Aliens: Dark Descent

Reload after reload after reload. One tiny motion in the wrong direction and your team is dead. If you don't follow exactly a certain path you are dead. Often the game doesn't tell you where you need to go so you have to creep around all over the map to find the right room. If you creep into the wrong room, you're dead. Good grief, I have reloaded the same mission, over and over again. If I leave and come back the threat level will be through the roof. This is just maddening. I still give it a thumbs up because this is what it's supposed to be; a rogue team stealth combat game with resource control. But man, am I through with this for a few years.

So, let's talk about this game. It is a very contradicting, but promising project. Leaving me with a mixed feelings.

Good things:
- Gameplay is fun, strategic and well done. You starting to care about your playable characters, think through what to give them as equipment. You have wide variety of classed, perks, equipment and weapons to experiment with.
- This game become sometimes a true horror, motivating player to rely on stealth. Enemies outnumbering you on any mission, but you can outsmart them.
- Armored vehicle adds new ways to traverse the map and really helps fighting off enemies. This vehicle is your guardian and savior, due to it invincibility and firepower. The more you progress the mission the more new spots for it to stop by you unlock. You can use it to safely extract from the mission or safely go to other drop spot.
- Audio and visual style totally fit Alien world.

And that's it... Everything else it either rough on edges or straight up horribly bad. Bad things:
- Optimization. It so bad, especially on some missions that it forcing you to play constantly in a tactical slowdown mode to avoid power point experience. And it is very surprising, considering something similar like Xcom 2 runs perfectly and here game strugles even on low settings. At the same time game constantly loading whole map, even tho player have only one squad to run around. It seems like there was not enough attempts to think about optimization at any point of development.
- This game is quite buggy and by that I mean it the most buggy game for the past few years. Almost on all missions I end up needing to load the save, cause squad members either stuck in the furniture or forget how to run...
- This game is super scripted. So if you do anything outside of exactly what game wants from you script breaks and everything stops workin making you load save. This one especially noticable in early game, cause there is a lot of forced tutorials that can easily break. And it not just that for example: There is a mission where you find person locked up in a prison cell, who saying you to bring card from office to unlock door. But if you already visited that office and looted everything, you will see that corpse that you already looted can be looted again to pick the card. There is way more examples like that, so basically game force you to run around same places again and again, even when "characters didn't know they need to before" reason cannot be applied. I also need to replay whole game second time to just collect one last datapad, cause during mission I didn't had hacker and couldn't get it on second visit, cause elevator was destroyed, even tho shaft through which our dropship retrieved us last time was logically still available, but game just ignored it.
- Story of this game is bad as bad can be. Whole plot happens only due to every single human being dumb or ideal coincidences, while MC having whole luck of entire universe with her. Things that explained in story literally being ignored afterwards. Actions that not suppose to be possible by previously explained reasons in story and contradicting to it. 2 or 3 choices through out the game doesn't matter at all ( even if you find traitor or not pick him at all, your ship sabotage even can still happen ). Second half of the game even manages to go ruin game about Aliens even more by introducing human-alien hybrid that can coexist with Aliens and human psychics who can control even strongest not human-based Aliens .
- UI made for consoles, cause literally every action require you to hold button instead of just clicking. Which can get annoying the more you play the game, wasting your time on managment, that could have being done in few clicks instead. It fine to have such on consoles, but on PC such should be optional or fully removed.
- Map and minimap is sadly very awkward to use. Map lags when you trying to move around it, even tho there is nothing that should cause such lags. Map doesn't remember last position or zoom degree you used last time you opened it, so you need to zoom each time again to see item icons. Minimap doesn't show squadmembers, but only the team leader, while Map showing everyone. Minimap doesn't show item icons, while Map have such feature, making you open Map in almost each room or each few steps.
- Finding loot or interactable items is really hard due to their scale, other objects like walls being in the way and flashlight being so pathetic. Which makes you rather open Map to see, if there is any loot around. But be careful cause Map can lie and show non-existing items in some locations.
- Your squad pockets is limited, so you can't collect everything that you find, which is normal you would say. But why can't you unload your pockets into armored car that already allow you to store infinite amount of found survivors in it. This could have allow you to not leave loot behind or not require you to do multiple runs just to extract few more medpacks.
- Ammo is another weird feature. You can collect infinite amount of ammo boxes during mission, but your ammo count doesn't carry over between missions. Which means that, if you doing the second run on same mission with already looted ammo, you spawn with barely enough ammo to survive for a bit. This is wierd cause every other resource like tools, medpacks and turrets you can bring with you on a mission from the ship and bring back from a mission to a ship for future. And I must remind you that you have armored vehicle with you on any mission with unlimited passanger space and turret with infinite ammo, but smh no one invented some space for cargo like ammo.
- There is a thing that called armor in this game, which is an additional bar on top of health bar. Unlike health that can be healed, you can't do anything to restore armor. A way to restore armor would be way more useful, than way to heal. After mission you will need to get long treatment to any sustained wounds anyway, even if you healed fully during mission. Changing armor plate or armor vest seems to be more believable, than being able to heal from broken limbs easily during missions, but then pretend to suffer from it on a base. Additionally there is an upgrade that you can use that prevent you from being damaged by acid, if you still have armor on a character, but we have quite a few missions, where enemies with guns just destroy your armor at the start and then it just a waisted science points on upgrade, when you reach Alience after that .
- NPC or crew of the main ship is very plain and boringly written. They have no personality and just being a placeholder for you to listen to repeating phrases, when you trying to manage base.
- It probably a hot take, but this game is surprisingly woke. I didn't want to believe it till the end, but sadly everything point towards that harder and harder the more you saw of this story. Who is good, who is bad, who is strong, who is weak, what race and gender they are. No matter where you look it feels like story writer just had a check list what and who suppose to be shown at any point to fit diversity .

