TheEdge Reviews: Aliens: Dark Descent

One of my first horror movies was Alien. As a huge fan of sci-fi and 80s media, I instantly fell in love. Over the years I've caught up with all the movies, comics and any media I can get my hands on. I even liked Prometheus! I've played most of the games set in the Alien universe so when I saw the trailer for Dark Descent, I was fascinated. After seeing the critic reviews and giving it the traditional couple months to work through launch bugs, I picked it up for myself. Man was I glad I did!

Aliens: Dark Descent is a real-time tactics game set 19 years after the events of the original movie. The player controls a squad of colonial marines and has to play through various objectives all the while managing their marines health - both physical and metal - while collecting materials to upgrade their base and unlock upgrades. Sounds pretty simple right? Wrong. The game warns you right when you launch your first game that it's designed to be extremely difficult, and that you as the player need to pay attention to the tutorials, make good decisions and take your time. If you decide to neglect your marines mental health, they will be take on negative traits that can even effect your squads performance. On top of managing your marine, the map is dynamic allowing the player to break into rooms and/or weld them shut to create chokepoints. Be careful though, if you weld the wrong door you might end up trapping youself in a bad location. The enemies and their traits are unique, and the AI is extremely fun to play against. Let's take a deeper look at the game.

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Mechanically the game is unique and creative. As mentioned above, the player spends most of their time giving orders to their marine squad in a third-person view. The player can specific their movement speed and direct them to cover - which can shield them their squad from damage or avoid the enemy all-together. The player also has access to special weapons and squad tactics that can help control the battlefield. These range from a shotgun and flamethrower to suppressing fire and deployable turrets. All of these need to be deployed in a smart fashion, because the enemies in this game are challenging - both tactically and mechanically. The Aliena - referred in-game as the swarm - are a semi-complex hierachy. The drones patrol the map and if they find the players, an alert is sent to the hive who dispatches reinforcements to the squads last known position. As the squad kills more aliens, the hive becomes more difficult to fight with three difficulties seperated by endless swarm phases. Even with massive firepower, most of the time stealth is the prefereable option - and that's coming from me, I HATE stealth. There are also human enemies with uniqe tactics including guns and melee weapons that the squad has to fight agaist. If you get into too much trouble, it's wise to try and exfil your squad as death in this game is permanemt and you'll loose a marine - which can be detremintal since both healing and therapy take time and getting new recruits is rare.

There are tools the marines have at their disposal to help with exit strategy; their APC (armored personal carrier) which can provide cover and move the squad around the map. Later on in the game, the players can also call in airstrikes, although the ship doesn't help with map maneuverability. The player must weigh their squads health and safety and the loot potential of the level - as materials and found items are critical to move the game forward. This can lead to some intense and incredible emergent gameplay.

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Story time. I tend to get attached to characters even in games like this so I had my favorite marine out on my first three missions. He was high level too and was a major asset to my squad. A couple other marines were injured and I needed a vet to keep the new recruits in line. On the third deployment we were dispacted to a new area and I had my first encounter with human enemies. I 10000% underestimated how difficult they were and at the time, I was unable to to roll in the APC for backup. My boy got injured and I didn't have health packs on me but luckily there was a crate not far from my location. I sent my squad over but I was jumped by two groups of baddies and my guy ended up injured and needing extraction. I called off the medical recovery and had my squad hightale it over to the building that I needed to go to too call the APC. We just made it into the building and I had one marine weld the door and the other deal with the obstuction. As the group started breaking down the door, I was able to call the APC which rolled in in a truely glourous fashion, lighitng up everyone in the area and securing the courtyard. I was able to extract my marine safely and contiune on the mission. This is the type of intensity that I LIVE for! Draw me in, make me care about the characters, then put a ton of impossible choices in my face and have me deal with the consequences. I still get a rush thinikng about that encounter to be honest. And that was just the THIRD mission.

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[Story spoilers ahead]

Aliens: Dark Descent has a new spin on the classic Alien formula amnd is very similar to the Aliens movie. Set between the first and second movies the story centers around colony established on the planet Lethe. This seemingly normal colony falls prey to a cult that believes infecting themselves with the necromorph is the next stage in human evolution and starts infecting the entire population. During a routine cargo transfer, an unknown person let's an alien and some facehuggers out of storage on the space station Pioneer Station where it starts a rampage. The station deputy administrator, initially ignored, locks down the system and activated "Cerberus" protocol which locks down the entire planetary system with missiles and automated defense. She encounters the Alien and during her escape, is confronted by an alien but is saved by a marine squad. After escaping the station, they re-group with the warship doing trials in the system and start to formulate a plan. She wants to get a message to Weyland Yutani and the marine - who takes over as acting leader - wants to rescue the civilians as he was born on the planet and feels it is his duty. They butt heads at first, but eventually find common ground. The marines start investigating the source of the Alien infestation and slowly realize they are dealing with the cult, and that they have multiple queens on the planet producing eggs and facehuggers. After tracking down the cult leader, they learn that they have been working on - and have successfully made - human alien hybrids. They confront the leader and his andriods and defeat the aliens right before the planet is destroyed by the cerberus protocol.

[End spoilers]

Overall the game does a fantastic job with the Alien formula and are able to sneak in a few unique twists too. They stay true to the Alien universe, world building and themes to deliver a great story that keeps the player engaged and guessing the entire time. There are even a few twists and details I haven't mentioned here, so make sure to give the game a play through, it's well worth it.

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Overall, Aliens: Dark Descent is a great game, an easy 10/10. The unique mechanics, scaling difficulty, varied enemies and new game plus gives the player a fantastic experience that stays true to the Alien universe while adding some incredible lore. The RTS elements add a new level of horror and the permanemt consequenses features gives a sense of urgency and force you to think strategically. This is one of the must plays of this year - and in my opion should be a contender for game of the year. Thanks for reading!