Aliens: Dark Descent

Aliens: Dark Descent flew under the radar, and I don't understand why. It's true that XCom-like games are a bit niche, but there's almost almost no talk about this one in the community!

It's kind of like X-Com, in real time, with a deeper focus on being smart, and taking things slow. I haven't seen such an unique gameplay in my lifetime as a gamer. It's a strong 9/10, BUT, you have to get over the tutorial, as it's quite awful, and doesn't represent the game at all.

Definitely a must have for anyone that likes squad-based games, or tactics.

If Alien: Isolation is the Perfect "Alien" game - this is the perfect "Aliens" Game. A truly unique combination of strategy and horror that's keeping you on your toes the whole time.

Aliens: Dark Descent is a game that has some issues. There are some bugs that can be annoying, mission events that will not trigger unless you open the right door and so on. The character models and their faces is a bit cheap looking. But, compared to what is offered this is an absolutely minor detail.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a perfect blend of a sci-fi horror IP and the game mechanics from X-Com. It marries perfectly. When playing the game I am sucked in into the world. The atmosphere, the tension, the sounds of the motion tracker. In a way it magically simulates the movie Aliens. I go on missions and often they end with me carrying one marine on my shoulders, firing a handgun while another squadmate lays down supressive fire and launch grenades as we run towards the APC. And these scenes just create themselves.
The overall story is great and the new additional Aliens all feel fitting to the lore. A great triumph for Tindalos and Focus Entertainment.

1. Game is no longer updated.
2. There are two achievemnts glitched: Recouped Investment and archivist you need to downgrade the steam version of the game in order to 100% the game if you are going for 100% achievents.
3. Game has some small visual bugs, ragdolls of dead aliens freeze in running / attacking pose.

Despite all of the above I liked the game a lot! Visuals, sounds and action taken streight from James Cameron's master peace. The gameplay was fun. Played entire story 3 times on all different difficulty settings and with different marine build.

Aliens: Dark Descent – A Tactical Descent into Terror (36-Hour Review)

Gameplay Overview

Aliens: Dark Descent is a hybrid of real-time tactical combat, survival horror, and psychological management. It’s not just about eliminating xenomorphs,it’s about surviving them, out maneuvering them, and keeping your squad mentally and physically intact. The game rewards precision, patience, and a deep understanding of both tactical systems and franchise lore.

- Squad-Based Tactics: You lead a team of marines with distinct roles, traits, and stress levels.
Every decision, whether to push deeper or extract early, can determine the fate of your squad.

- Real-Time with Tactical Pause: Instead of traditional turn-based combat, time slows to allow for command input. This creates a cinematic, high-pressure flow that mirrors the chaos of the Aliens universe.

- Persistent Consequences: Injuries, trauma, and death are permanent. You’ll grow attached to your marines, and their loss carries real weight.

Strengths

- Atmosphere and Authenticity: The game captures the oppressive dread of the Aliens franchise with precision. The motion tracker, ambient sound design, and hive escalation mechanics create a constant sense of unease.

- Stress and Sanity Mechanics: Marines accumulate psychological trauma from combat and environmental tension. Managing their mental state adds a layer of realism and strategic depth.

- Combat Flow: Tools like suppression fire, flamethrowers, and overwatch are impactful and satisfying. You’re not just fighting enemies, you’re managing space, timing, and morale.

- Lore Integration: The narrative respects the franchise’s tone and themes. Weyland-Yutani’s presence adds familiar corporate menace, and the xenomorphs are portrayed as truly lethal threats.

Weaknesses

- Technical Issues: Pathfinding bugs, UI glitches, and occasional crashes can disrupt immersion. For a game that demands tactical precision, these flaws are particularly noticeable.

- Map Repetition: While atmospheric, the environments can feel visually and structurally repetitive. This may lead to fatigue during extended play sessions.

- Story Pacing: The plot begins with promise but loses momentum midway. Some narrative threads, especially those involving synthetics and corporate intrigue, feel underdeveloped.

- Limited Strategic Layer: Outside of missions, base management is minimal. Players seeking deeper resource planning or broader strategic control may find this aspect lacking.

Psychological Edge

One of the game’s standout systems is its stress mechanic. Marines accumulate trauma from combat, darkness, and hive encounters. If unmanaged, this leads to breakdowns, hallucinations, or desertion. It’s a compelling mechanic that adds emotional stakes, though it can feel punishing without careful planning.

