Aliens: Dark Descent PC Review

Tindalos Interactive has been around the block since they were founded in 2010, they had a bit of a slow start but they did reach the top eventually. While they played a part in other smaller games initially, they did eventually release their first game, Etherium in 2015. Etherium is an interesting Sci-Fi strategy, though this was also the start of Tindalos Interactive’s rise to the top in the strategy genre with further strategy releases like Battlefleet Gothic: Armada in 2016 and Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 in 2019.

 

Like with any good strategy game, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to make it interesting while also making sure it’ll have some longevity. Their past releases withstood the test of time and gave them time to work on their latest monster, or creature so to speak. After quite a lot of teasing and some mixed opinions from many communities about using an old franchise that’s become an overused trope, they finally released Aliens: Dark Descent on 20 June 2023. This game might use an old franchise, but it’s definitely being revived in ways you’d never expect from the Aliens Vs. Predator scene. However, it’s not just another strategy, it’s classified as a Real Time Strategy, but it’s so much more than just that. Aliens: Dark Descent might form part of a revolution to rebuild the genre as a whole from the looks of it.

Before you can jump into the game, aside from picking your difficulty, you are given a warning that the game is difficult with unique gameplay. This isn’t something to overlook, as the game does have a rather steep learning curve. However, after making it through the learning curve and getting a hang of the game, it becomes quite clear why this game might rebuild the RTS genre. Aliens: Dark Descent starts off with a beautiful cinematic showcasing the Pioneer Space Station, owned by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. From there, you get a quick peek at the docking bay with a somewhat suspicious cargo delivery. This all takes place in low orbit just outside the planet Lethe. This is, unfortunately, where things start going downhill with a random worker knocking out another dock worker to open up that same suspicious piece of cargo. You can already see where this is going…

So, the cargo opens and we see our first Alien emerging and ready to cause a massive infestation. From there, things take a more mundane turn for a short while as you’re introduced to Deputy Administrator Hayes, who works on Pioneer. She’s your typical by the book kind of person who brings a discrepancy to the Chief Administrator, sadly, she gets dismissed and blown off regardless of what protocol says. Hayes being who she is, decides to check the cameras in the docking bay anyway to see what’s going on. This is where you’re slowly introduced the game, the first thing being movement.

 

Your typical RTS game is usually more story-driven with encounters or mission selection without much in terms of exploration; Aliens: Dark Descent takes a different approach to it with exploration being open and following the well-known right-click to move mechanic with the added extra of double right-clicking to run. While it does take some getting used to, you’ll soon see that this is actually a nice change of pace. Naturally, you’ll have a mini-map to follow along with a detailed full-sized map where you can see your objectives, and map legend for the icons, floors, and the codex.

Your codex will initially just have any tutorial pop-ups you might have missed. However, it’ll also store any logs, and such you find throughout the game which will come in handy later on to give you more information, lore and even help you make a few tough decisions.

A further wrench got thrown in the RTS works when looting is introduced; with the ability to somewhat freely explore, you’ll be able to open up boxes, pick up datapads for codex entries and interact with the environment around you – Eg, welding doors or collecting xenosamples. Welding doors does sound a bit odd at first; it’s a great way to keep your team alive or at the very least buy some time for your team, maybe even force the aliens to look for alternate routers if they’re not hunting. However, this gets introduced later on.

 

You’ll now hit a point in the game where all hell breaks loose and the Facehuggers swarm the Administration room, essentially killing everybody except Hayes, who was overlooked. The plot thickens when she saw that the only suspicious ship is trying to leave the station and Hayes is now hellbent on stopping the infestation from spreading. After some back and forth trying to get to the Comms section, she meets up with Daniel, a synth (Synthetic Human / Robot) who seems to be ignored by the aliens. This where Daniel and Hayes initiate the Cerberus Protocol, a planetary quarantine to contain everything and make sure nothing goes beyond high orbit in the most brutal way possible, with an endless supply of missile platforms. The Cerberus Protocol is straightforward, nothing in, nothing out.