So what I can say overall? Most of the time the game is fun, cause each mission can take hours. But then between missions you will get back to dissapointment from story. Thankfully there is way more gameplay, than story. This project feels like it was very rushed and was intended to be way bigger with what mechanics they already implemented, but sadly we will never see it reachin it full potential. And another important factor is that there is no alternatives in such genre related to Alien universe.
Can I recommend it? At full price — never, cause it just a scam for it poor quality alone. But if it under 50%+ discount then you can consider it as a 85% fun game and 15% face palm experience.

The game is pretty well made, been looking to get it for a few years and wasn't disappointed.

The bug that people report where objectives don't progress could be because the Battle Drone you have is stuck in a some room somewhere and is not with your squad on the elevator.

(I looked at the map and noticed a blue dot which was my droid. When i took my squad there and he rejoined the group i was able to progress through the elevator. I think this was the 11th mission.)

There a some bugs you'll notice but don't really impact the game much.

If you do story mode playthrough alone its worth it, and does have replayability. In story Mode if you play well, you should be able to unlock 28 achievements in a single playthrough. I only managed 26. Won't spoil why.

Overall its pretty solid made game, a bit of a Gem.

-What a stupid plot, and cliche tropes I've seen like in every other game. I mean, for example, why are there cultists in all games? Why are humanity's writers still so lazy?
-Gameplay is, for some reason, very addictive. Finished in 3-4 days in hard difficulty.
-It's definitely Aliens.
-There were two bugs I encountered, in one my squad member was stuck, and in the other my squad member was unable to run (no wound, no effects, nothing). I encountered no game-breaking bug.
-Environment design is top-notch.
-Good length, approx 25 hours to finish.
-Difficulty depends on how much time you want to spend on progression. If you allow yourself 4 hours just for one mission, it can get too easy with strategies, tool-usages etc. But who wants to spend that many hours? One must balance time/progression/difficulty, that's when it gets fun..

Fun despite the glitches. Purchased it during a sale, glad I did. Very challenging if you play sloppy.

Descent game worth playing for any one who likes Aliens from 1986 and would like to command a unit of marines.

game keep on crash like shit, and there is no any save option and need to restart at the same starting place non-stop when the game crash

Superb game play, story is intriguing and filled a lot of holes of the movies. I'd see this as a great addition to the Alienverse. The combat is fun and tactical, decisions needed to be made when choosing and upgrading your troops.
All in all a great experience for me.

This is a very good take on Aliens, much like Alien: Isolation was a fantastic take on the original Alien. More than a first-person shooter, the tactical gameplay manages to turn what made Aliens exciting and tense into gameplay systems. Where it is clearly the weaker game than A:I: as the game goes on, both the writing/storytelling and the mission design becomes weaker and clunkier, with most of the bad stuff coming in the last couple of missions (which are still largely enjoyable overall). My impression is that the game would have benefited from better writing and from more time to refine the mission design. It's a shame that the final mission is both a glorified cutscene and pretty buggy when it comes to the few gameplay bits, which are practically broken and definitely not enjoyable at all. As it is, the last impression the game leaves is much less positive than especially its pitch-perfect first (real, i.e. post-tutorial) mission, which feels as much like taking part in Aliens as Alien: Isolation felt like being in Ridley Scott's Alien.