Final Thoughts
After 36 hours, you’ve likely:

- Refined your squad compositions and learned how to exploit enemy behaviour.
- Experienced both triumphant escapes and devastating losses.
- Grown attached to your marines, only to lose them in moments of chaos.
- Pushed through technical flaws because the core experience remains compelling.

Aliens: Dark Descent is not a flawless game, but it’s a bold one. It restores the xenomorphs’ menace, respects the franchise’s tone, and offers a tense, tactical experience that rewards careful planning and emotional investment. For players who value atmosphere, lore fidelity, and high-stakes decision-making, it delivers a memorable descent into darkness.

Rating Summary (Out of 10):
Atmosphere & Immersion: 9.0
Tactical Gameplay: 8.5
Story & Lore: 7.5
Technical Stability: 6.5
Replay Value: 7.0
Overall Experience: 8.0

If you got this through the Humble Bundle please give it a try, its the first game in awhile that's held my interest. Solid Dawn of War 2 type gameplay in the Alien universe works so well and with Xcom like base/unit management it really is a blast to play.
Edit- Just finished the game its awesome, I need a sequel.

This game nails the theme of Cameron's Aliens. The only things stopping it from being Aliens: The Game is the background scenario and specific characters involved. Everything about it exudes the tense, creepy atmosphere from James Cameron's masterpiece.

The game is a squad based real time tactical one. It's got a very novel control scheme, as rather than controlling the 4 or 5 squaddies individually they all move as a single squad (which is well disciplined of the troops!). I suspect this novel control scheme was done to allow you to play it on the controller, still I like the way it works as it ultimately means you're a single "avatar" with lots of arms, legs, and guns, which is very helpful with the stress is rising and you can only focus on one thing: shooting xenos.

For the first few hours of play I was stressed beyond belief, exactly the kind of fear the game tries to encapsulate in its gameplay mechanics, and exactly as the film wanted you to feel. It does a fantastic job of keeping players wired and white-knuckled. Eventually though you'll cotton-on to how all of the mechanics and alien spawns work and it'll become a lot less terrifying and much more mundane, yet the game is structured and designed well-enough that even by the time the final levels (eventually!) roll around the nature of the action still keeps the adrenaline going.

The game has more in common with Commandos-style RTT stealth games than RTT horde shooting like Infested Planet. I didn't know this going in, but it works fantastically well in these settings, as you'll get the best and most satisfying experience from ghosting around the levels, only having to go loud once you've bumbled into a xenomorph and now need to desperately sprint for cover, panicking that you are you going to trigger a death spiral. There's a slight disappointment here though in that when watching the movies my favourite thing is the pew pew, but in this game you want to be firing as little as possible!

If the game had wrapped up at 35 hours instead of 45 I think I'd look much more favourably upon it. It has a lot of niggles and quirks, especially in the later missions, but even with the extraneous length I still recommend anyone interested in Aliens or RTT games to give it a go.

A disparate set of observations:

1. The cinematics are pretty decent, but they stray too far into the wobbly-mannequin uncanny valley for me.
2. There's some kind of performance problems where the longer the game is running, the worse the performance gets. You have to quit and restart the game to fix it, which can often be tedious as saving in this game is an entire resource-costing gameplay mechanic.
3. The barks coming out of your squad are incessant and samey. They'll drive you mad. You can disable them but they're useful for some thing.
3. Medium was a little bit too easy as by the end I had one main squad I could just use on every mission so they were ultimate badasses. I imagine hard would have been too difficult in the beginning and just take longer?
4. We have a squad of badasses here, but what about the rest of the ship? Why don't they help??!
5. It's got a lot of great, well-paced action packed sequences that force you out of stealthing about. Again, this often recalls those corridor defending turret scenes in the movies.
6. I like the idea of the stress mechanic and the multiple deployments, but on medium it faded into obsolescence by the last missions
7. Same for the death clock. I ended with like 20 days left. It didn't spook me out at all.
8. The last level was abysmal and completely unsatisfying. I don't see why they didn't include your team, instead including just the main character. It effectively means the level before that is the actual last level, and that had a pretty epic showdown at the end.
9. The last few missions contains all of the bugs.
10. Drone controls are awkward and stupid.
11. Far too much back and forth between the various loadout and upgrade screens to edit marines. This should just be a single screen. Infact that's true for basically everything about the upgrade and levelling system. It could all be done in one place really.
12. minimap doesn't work with hotkeys or mouse movement
13. Why doesn't the minimap pause? :(
14. lol colonists don't react to mates getting shot infront of them but aliens do?!