The Bentonville, the ship that tried to escape, got shot down but so did the USS Otago, a military vessel that was on its way to land on Lethe. Sadly, Hayes isn’t out of the woods yet and neither is anybody who could serve as a host. This is where you’re introduced to the stealth and detection sides of Aliens: Dark Descent. Between human and alien enemies, you don’t always have to fight, nor can you can always fight. Sometimes it’s easier to sneak past and avoid detection, the mechanic is pretty simple as is and it’s just a matter of making sure the enemy line of sight doesn’t turn completely red when you’re sneaking past.

From here, things become a lot more interesting as you’ll finally have a squad. Squads consist of 1-4 people, though it’s best to fill the squad to keep your survivability as high as possible. Between tasks and combat actions, a marine from your squad is usually automatically selected to do it based on the squad composition. This means if you have a medical on your squad, he or she will be picked first for first-aid. However, this is where things become a bit more complicated in Aliens: Dark Descent. Aside from keeping your squad alive and keeping an eye on their health bars, you’ll also need to keep their stress down.

 

Yes, in the same way, you’ll start stressing as you play, your squad’s stress will build up as well. Letting their stress cross over 100% will give them a random debuff that can affect their accuracy, cause them to use more ammo, increase overall squad stress, etc. Stress is easily built up when your squad is being hunted or if they’re in combat, and it climbs faster than you think. This is mostly to avoid unnecessary combat scenarios if you can. However, you’ll also have options to lower the squad stress. The first one is easy, find a room that you can turn into a temporary shelter by welding the doors shut and allowing your squad to rest.

At first, resting might not give you much in terms of benefits, but it does change later on as your marines level up and they begin gaining attributes. For now, resting is your best shot to reduce party stress. Your only other alternative is consuming a med kit and ordering a marine to use Napraleve, basically a chill that can melt 100% of stress away. Unfortunately, your supplies are limited, and you might not always find more in the middle of the mission, so you’ll need to weigh out your options before wasting resources.

Now the part everybody loves, combat. As mentioned before, Aliens: Dark Descent doesn’t play by the typical RTS rules. Even in combat, you’ll still have free movement but your squad will also automatically fire at both human and alien enemies when detected or hunted. However, just like any other RTS game, cover still plays a part and provides your squad with some defense against gunfire or other forms of ranged attack. Unfortunately, when it comes to the aliens, they don’t have any ranged attacks and will always use teeth, claws or overwhelming numbers to wipe out your squad.

 

The nightmare doesn’t end there; while you’re out doing a mission, the current alien aggression is also shown and it’s wise to keep an eye on it too. When you get caught, become detected or hunter, you’ll notice that a bar showing easy, medium and hard will start moving up. In short, the higher you let the alien aggression climb, the more frequently they’ll appear. However, there is also the risk of more dangerous aliens appearing like the Praetorian or the Crusher, both have very high health and completely different tactics. There is one other fun detail to keep in mind when you’re fighting the aliens; upon death, they have a chance of exploding into a burst of acid that will definitely do some damage to any of your squad members who are nearby.

Carrying on with the madness in combat, you’re not just stuck firing guns wildly, you’ll also have abilities in a sense. The abilities available to you also depend on your squad composition and the weapons each marine has, though with abilities like the Grenade Launcher or Suppressing Fire, you’ll have endless options and combinations to try to find that perfect mix for exterminating the aliens. However, using these abilities will cost Command Points that slowly change over time, the standard amount is 3 points but this can be increased through attributes and upgrades.

This is where things are even more complicated in Aliens: Dark Descent. Once you complete a mission, you’ll head back to the USS Otago, which is now also your base of operations after it crash-landed on Lethe. Luckily, the game doesn’t just throw you into the deep end and, instead, slowly introduces you to everything. Upon arrival at the Otago, you’ll go through a quick mission summary and get to promote your marines if they got enough XP in the mission. The first few levels will only get your marines new attributes like Tough which will increase the marine’s health by 1 point or Resourceful which will give your squad 1 extra ammo after a rest. There are many other attributes to be had, but you’ll need to build your squad according to what you need and how you want to fight.