Game-breaking bug in the tutorial that soft locks your progress. A quick google search revealed it's a common bug and it's been unaddressed for years. Couldn't get a refund because I played more than two hours. Don't waste your money/time.

8/10

Fun RTS that does good work with the Alien universe. There are some bugs, and not just the face-hugging kind, but they weren't game-breaking for me. Overall, this is worth it if you're a fan of the movies and want to pilot a squad of marines around and blast some Xenomorphs.

lost like 2 hours of progress cuz 1 intractable didnt work at all, which made me not enjoy the game even tho i was really enjoying the game, until i get back to the spot i was i am just not going to be able to enjoy the game

One of the best games I have ever played.

The gameplay is excellent. It's suspenseful, my heart was pounding on every mission. Really good mixture of stealth and high adrenaline action when you get spotted, neither aspect let's the side down. The game both rewards careful planning and quick reactions when things kick off. You need to make sure you are always thinking, one mistake and your in real trouble. You can't just run around, you need to plan your route, scout the area slowly, set up defences to survive, the panic of being caught out is real!

I didn't think a top down game would be able to build that suspenseful jump scare type feeling you should get playing a Alien game, but they nailed it. Very respectful of the source material, true to the franchise. So many times I was on the edge of my seat as I rushed to get out of sight to hide just make it in the nick of time, or not and have to think quickly to keep my marines alive.

The story is good, nothing too special, it's the sort of thing you expect from the franchise. Definitely enough to keep you engaged and supports the game play.

My only negative is the final mission, without giving spoilers, the well established game play goes out of the window for a more rail road experience, felt like it was done by a different team. Story of the final mission was a bit meh in my view as well. Felt like a missed opportunity to do something special using all the tools and abilities you have collected throughout the game.

I would have done a last stand type thing with all of the surviving crew so that you are rewarded for how well you managed your characters, Think ending of Aliens, maybe a fighting retreat to hold off the Aliens while you try to save as many people as possible. The more people you lost on your journey the harder it would be, maybe force you to make some tough decisions with the marines you have learned to love.

Will be doing another play though, on the hardest difficulty, no saves, excited for it.
Really hope they do a sequel.

1. Game is no longer updated.
2. There are two achievemnts glitched: Recouped Investment and archivist you need to downgrade the steam version of the game in order to 100% the game if you are going for 100% achievents.
3. Game has some small visual bugs, ragdolls of dead aliens freeze in running / attacking pose.

Despite all of the above I liked the game a lot! Visuals, sounds and action taken streight from James Cameron's master peace. The gameplay was fun. Played entire story 3 times on all different difficulty settings and with different marine build.

Aliens: Dark Descent stays true to the movie in style and art direction. As a strategy game it offers many mechanics to figure out and master. You feel the tension when an onslaught begins and if you're lucky, you can prepare and take a defensive position before all hell breaks loose. Place your turrets, put down flares, command your troops to provide suppressive fire and then you pray.

As you explore the 12 missions and prologue you realise your troops, that you meticulously groom and train are extremely fragile and that adds masterfully to the tension of this amazing game. I did encounter one or 2 bugs... a black screen that required a hard reboot and weapons unlocked not visible in the barracks when you need to equip them initially. These are minor inconveniences in an otherwise fun and engrossing experience.

I highly recommend you give this game a shot if you like strategy style games and have the patience to learn its nuances.

I'm not to well versed in RTS games but I love the Aliens IP. This game really impressed me as an RTS novice. I only played on medium and was still getting my ass kicked. The RPG aspect made the game seem interesting because I was choosing my marines' class and upgrades. The story is usual Aliens corporate jargon HOWEVER the lead scientist...well...he was something, a visionary if you will. I'm not sure I'll play again on harder difficulties but I do plan on replaying one day.

After the game has been out this long, there are still bugs in the game that completely ruin your campaign. I am now at the Montero mission trying to get the gas mixing chip, and I have the same bug that others described on steam forums and reddit. There are more bugs, like mission objective locations displayed incorrectly or not at all on the map. I cba to send my safe file to have it fixed, if they'd even do that, so I guess I quit. Really sad, the game is fun.

it was meh, did not finish it , it has bugs so i uninstalled, sick of backtracking save files

Love the alien movies. This game does a great job with staying faithful to the material. Excited to see another game come out that pushes the game play, strategies and expands the environment

A great game for enthusiasts of the Alien Universe.

What a game.

