Aliens: Dark Descent

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.

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!

Starcraft 2 - Terran Campaign

Remember in SC2 Terran Campaign you got access to your own ship and it had different departments and you used those departments to upgrade your units? Same format; it's wonderful. You and your crew get to go out on missions, upgrading your gear with what you bring back from your missions. You end up getting attached to your squad because as they level up, they get to specialize.

The assets are great, the music is great, the voice acting is cool, the AI and events are fun. This probably is the best Alien games since Isolation.

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!

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.

This is exactly the game I've always wanted. I held off on buying it because I thought it would suck, but it was hands down the best tactical strategy game I've ever played. It's like XCOM2 but smoother, more interesting and ALIEN themed. If you played the old Leading Edge Aliens game, this is like that times a thousand. It's like they took that basic idea and improved it in every way. Main campaign took me 39 hours to complete, which makes this game a fantastic deal. Highly recommended, five stars out of five!

It's decent enough, but falls short of its potential. I've spent many hours playing XCOM 2, which this game at least somewhat has to compare itself against.
First and foremost, the game severly lacks variety. Every mission plays nearly identically, and none of the unlocks with perhaps the exception of the flamethrower have the ability to alter the gameplay significantly. In XCOM 2, every loadout item counts, and appropriate use can save your bacon.
The game also has a bunch of bugs that I ran into. Several times the stress meter bugged out at stress+++, eventually filling out the stress meters on my entire squad forcing me to reload. I also got soft-locked once during the tutorial. I've also had issues with ultrawide support, which would consistently break after taking refuge in a room. These are apparently not new, which suggests a lackluster post-launch support by the developers.
Possibly the most annoying aspect of the game is the sound bites. Some of them are cringe-worthy on their own, but the constant repetition is infuriating. Some also don't make sense - if you send your squad to hide behind cover, they slowly walk towards it, and then have an out-of-breath quip about how they took cover.
Music itself is mixed strangely at times, occasionally missing entirely giving a weird quietness to menus.
The game would have benefited from an xcom-esque world map where you can choose side-missions as they pop up. Instead it's very railroad-y.
I'm rambling. I guess at the end of the day I had fun, but I'm not going to replay it.