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Aliens: Dark Descent is an isometric squad-based tactical action game with stealth features and stressful resource management. When fully loaded, it does a better job than any game in recent memory of capturing the spirit of the 1986 film Aliens. However, the technological flaws that plague Dark Descent prevent it from being a truly enjoyable experience.
Taking elements from X-Com, Darkest Dungeon, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Dark Descent is an intriguing hybrid of games. This game captures the fear and danger of the Aliens property beautifully, making even mundane drones and runners dangerous again when so many other games with the Aliens license have made the mistake of letting you go to town with a pulse rifle.
Aliens: Dark Descent Specifications
The station had an eerie calm that permeated the entire building. The interiors of the buildings were a complete mess, with blood stains splattered throughout the rooms and furniture overturned.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Genre | First-person survival horror |
| Platform | PC, PlayStation, Xbox |
| Graphics | High-quality, immersive visuals |
| Sound Design | Atmospheric and intense |
| AI System | Intelligent and unpredictable |
| Controls | Responsive and intuitive |
| Frame Rate | Stable and smooth performance |
| Multiplayer | Cooperative gameplay available |
| Release Date | TBD |
| Link | official website |
Aliens: Dark Descent: Mental Breakdown
Even if no one is cut or burned by acid, the stress of a combat can be overwhelming. Simply coming into contact with aliens, being pursued by enemies during the activation phase of the hive, or even observing a significant number of blips on the motion tracker can all be stressful. This can accumulate up to three random debuffs on your marines, causing them to become disobedient, miss critical shots, or go all “Game over, man! Game over!” This will put everyone else on edge even more, and your marines will miss important shots. Therefore, the more terrifying experiences you subject them to, the less successful they will be when they are engaged in combat.
It is nothing short of genius how this mixes with the hive awareness system to provide a natural development from the initial few, teaser engagements with a single drone to the sensation that all hell has broken loose and that one wrong move may result a whole wipe of the squad. It helps humanize all of your small soldiers while simultaneously forcing you to think very carefully about how to manage both your physical and mental resources.
Aliens: Dark Descent: Fight to survive
You will have to guide your team of marines through a series of dark caves and filthy halls while keeping a watchful eye on the rooms you enter and crossing your fingers that no Xenomorphs are hiding inside. As your team pushes on to face the unthinkable, every step forward feels like a gamble with the lives of your squad, and then you have to respond in a split second when a Xenomorph comes up and charges full speed at your crew.
The action in Aliens: Dark Descent moves at a breakneck speed. As I walked from one confined place to the next, we had a hard time tearing our attention away from the motion tracker. As soon as you notice something moving, in either your direction or in the opposite direction, you should brace yourself for the worst possible outcome. Because even one Xeno attacking your squad might result in the instant death of a marine, you must remain vigilant at all times in order to avoid any potential threats.
Aliens: Dark Descent: Performance
The performance of “Aliens: Dark Descent” is quite good, and it provides a very exciting and challenging gaming experience. The alien-infested planet is brought to life with stunning visuals and evocative sound design, and the game works without a hitch. The game’s mechanics have been fine-tuned to provide responsive controls and fluid movement, letting players easily overcome the game’s demanding surroundings.
The game’s artificial intelligence technology ups the tension by making the alien enemies smart and unpredictable. Furthermore, “Aliens: Dark Descent” has a consistent frame rate, which reduces stuttering and increases the game’s immersion. The game does an excellent job of capturing players and providing an exciting alien survival experience.
Final Words
One of the best Aliens games ever made, if not for the technological issues. And it probably is even now. Since Monolith’s Aliens Versus Predator 2 in 2001, we don’t think we’ve experienced a game that truly understands what made the movie Aliens so great. It borrows concepts from the best games in the genre of squad-based tactics and reimagines them in its own unique way.
The number of those who have attempted this is staggering. This is the type of game where I wish we could overlook its problems and give it more acclaim despite them. A few weeks in the medical bay for some fine-tuning on the technical side may make it look fantastic and make it into something truly remarkable. Even with its flaws, it’s still an intriguing, invigorating, and inventive survival RTS that I can wholeheartedly recommend.
Aliens: Dark Descent review: The good and The bad
There are occasions when Aliens: Dark Descent is extremely ambitious, and while this frequently results in delight, there are also instances when it results in indiscretion.
The Good
- Cooperative multiplayer mode for engaging gameplay with friends.
- Highly anticipated release that promises excitement and thrills.
The Bad
- The game’s level of replayability remains unknown.
Questions and Answers
Dark Descent’s real-time rather than turn-based style lets you feel the pressure as foes descend, with your motion tracker shrieking urgent warnings, making it most similar to Firaxis’ XCOM games.
The game offers a real-time strategy experience with a top-down view. Players take control of a squad of four colonial marines and lead them into battle against Xenomorphs and renegade Weyland-Yutani Corporation spies.