I never thought that real time strategy mixed with Aliens could work in a top down view. But when I played it and beat it, it blew me away and the level of fun I had. I'm not sure if the story has any implications to the alien universe but I can really dig it and say I do enjoy it. There were crazy moments where I had to decide the sacrifices I had to make to try to find myself the path of least resistance but it never fails! There's always an alien around the corner just in stasis or patroling about. Embrace and accept failure, roll with the punches until you're knuckles deep!

If you are a fan of tactical games like;
Jagged Alliance 3
X-com (E.g. War of The Chosen etc)
Aliens universe

You will like this game.

Its not turn based, but you can bullet-time pause, and from here, plan out your actions while its still on.

There is enough suspense, tactics, swarm, technology and challenge to keep me entertained, and in short I am very happy with the game and purchase. Its Clearly made with love for games and aliens. No cut corners and I think it should be reviewed higher than it currently is, which I dont say lightly.

I am not through campaign yet, but I will finish it. If anything I would like to see this game and universe extended with more DlC. In Xcom you have base-game, tactical-game and radar-game. I would like to see more radar-game equivalent, or something else entirely. The in-between story could be better but actual game mechanics makes up for it I think.

There was a learning curve for myself but delightfully difficult and a great strategy game with a great story.

Not for the faint of the heart or someone looking for casual playthrough... The game is tense even on story difficulty if not versed in RTS genre. apart from it, its a thrilling tense and enjoyable experience coming back for a replay (after the apparent nightmares stop) after a playthrough

If Alien: Isolation is the Perfect "Alien" game - this is the perfect "Aliens" Game. A truly unique combination of strategy and horror that's keeping you on your toes the whole time.

Nice game with a nice graphics and nice game playing role.. You need to make wise decisions, to stay sharp and strong. Good Tactics are the key of the game. Game for every recommendation. Good luck marines !

Solid Aliens game, some things are obviously done for game balance, or for the narrative, but that's fine. Very much the feel of the original Aliens, or the newer Aliens Romulus. It has some connection to the Promethius movies, but not a lot. The marines are pretty bad ass actually, and the Xenos die in droves, but if several get to you at the same time you are going to have a very bad day. WY is as greedy and stupid as ever. And another faction motivated mostly by insanity and abject stupidity (but in a believable way) is also present.

The game is RTS type, where you can pause at any time, only a small group so it's manageable even for those not big on RTS games. Management of the marines is interesting, and you can get a little attached to them. I wish there were more voices for the marines though, its hard to tell them apart just from their barks.

Fairly long game, 70 hours to complete the game, although that includes quite a few reloads (it is Aliens after all, when things go wrong, the go wrong fast). Also left it sitting on pause a few times while doing other stuff. If you do every mission in one go with no reloads, I'd estimate 40 to 50 hours to finish. But 50 to 60+ on the medium level is probably more realistic.

The game does autosaves when you reach certain points, but in order for you to force a save you have to rest, and the tools required for making a safe zone so you can rest can be a bit hard to find sometimes. The Tools are probably the resource you will often not have enough of as they are used for other things as well.

I don't mind the save structure for this game, as it feels appropriate for Aliens, you should be worried that things are going to go wrong and you'll have to start over from a save point from 20 minutes ago. Not being able to save at every corner adds to the tension, but YMMV.

Don't forget that when you open the map, the game unpauses!

There is a New Game+ mode where your surviving marines from the first game are available in the new game. This means that your Marines won't all be starting out as green rookies fresh from Boot. Likely make a big difference for playing at the harder levels.

Some little bugs most of it with the drone.
The ambiance is very well done, stress is on.

Fantastic base game. Disappointed we never got any more content.

This game captures the theme and suspense of the Alien franchise and also adds some interesting twists to it. The gameplay is challenging but mostly fair. The cinematics were jaw-dropping! Any fan of Aliens and possibly XCOM will really enjoy this game.

The ending was unsatisfying but otherwise its a great game

Very fun but suffers from a lack of a proper soundtrack.

Aliens: Dark Descent is a game that has some issues. There are some bugs that can be annoying, mission events that will not trigger unless you open the right door and so on. The character models and their faces is a bit cheap looking. But, compared to what is offered this is an absolutely minor detail.

Aliens: Dark Descent is a perfect blend of a sci-fi horror IP and the game mechanics from X-Com. It marries perfectly. When playing the game I am sucked in into the world. The atmosphere, the tension, the sounds of the motion tracker. In a way it magically simulates the movie Aliens. I go on missions and often they end with me carrying one marine on my shoulders, firing a handgun while another squadmate lays down supressive fire and launch grenades as we run towards the APC. And these scenes just create themselves.

