Aliens: Dark Descent Reviews
A powerful generator of gnawing tension and tough tactical decisions, Aliens: Dark Descent is a script pass away from being an all-timer.
Aliens: Dark Descent is an occasionally wayward but on the whole, inspired movie adaptation, and a suspenseful real-time tactics game.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fascinating, tense, inspired survival horror RTS with a few too many technical bugs to recommend it without caveats.
One of the best Aliens games ever made and a clever and innovative real-time strategy all of its own, that needs just a bit more polish and a lot less bugs.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fresh and fun take on the series, with great tactical action supplemented with unique concepts like stress management. The writing and characters sadly don't amount to anything memorable, and boss battles can feel incredibly jarring to the pacing and tension.
Soaked in dark sci-fi environments and human personalities, Dark Descent nails the hallmarks of an Alien title and executes much of its squad-based gameplay. Despite some downsides and squad control during precise moments, plenty of its elements kept me jacked in to see its conclusion. It was a thrilling ride with ups and downs, but I left fulfilled and appreciated its experimental twists.
Aliens: Dark Descent blends action and strategy fundamentals together with some hit-or-miss results, but with a surprisingly authentic atmosphere throughout
Where Dark Descent pushes beyond XCOM is in mission selection. The campaign is somewhat linear, but it achieves an open-world feel by allowing you to uncover new areas of the world map - various settlements and installations on the planet Lethe, which is undergoing a global crisis. While it's required that you complete the main story objectives in each sector, you can also return to each one to scrounge up missing items and complete sub-tasks at a later time. Dark Descent's structure even allows you to evacuate mid-mission, preserving the mental and physical health of your squad members after it all goes sideways. I've had extreme moments of highs and lows, as I've evacuated multiple times when pursuing certain objectives, salvaging what I could and placing my squad in the med-bay before re-deploying with new roster members. Do this too often, and the alien threat will intensify over time. This creates an illusion of a persistent environment, one that's evolving of its own autonomy.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a remarkable tactical action game like XCOM, respectful of the bases of the Alien universe, and that knows how to innovate in certain aspects. It is a love letter for fans, which can also convince lovers of the genre, although with somewhat unfair difficulty peaks and with graphics and mechanics that need to be improved.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fantastic Aliens game. It absolutely nails the feel of the films and brings exactly the kind of tense and thrilling strategy combat you would want. The iconic motion tracker and creature design fit perfectly with the genre and there is even an interesting narrative that introduces some new perspectives to the series. While game over can come far too swiftly at times, there is always something to draw you back in.
Aliens: Dark Descent does a decent job of creating an interesting mashup of tactical action and strategy that suitably translates the tension and aesthetics of the popular movie franchise. Needing to stealth around the xenomorphs is a nerve-wracking experience, and the firefights against the aliens can be intense when they work. However, the plot and dialogue are lackluster, the enemies aren't as terrifying as they could be, and the flow between stealth and boss fights is abrupt. There's just one too many ideas in Aliens: Dark Descent, but it's still nonetheless a worthwhile adventure.
Aliens: Dark Descent is certainly not the best Alien-themed video game ever made but, thanks to several very intriguing ideas regarding the gameplay, it has proven to be a decent RTS that manages to perfectly recreate the mood of the famous film saga.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fantastic addition to the iconic Alien franchise's vast and often disappointing collection of video games. The story is seamlessly integrated into the universe, and you'll come face-to-face with the iconic Xenomorphs that have instilled fear in fans for decades. While the game may have flaws, such as limited squad commands, a lack of grandiose music, and poor sound design, it is still one of the best Aliens video games that immerse fans in the beloved universe while providing thrilling action that they'll remember for a long time.
Aliens: Dark Descent is one of the most immersive and exciting tactical shooters I've played, and a worthy successor to James Cameron's masterpiece.
Aliens: Dark Descent is well designed and badly built. At once a brilliant collection of wonderfully presented ideas and a defective debacle, it could have genuinely been a Game of the Year contender were it not such a shambles. I love this game to the point of being enthralled. I’m angry at this game for costing me hours of progress. I adore what it so often is. I despise what it so often does.
Aliens: Dark Descent is an authentically atmospheric campaign borrowing from both turn-based tactics and survival horror, stymied by a seemingly deep paranoia you might mistake it for one of those strategy games for nerds. It's not. It's not for nerds. It's for cool Aliens fans. You can use a controller. It's not for nerds.
Aliens: Dark Descent takes place in a setting that could have been a fantastic place to unveil some gripping sci-fi drama or lore, but instead it's basically just a point-and-click sequence. Even without tripping at the finish line, Aliens: Dark Descent has enough issues that prevent it from excelling. There's fun to be had here, with some great mechanical choices and tactical possibilities that keep the excitement high. It's not the weakest in the history of Alien games, but it's too close to the middle to be memorable.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a masterful blend of atmosphere, tension, and terror, coming together with dangerous combat and well-paced progression. The end result is a game that keeps you on your heels while making you feel like you're "state of the badass art".
Aliens: Dark Descent is an intense tactical game with a thick atmosphere of horror and fierce battles, which in its best moments gives an unforgettable experience. But it's obvious that Tindalos Interactive didn't have enough time and money to realize all their ideas.
Review in Russian | Read full review