Through the squelching din we searched every corner of the room with our flashlights. There, wrapped up in webby bio-matter, was a cocooned human survivor. Cutting them free showed no signs of infection, but our time crunch was bearing down on us as multiple movement signatures dotted the map in real time. Do we try to outrun them and stay hidden while carrying a survivor or do we hunker down and hope the threats pass just meters away from us on the other side of the closed door? This is just one possible scenario of decision-making that awaits players in Aliens: Dark Descent – an atmospheric, isometric real-time strategy title featuring an original story within the Aliens universe. With duplicitous story elements playing in the background, players will assume command of a team of Colonial Marines that must sneak, fight and survive their way to uncovering difficult truths. Developing a mixture of genre-defining mechanics into an engaging package is no easy feat, but Focus Entertainment and Tindalos Interactive have created a rich experience in Dark Descent. Gripping narrative elements will keep franchise fans and new players on the edge of their seat while gameplay provides dynamic scenarios for strategy. With real-time mechanics that adapt as you play, some decisions will need to be quicker than others if you wish to survive. The game is gorgeously constructed with varying objectives across multiple maps. Some inconsistencies in gameplay and aesthetics don’t detract from overall gameplay, but do serve as areas of opportunity for continued support with future patches or updates. Overall, Aliens: Dark Descent is an intensely immersive experience that offers robust tactical decisions for any RTS fan.
The story opens on another routine day in space as cargo is loaded and unloaded onto a USMC space station. Yet not is all as it seems when sabotage from a third-party releases a cargo of Xenomorph specimens onto the station. Needing to quarantine the Xenomorphs, and being the sole surviving administrator on board, Maeko Hayes makes the decision to self-destruct the station and the surrounding ships within the impact radius by initiating the Cerberus Protocol – a planetary lockdown that prevents anything from entering and leaving the planetary radius. Yet one nearby ship is not destroyed and makes landfall on the planet Lethe below. Having extracted Administrator Hayes and brought her aboard the Otago, it falls to this surviving US Colonial Marine crew to uncover the root of the xenomorph infestation to prevent a planetary infestation that could overtake the rest of the galaxy.
For fans of the franchise, there’s a lot to admire in the aesthetics. Major nods to cinema are reflected in the way scenes are directed, and how the xenomorphs are unveiled. Through the art direction, players are immersed into the terrifying universe of face-hugging parasites. From gorgeous scenes framed with emotion to detailed anatomy rendered in various xeno-type aliens, Dark Descent’s aesthetics are sure to make any fan feel renewed appreciation for the franchise. The title begs us to remember the days of wide-angle shots and cinematic artistry. It became a habit for me to yell at the screen as if watching a horror movie in theaters – the first cinematic glimpse of a fully-grown xenomorph was truly masterful. Many wonderful aesthetic themes carry into gameplay beyond just cinematics, though, as levels are lovingly constructed with creepy ambiance, and alien character models are intimidating as they hunt our team throughout the mission. Some dip can be seen in aesthetic quality, however, when pulled into in-game character interactions. Human character models appear stiff and detract from immersion – for a moment you’re reminded that you’re actually playing a game when taken back to the mission hub. The original story featured alongside gameplay makes long-time fans scratch their heads at the possible outcomes, while new fans of the franchise can jump into the story without prior knowledge. Even the opening cinematic is an homage to Alien, as the title screen slowly traces the title’s lettering for full effect.
Since the Otago spacecraft actually survived the quarantine protocol, the ship turns into the base of operations after crash landing on Planet Lethe. It becomes a tad awkward when Maeko Hayes doesn’t immediately disclose the fact that she’s responsible for the Otago crashing, but assumes administrative duties to help where she can. This heavy piece of news isn’t brought forward until later in the story, so for now you must all act as if the Cerberus Protocol purge orders were a glitch in the system. Ah, yeah, that’s totally what happened…a glitch. The creation of tension in the story helps to elevate fear as you must now worry about the possible organizational fallout that could occur as we also try to contain the alien threat. The operations hub on the surviving USS Otago is where you get to customize your squad loadout and tend to research and development goals. Much like how strategy titles like X-COM or Battletech have hubs for team advancement, Dark Descent works similarly. You only start with a certain amount of doctors and engineers that assist with upkeep. Through the completion of side objectives in levels, you’re able to increase numbers by evacuating survivors caught up in the alien madness. Dark Descent not only has players move through levels for story purposes, but it may benefit players to search less-traveled areas for resources. While main objectives take priority, completing side objectives create an interesting balance of combat and resource management within missions. Finding extra goodies around the map helps with overall completion rate of the mission, but they also refuel the team as they run low on ammunition or tools needed for mission success.
Aliens: Dark Descent immediately notes that players will encounter difficulties. The title adds itself to the ever-growing amount of “hardcore” titles that are made for fans of challenging mechanics. Some of Dark Descent’s most interesting options lie within variable difficulty settings. Pre-set difficulty settings are available, from “Story” mode to “Nightmare” difficulty. Players wanting their own special brand of difficulty, however, can play with custom settings that affect mechanics like alien aggression and even save file availability. However you wish to play, Aliens: Dark Descent asks you to step outside your comfort zone if you wish to understand the full picture. Players may want to choose easier difficulties so they can sweep maps for story content without pressures of infestation. More immersive play comes from higher difficulties, as now “blips” frequently pepper the motion tracker and force you into snap-decisions (as seen in the movies). To give players an even healthier dose of fear, the real-time mechanics in gameplay create unique opportunities for strategy. Players that have experienced RTS before will note Dark Descent’s encouragement of varying tactics. Traditional motion trackers will show dots on the map and may elicit different responses based on how you’ve prepped the map. The game gives all kinds of tools to play with so you don’t always need to resort to violence.
