Aliens: Dark Descent Review – Game Over, Man

Tindalos Interactive is well-regarded for its unique takes on the real-time strategy genre. Having previously worked on two games based on the Warhammer 40,000 setting—Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 and 2—the studio has now released a unique strategy game based on the classic Alien franchise. Aliens: Dark Descent is a game with a unique mix and match of different ideas from different genres, it’s honestly surprising how well it all comes together.

Games based on the Alien franchise have been something of a mixed bag, with some absolutely excellent titles, like the stealth-based horror game Alien: Isolation, to Aliens: Colonial Marines—a game so bad that it’s essentially a meme at this point. Aliens: Dark Descent is unique in the fact that, rather than putting you closer to the action in a first-person adventure, you’re instead playing a strategy game for the first time since the older Alien vs Predator titles.

Aliens: Dark Descent puts you in charge of squads of your own making as you explore various colonies on the planet Lethe. What makes it rather unique among its contemporaries is the fact that, rather than giving you control of individual units, you instead control the whole squad as a single unit. This means that they walk and run together, and even attack enemies together, and you don’t really get much in the way of direct control of your marines aside from using special abilities.

"It’s honestly surprising how well it all comes together"

The gameplay loop in Aliens: Dark Descent is quite interesting. Rather than throwing you in mission after mission, it instead gives you absolutely gigantic maps that could take hours to explore. Each level has a number of objectives that can be completed in any order you might generally want to approach them in, and you’re free to extract out of the level and return back to home base if you start getting a bit too overwhelmed. Any changes you might make to the level, like for example welding doors shut or clearing blockades with explosives persist between deployments. Since you can extract from a mission whenever you want, this means that the game generally encourages taking on each level at your own pace, rather than throwing you into a mission that could take hours.

The game encourages players to learn its large maps, since knowing your squad’s whereabouts in relation to the various structures around you can often mean life or death. For example, if you’re being hunted down by the Xenomorphs and need a few seconds to catch your breath, you’ll appreciate remembering a good place to hide.

Speaking of which, combat isn’t something you’ll see in Aliens: Dark Descent very often, but when it does happen, it’s often brutal, and will likely leave more than a couple of your squad members both physically and mentally traumatized. While most of your time in the game will be spent in exploring the labyrinthine hallways in the settlements of Lethe, there are Xenomorphs prowling around, as well as nests. Being spotted not only means that you’ll likely have to get into a fight, but you’ll also quickly need to figure out an escape route and a place to hide, since this will not trigger an in-game situation called “hunt”.

"Most of your time in the game will be spent in exploring the labyrinthine hallways in the settlements of Lethe."

The hunt is an interesting concept in the game since it adds a slow, ticking timer that will escalate your current predicament into a situation far worse than you’re likely ready for. During a hunt, an intensity meter on the top-right of the screen is constantly going up. While things are relatively chill when the hunt’s still on Easy, you’ll soon find yourself having to fend off waves of Xenomorphs once you hit the harder hunt phases. What makes hunts especially dangerous is the level of stress it piles on your squad, which could potentially lead to your marines picking up negative traits that could affect their performance in future missions. The only real way to deal with hunts is to find a place to hide and hunker down.

Returning from a mission, while often great for the morale and physical health of your marines, will also have you manage your home base. You won’t spend too much time here, however, as the logistics are fairly simple to take care of, and the most complex thing you’ll likely do is level up your marines between missions by outfitting them with new perks, and perhaps new pieces of equipment.

Furthermore, the gameplay in Aliens: Dark Descent, despite being a tactical strategy game, feels more akin to a survival horror game. Sure, you have weapons and various tools, but you’ll be trying to cover as much of the room you’re in with light just to make sure a Facehugger isn’t lurking behind an office desk. You even get a dedicated flashlight that you’re encouraged to use constantly. Couple that with limited ammo and the psychological stress that your marines will inevitably take on and you have the perfect recipe for one of the most interesting takes on the survival horror genre out there.

"Aliens: Dark Descent, despite being a tactical strategy game, feels more akin to a survival horror game."

The only real place Aliens: Dark Descent feels like a bit of a letdown is its story. While the game starts off great, slowly building up tension over the course of the first couple of minutes, you’re quickly thrown into a tutorial mission that might do the game a bit of a disservice. The tutorial is slow, badly-paced, and takes too long to let you do anything interesting. Even the first time you use a gun is bittersweet, since control is instantly taken away from you in favor of showing you a cutscene. Once the tutorial is dealt with, the game really opens up quite well. Sadly, however, much of the plot feels like wasted potential, and the game’s core idea of humans living peacefully alongside the Xenomorphs isn’t really followed up on in a meaningful way.

The story more or less just stays in the background, and aside from a few missions where you’ll be dealing with the enemy directly, the idea just isn’t explored as thoroughly as it could’ve been. Ultimately, the plot of Aliens: Dark Descent ends up feeling like yet another retread of the stories we’ve been seeing from the movie franchise forever.

Thankfully, Aliens: Dark Descent is a gorgeous looking game, and despite the story itself being alright at best, the cutscenes and gameplay both look stellar. The way the game manages to hone in on the defining “look” of the Alien franchise is nothing short of jaw-dropping, especially when you zoom all the way into your squad of soldiers welding a door shut, for example. Its environments are wonderfully detailed, and the lighting plays a huge role in it being as fun as it is. Even details that would otherwise be secondary in other strategy titles, like weather effects, look fantastic.

"Aliens: Dark Descent is a gorgeous looking game"

When taken as a complete package, Aliens: Dark Descent ends up being a pretty good game that’s let down by its story. Its core gameplay is a fantastic combination of stealth, strategy, and survival horror, and it’s got all the fanservice you would expect as a fan of the Alien franchise. When it comes to story, the plot lacks any kind of payoff for the game’s most interesting ideas, instead falling back to the classic Alien franchise tropes of Weyland-Yutani being evil and the Xenomorphs being horrifying.

When it gets going, there’s nothing quite like Aliens: Dark Descent in the market. Its unique take on the genre alone should be enough to get fans of strategy games through the door. If, on the other hand, you want to experience the world of the Alien franchise with a clever new story, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

This game was reviewed on the PC.