Aliens: Dark Descent
In Aliens: Dark Descent, command a squad of hardened Colonial Marines to stop a terrifying Xenomorph outbreak on Planet Lethe. Lead your soldiers in real-time combat against iconic Xenomorphs, rogue operatives from the insatiable Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and a host of horrifying creatures new to the Alien franchise.
You are the commander. They are your weapon.
Infiltrate large open levels and annihilate enemies with your squad, dispatching orders strategically and intuitively at the touch of a button. Tread carefully, as your foes will adapt their tactics to your actions while hunting you down because death is permanent. Forge unique paths for survival, uncovering shortcuts, creating safe zones, and setting up motion trackers in a persistent world where your actions impact levels forever.
Customize your squad with a selection of different classes. Level up and specialize your soldiers with unique abilities and an arsenal of weapons, armor, and perks, for high stakes missions in treacherous territory. Develop your base to research new tech and improve your squad even further.
Manage your resources wisely and take calculated risks to outsmart the deadliest creature mankind has ever faced. Can you and your squad stop the outbreak before it’s too late?
• Face off in a gripping original Alien story against iconic Xenomorph creatures ranging from Facehuggers to Praetorians, Alien Queens and many more, including rogue human commandos and a brand-new threat unique to this Alien storyline
• Lead strategically and change squad tactics from mission to mission, carefully managing your soldiers’ health, resources, and sanity, to avoid permanent team losses and mental breakdowns
• Forge unique paths for survival in a persistent world, uncovering shortcuts, creating safe zones and setting up motion trackers to stay one step ahead of these creatures
• Assemble and level up squads composed of 5 starting Marines classes, with dozens of specializations, unique abilities and weapons.
Steam User 120
I think this is a good game, that isn't for me. I'm giving it a thumbs up, even though I would have passed on it had I done more research before playing. Here are the things I don't like, that would have pushed me away from this.
* Essentially this is a stealth game, because you really don't want to be detected. The aliens alert level increases the more you get detected, which eventually brings even more aliens to each level and makes it harder to not get detected. You can reset this meter by returning to your base. But this takes time (see below for why that is an issue). I found this game play tedious. You have quite a few tools to help you with this, but I just didn't find it that enjoyable. Enemies constantly spawn so there isn't a way to "clear" an area. If you like survival horror type games, then this might be right up your alley.
* At a certain point (around the middle of the game), the game keeps a clock and you need to finish it before that clock ends. You can disable this when you start a new game, if you know what to look for. However, this really makes resetting that alertness level (mentioned above) costly.
* Difficulty settings cannot be changed after you start a game (including the time limit).
* Some cutscenes cannot be skipped and some can. This makes replaying a bit tedious as there are quite a few that cannot be skipped.
* While you can skip the prologue after you've completed it, you cannot disable tutorials. There are a lot of tutorials in the first main mission. This also makes replaying tedious.
* On level up, you pick from three random traits to add to your marine. I'm not a fan of this type of level up mechanic, as it means I'm relying on RNG to build my perfect marine.
Now, I did enjoy the combat sections and the feeling that the game generates. You always feel like you are on the verge of being killed and are scraping for every piece of help (materials, medkits, etc) you can to get through each mission. That is why I'd recommend the game if the above issues don't bother you.
Steam User 75
A Good / Bad / Ugly Review
The Good -
+Each map is massive, with lots to explore and secrets stashes of ammo, equipment & lore to find.
+Most achievements in reach, but some are hidden.
+Devs recently added New Game+ mode for those who can't get enough of a good thing.
+Excellent cutscenes which almost feel like a proper movie in places.
+Plenty of nods to the fans with callbacks to Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 etc.
+Excellent soundtrack, very reminiscent of James Horner's (RIP) Aliens score.
+Plenty of difficulty modes for the casual gamer right up to the masochist (like me!).
The Bad -
-Lore is found through datapads and whilst nice and apart from a few missions, adds little to the game.
-Seen pretty much all the game has to offer by halfway through.
-Story overstays its welcome just a little by the third act (similar to Alien: Isolation).
-A few bugs (the technical kind) but nothing game-breaking.
-Despite excellent music and in-game movies, there are like maybe three in-game voices for marines.
-Because of the huge level size, sometimes missions can be a bit of a slog.
