REVIEW: ‘Aliens: Dark Descent’ Is Tense And Challenging (PC)

Finding a way to showcase the Aliens universe in video games has been hit or miss over the years. With Aliens: Dark Descent, developer Tindalos Interactive looks to take a new approach as a real-time strategy squad-based game. This squad-based single-player game is an intriguing approach to the Aliens universe that is full of tense situations and challenging decisions.

In Aliens: Dark Descent, players take on the role of Deputy Administrator Maeko Hayes and US Colonial Marine (USCM) Officer Jonas Harper. After Hayes discovers the presence of Xenomorphs aboard her station, she initiates the Cerberus Protocol which prevents ships from entering or leaving the atmosphere of the backwater planet Lethe. In the process, Harper’s ship the Otago is shot down and crash lands on the surface of Lethe. Tasked with finding a way to alert anyone that they are stranded on Lethe, Hayes and Harper need to work together to reach the rest of the galaxy and keep their people alive in the midst of the Xenomorph threat.

Right off the bat, I was completely sucked into the story of Aliens: Dark Descent. The tough decision Hayes has to make in initiating the Cerberus Protocol makes sense given the situation, but her fear and desperation are palpable. When she joins up with Harper and the USCM they take some time to be willing to warm up to her. Harper recognizes that she had a difficult decision to make, and even though he doesn’t like it he is still willing to work with her given her administrative capabilities. Hayes’ relationship with the crew of the Otago is drawn out by the fact that each section of the ship serves a vital role and needs to be managed in order to keep the Marines in tip-top shape.

There are two main tenets of gameplay in Aliens: Dark Descent. The first is the actual squad-based missions that take place across the surface of Lethe and the space station Hayes was assigned to. Players need to select a squad of four Marines and deploy them on missions, but only one mission can be sent out per day in the game. Every Marine also starts off with a negative attribute that can be removed as they level up, but at first, they can be detrimental if they help make another Marine’s negative attribute have an even larger effect.

Once in a mission, there are various primary and secondary objectives to complete. They do not all need to be completed in one run, but the more time spent in a mission, the more experience the Marines gain. Each squad is controlled as one, with the game automatically choosing which Marine to send to do things like looting or welding a door shut. But the most important part of these missions is taking on the actual Xenomorphs. This is an Aliens game after all.

Xenomorphs are present throughout every mission in Aliens: Dark Descent and pose a very serious threat. Various versions like Facehuggers, Praetorians, and Alien Queens all have different attack types and require different strategies to take them on. Sometimes I found myself holed up in a corner using sentry guns and shotguns to blast away waves of charging Xenomorph drones, and at other times I was strategically moving my squad out of range of an Alien Queen to slowly plink down her health. Each encounter also raises the squad’s stress levels which, if the levels get too high, apply negative attributes to them that can only be removed in between missions via therapy on the Otago.

While the missions are all quite fun and tense, it was the management parts of Aliens: Dark Descent that really hit home with me. Recovery from missions is vital, so using the medbay to treat wounded soldiers or give therapy to those traumatized by their encounters with the Xenomorphs is really important. Treating a soldier makes them unable to go on missions though, so it becomes a strategy game in itself. And you can’t simply just wait and let the days pass either, because every day that goes by in the game the alien threat grows and missions become filled with more Xenomorphs, making them more challenging.

As each squad member levels up they earn new perks as well as class roles like Sargeant and Tecker, which add to their usefulness in battle. Sargeants help encourage the squad in missions, giving them boosts to their morale and fighting capabilities. A class like Tecker, though, is useful for hacking into locked locations to earn more loot or bypass threatening Xenomorphs. Choosing what class and perks to give each character is not an easy choice, especially because once a character dies they are gone for good. Having too many of one class can be rough if your other classes die off, and if you aren’t careful, there is plenty of death to be found in Aliens: Dark Descent.

I honestly enjoyed the squad management part of things more than the missions themselves. I spent so much time developing characters, giving them nicknames that fit their role. It helped me grow more attached to them when I sent them off on dangerous missions. Instead of my normal run-and-gun playstyle, I took things much slower so that I didn’t let my characters die in the process. Having so much to do with their management outside of missions adds to how invested players can get, which I really appreciated. I would have liked the characters to have more voice lines than the same handful over and over again though. It did start to get a little frustrating after a while to hear “Hurry up, you slugs” like a broken record.

Another area in Aliens: Dark Descent that really stood out is the beautiful and stressful atmosphere. Visually, each new room and location were so detailed and artistically creative that I felt like I was trapped with my squad members. It adds to the pressure when you can detect an incoming Xenomorph threat while stuck in a dark and smokey corridor, not knowing when the threat will show itself out in the open. The music also enhances the intensity, making combat waves feel even scarier when they come crashing down on you.

Aliens: Dark Descent is a fun real-time strategy squad game that manages to feel tense and rewarding at the same time. It really sucked me into the Aliens story being told while also giving avenues to develop characters in your own way. It isn’t a perfect game, the loop can get a bit repetitive, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every second of it.

Aliens: Dark Descent releases June 20th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.