 

On the matter of squad building, it is highly recommended to have multiple teams ready. Aside from attributes, your squad will typically also have the tired or exhausted status effect on them which will leave them stuck in the Medbay for several days until they’ve recovered. This brings us to the first area of the Otago, the Medbay is where you marines can recover, have their wounds healed, and even recover from trauma. However, time in days is a big factor to consider as your marines will need that time to recover from injuries, trauma and exhaustion. You can speed up the recovery time for injuries and exhaustion by assigning physicians to those marines for the day, this will reduce their recovery time by 1 day for each physician assigned. Unfortunately, physicians are limited too and you’ll have to rescue more or hope for more from random start of day events.

The next two parts of the Otago, while important, you might not spend as much time in these. The first being the Laboratory, while out in the field, you can pick up Xenosamples and Xenotech research. Xenotech will have to be researched in the lab using Xenosamples to provide your squad temporary bonuses from Acid immunity to extra armour. Next is the Workshop, for all your firepower needs. However, unlocking the different weapons do come with a level requirement on your marines, so you’ll need to push your marines for levels while not wasting time.

This leaves the last section of the Otago, the Barracks. As the name suggests, this is where your marines live and where the magic happens to get them into killing shape. Aside from a full overview of all your marines, you’ll also be able to promote them there along with buy upgrades. Marine Upgrades are part of what makes them so dangerous with options like Honor Ribbons that will increase bravery (Bravery reduced stress build up over time), Ammo Bag or more class specific upgrades like Radio Backpack and Combat Drone. However, these upgrades come at the cost of materials that can be found during mission or you can let your engineers make it back on the Otago. Materials are, unfortunately, not so easily come by and does mean you’ll have to scrounge or sacrifice a bit to get more.

 

Last but not least, the daily progression. If things aren’t hard or unique enough already, you’ll also be limited on your daily activities in-game. Going to the next day will allow you to deploy your marines to go on a mission and free up physicians again, but it will also advance the planetary infestation level. Unfortunately, the infestation level going up also means that you’ll encounter more aliens who want to either end your squad or turn them into hosts, though you can on rare occasions, reduce it with the start of the day event. These events are completely random and can be either good or bad, things like reducing the infestation level at the cost of some Xenosamples or a fight breaking out between marines that will give you a choice between sending him away or letting him recover. Anything can happen, but this does add a nice touch to the game when you’re not fighting for your life.

Aliens: Dark Descent sounds as great as it looks, with amazing and nerve-wracking sound effects in the infested towns, along with brilliant voice acting. There’s never a dull moment. You might not hear where the aliens are coming from, but you’ll still hear them coming. The voice acting in Aliens: Dark Descent is amazing from the start and it changes depending on the marines you pick. The random bits of commentary or story dialogue keep things interesting, especially when the odds are against you. Just on the sound front alone, Aliens: Dark Descent did everything perfectly and it all adds up nicely for overall immersion and atmosphere.

The visual side of Aliens: Dark Descent is everything you’d expect and so much more. Again, the whole Alien Vs Predator franchise might have been overused in the past, it seems that Tindalos Interactive might have revived and refreshed the alien side of it with this game. With design quality and variations between the different types of aliens shown in-game and in cinematics, you’d sometimes think you’re watching a movie instead of playing a game just based on the quality alone. The area designs to fit the theme perfectly as well and shows that most of what you’re exploring went through a very sudden chaos that ended just as quickly.

 

Overall, Aliens: Dark Descent is definitely a game you’d want to play because of its interesting twists in the RTS genre and the gripping story to go with it. Between the visuals and sound engineering in the game, you’ll likely feel a similar stress as your marines while getting the same satisfaction from gunning down aliens when they try charging at you. From top to bottom, this game is great for newbies or old fans of the franchise.

Jay Claassen (@R3GR3T_3NVY)
Editor, NoobFeed