reactor Maintenance, and are more resiliant to damage received by firearms and craftable items.
 ==Characteristics and Behavior==