-The close-up face detail of your marines in customisation is pretty awful in places.
The Ugly -
--Hopefully this will be patched out in time, but I understand it was quite badly optimised at launch and may make your GPU work quite hard.
Overall -
I really liked it, despite the slight issues I mentioned above. It got my adrenaline going in a few places, trying to survive almost endless hordes of xenomorphs with limited ammo and marines succumbing to their fear.
You can see there are a lot of passionate devs behind this game and it shows in how attentive this game is to those films, books, etc.
The game reminds me a lot of X-Com 2 and you can see it trying to copy a lot of ideas from that, which isn't a bad thing at all, of course. Some of it feels a little out-of-place but nothing too jarring. I also found the story, whilst very basic, to fit nicely into the well-worn shoes of the xenomorph movie tropes (evil company, tough female protagonists, etc) with a few nice additions.
I think I mentioned it goes on just a 'little' too long which isn't helped by the massive maps, but it's only just creeping into the realms of excessive padding and grind.
Overall, a positive recommendation from me and worth checking out...
"...what do you mean they cut my review off short..."
"They're animals, how can they cut my rev..."
SCREE!
Steam User 54
Alien Isolation is the game that did justice to Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror masterpiece. This is the game that does justice for James Cameron's masterpiece sequel. Tense and intense!
Steam User 58
I'm 40, I find it difficult to find games that feel 'new' or 'different', but this one really is. It's a a unique play style wrapped up in a theme I love and is executed very well.
Steam User 50
Solid game that's pretty long in length.
-Mature dialogue.
-Wonderful voice acting by everyone.
-Decent enemy variety.
-Believable characters that constantly banter and argue with each other
-Most missions feel samey but there is some variety there to keep things fresh.
-Resource management always makes you think about how you want to survive the next encounter and not just the one you are in.
-Marine traits are a stroke of genius. Unlike other games, here, your marines start off with negative traits that you may be able to remove later on at the cost of acquiring positive ability. The negative traits range from being a kleptomaniac (steals resources when returning from deployment to being stubborn wherein your marine will pick their own ability every time they advance a level)
-The only game I can think of, besides the Thing, where every time your squad fires a shot, they get a little bit closer to getting PTSD. So, even as your marines keep getting exp from slaying enemies, they get more and more unstable as deployment goes on.
-Every encounter, even a minor one, may be your last wherein your marines get permadeathed.
-Unpredictable story.
-New Game Plus, wherein you get to carry over your marines and their abilities from the previous walkthrough.
Steam User 36
Good game.
But if any Dev's make a game with this gameplay but with a Dynamic Sandbox mode, I swear I'll find your game and buy it full price. This Universe, another Universe or Your own creation I Don't Care. I'll buy it so long as you understand why this games combat is so good and can replicate it.
Steam User 48
Fantastic game! True to the movie Aliens.
850 hours gametime as of this review. Bought game at full price.
I have completed the game 22 times on nightmare difficulty and with +5 increased alien damage.
See my 8 guides on steam for any parts of the game mechanics without any spoilers.
This is a stressful real time action/stealth squad tactics game.
Only likeness to XCOM is the home base between missions.
You will need to make fast decisions in order to counter the aliens rushing towards your squad.
Only a reload will get a dead marine back.
PROS:
Tense atmosphere:
-Motion tracker beeping
-Sense of urgency
-Marines complaining about stress
Sound effects:
-Pulse rifle sound
-Welding doors sound
-Alien hissing sounds
-Marine comments from Aliens movie
Persistent maps:
-Leave the mission and come back to continue where you left off
-You can pull back to base if things get too rough, and deploy a fresh team next day
-Plan what you loot and when
Good replayability:
-NG+
-Many different squad compositions
-Many different perks to choose from when leveling up your marines
-Do challenge runs
---Complete the campaign using only 3 marines on missions
---See my list on the forums for challenge runs
Very stressful game:
-Infinite aliens
-The more you get detected, the more aliens spawn to hunt you
CONS:
Bugs:
-There exists game breaking bugs
-Do not expect bugfixes
-Do not play with limited saves incase you need to reload because of a bug
Game appears to be done and done:
-Many months since any word from the devs
Game difficulty settings do not represent a linear increase in difficulty:
-See my guide on steam for difficulty settings
-Casual players should select Story mode difficulty