Placing motion sensors around the map gives the opportunity to lure aliens away from your location as they go searching for the mechanism that makes noise. Making sure there’s a hacker marine in the squad may open up short-cuts on the map through encrypted doors. If it’s known an onslaught is on the way and there’s no hope of escape, you’re able to weld doors shut and set up choke points for aliens to funnel through – if they don’t come through the walls, that is. Some deployments allow use of carrier vehicles to redeploy the squad on larger maps. I had never been more thankful for a “fast travel” that also squishes enemies along the way. Any foe getting too close to the carrier vehicle will also contend with the cannons on top. It’s a genius move that gameplay isn’t fully interrupted when traveling and the title allows you to jump in and out of the carrier vehicle while being hunted. I set myself up next to the vehicle in some cases to use the extra firepower against major threats. Aliens: Dark Descent feels almost sandbox in the way that it gives players tactical freedom. Whether you want to go guns blazing or would rather sneak your way through, you have a lot of options that assist with the preferred play style.
Playstyle may vary greatly depending on your own strategizing, but gameplay is always going to do its best to push you. Aliens will roam the map in real time, but overall alien activity will stay quiet if players don’t engage and stay hidden. Being spotted by an alien, or engaging in combat with one, will force the rest of the hive to initiate a hunt for our marines. Laying low and avoiding contact will keep the hunt from progressing into an all out infestation, but as alien activity increases so does map difficulty. Poking a hive into action now means that objectives will be harder to reach as more xenomorphs appear on the map and with greater intensity. Stepping into the “hard” threshold now causes more powerful xenomorphs to hunt your squad – forcing you to weigh the possibilities of extraction and coming back to the mission. Dark Descent does allow you to redeploy into the same mission while keeping previous progress, but it also comes with its own price as every day that passes between deployments also increases the level of planetary infestation. So while the levels themselves will tweak difficulties based on gameplay, there’s also an overall starting difficulty based on the level of infestation on the planet as a whole. While combat is always an option, Aliens: Dark Descent actually encourages players to stay on the quieter side when carrying out missions. There are so many tools for diversion and traversal at your disposal. Not only can you weld doors closed or plant mines for traps, but as soldiers level, they’ll unlock new abilities that allow them to specialize. If you want to stay quieter, a hacker marine and a sniper marine can clear the way to alternate paths with less xeno activity. Upgrading a marine to be more tech based will also open up drone possibilities so that you don’t have to send actual units into dangerous areas.
With so many abilities at your disposal, it also speaks to the developer’s foresight to have marines carry out their own objectives. Whenever you click on an objective to be done, the marine best suited for the task will automatically be assigned. On one hand, this is a great mechanic for the sake of efficiency: you’re able to theoretically click on four different tasks that need to be completed and marines will take care of it – there’s even the option to cancel tasks if a marine is in the middle of it. This is where gameplay can feel muddled, however, as too many tasks may overload your marines queue, or the same marine may be assigned to multiple tasks when others are free. I didn’t think the same marine would be the one to open three different boxes, but it turns out they were the best one to do so. There doesn’t seem to be a way to assign specific marines to tasks, and this is where efficiency may suffer. So while three of my marines are standing around, one marine ends up being responsible for searching through all the resources in a particular room. This doesn’t happen often, but there are moments like this where the game conflicts with the player’s own motivations.
Additionally, some glitches that affect elevator transport and other traversal options have made an appearance. When attempting to use an elevator to flee, I wasn’t able to interact with the elevator UI like on previous floors of the same mission. While there isn’t anything game-breaking to report, it can be a cause of frustration when you’ve got to be quick or risk being abducted and eaten by xenomorphs. During my time with Aliens: Dark Descent, I also experienced some infrequent crashes that would appear early on the title screen, or just after loading my progress. These normally occurred when booting up the game and fortunately did not continue once deep into actual missions. Even when running with at least the recommended PC build, I still encountered these problems. This, however, should be taken with a grain of salt as not all players may experience this, and even day-one patches may solve the issue.
Closing Comments:
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fantastic, robust extension of the Aliens franchise that puts players in the middle of hardcore xenomoroph action. Through purposeful storytelling and fantastic callbacks to the Aliens franchise, this RTS features many tactical opportunities for fans of the genre. Game mechanics, like xenomorph aggression, help to keep pressure on players in horror fashion. Large mission maps that can be returned to again and again provide extra lore collectibles and side objectives that allow you to grow our command for better support. You start with barebones resources, but can level up marines and the technology they use with every successful mission. With varying marine loadouts, weapons upgrades and xeno technology at play, there’s an almost endless combination of tactics at your disposal in an ever changing mission that reacts to decisions. An interesting original story keeps players guessing as they uncover difficult truths that indicate sabotage through xenomorph infestation. From new xeno-types never seen before, to cultists, Weyland Yutani (they’re the worst) rearing its head and more, Dark Descent covers all the thematic bases. Any fan of the franchise will appreciate the narrative twists, humor and technical themes that are typical of Aliens. While gameplay and aesthetics have issues, nothing is game-breaking to the point that it interferes heavily with the experience. Players should note the possibility of game crashes and bugs, but future updates and patches could easily address these problems. Overall, Aliens: Dark Descent is an original game worthy of any strategy fan’s time that also lovingly expands upon one of Sci-Fi’s most important franchises.
Aliens: Dark Descent
Tindalos' Aliens: Dark Descent is a real-time strategy game set a few decades after the events of 1992’s Alien 3. Set on a moon station, missions pit squads of colonial marines against Xenomorphs and also human agents. Aliens: Dark Descent features permadeath, character classes, customization, and a stress mechanic.