The overall story is great and the new additional Aliens all feel fitting to the lore. A great triumph for Tindalos and Focus Entertainment.

To many bugs, but nice game.

Captures the essense of the second Aliens move quite well. If you feel like watching auto-turret ammo counter go down and frantically weld doors to hold back the onslaught - this is the game for you.
Be mindful - maps are not procedural which is awesome for first playthrough but replayability will suffer.

I highly enjoyed this game as a fan of tactics games as well as Alien franchise. Lots of choice on how to build your squad the way you want to. The enemies are hard but fair if I feel like. My only grips is the ending is so quick and a bit of a let down with no payoff for all the buildup through out the game. Gameplay 9/10, Story is 6/10/.

So for I am really enjoying this game. It is difficult even on normal, but it also gives you tools to account for everything so you have a fighting chance. If you love this franchise, they approach lore with care and I can tell the devs are fans. The combat is straight forward and you're basically playing Pacman with your motion sensor except you're the ghosts. When you do need to fight your Marines are a bunch of badasses, but for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.

Buyer beware, you can still run into the atmospheric processor terminal bug and lose you're entire game's progress if you have the wrong settings. Like limited saving, great idea until you are literally locked out of all progression except failure. Great game just don't do what it tells you to otherwise you might end up like me.

This game had me on my knees, screaming out loud "that's it man! Game over man! Game over!!" X_X

On one hand, it's a unique Alien game. Very faithful to the Alien franchise. Great music, great sound design, beautiful graphics, awesome atmosphere, intense cutscenes, interesting story, and addictive gameplay. On the other hand, I wanted to pull my teeth out with a wrench, because the game is too difficult!

In fact, the title of this game should be called "Aliens : Rage Quit Descent." One minute, you feel like a Colonial Marine who can deal with anything, and the next minute, aliens are up your ass harassing you to the point your blood starts to boil. Playing this game feels like a toxic relationship. One minute the game is treating you great, and the next minute its abusing you.

Good luck avoiding the xenomorphs in this game. You need to be Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, to avoid these aliens. You'll avoid a few aliens, with your silenced sniper rifle, and motion trackers. However! When the aliens see you, the fight is on, and a whole swarm of seriously pissed off xenomorphs are coming to ruin your fun, ruin the immersion, and ruin your mission.

My main frustrations... unclear objective intel, random hyper difficulty, glitches, and unfair scripted events. This game is bipolar! It's a shame, because this game is a lot of fun at times. Unfortunately, you'll run into many situations that are designed to screw you over, and then you get wrecked! Repeating the same dam scenario, over and over, and over, and over again until you rage quit! I haven't raged this aggressively in a game in many years xD

I tapped out, this game is obnoxious. The game frustrated me so much I wanted to set myself on fire. Anyone who tells you this game is easy, and not that hard, don't trust them, they're probably an android from the Weyland Yutani Corporation. Listen to me, your human friend, this game is a sonic, electronic, ball-breaker X_x

5/10

It's challenging, a little hectic at times but otherwise a decent game.

I am a big Aliens fan and I also have played and enjoyed Alien Isolation. When the game first released it did come with a few bugs but the dev's were quick on the fix.

I enjoyed the story and game play but wished there was more content for this game. it's a different style of play compared to Xcom but also similar.

I also saw reviews about DEI son't listen to them. They do not know what actual DEI mess up is and are just using the term to whine and top hide their shameful mindset. This game is great especially for those who enjoy the Alien Franchise. I highly reccommend it but I also wished they had story expansions as they did a great job with this game.

8/10

Played it at Hard and completed the game in 40 hours. This game really captured the Aliens atmosphere perfectly. Although it is a top view tactical game the fact that you can't pause the game during combat, but only slow down time really adds to the tension. This makes busy fights feel super tense and rewarding when you come out victorious.
I enjoyed the combat system, all the upgrades and soldier abilities and at Hard I was constantly trying to balance my material spending which felt exciting not knowing if I was getting ahead or behind on the growing Alien threat.

My main complaint is that the game sometime takes away control from the player during critical mission moments. The game rewards stealth, setting up ambushes and taking it slow. It felt very disconnected when the game suddenly takes control of your squad and has them sprinting into a room guns blazing while I was trying to set up an ambush at the entrance. Oh, and constant yapping and cliche soldier-talk of the squad got really old really fast.

But overall I had a great experience with the game. I had no game breaking bugs and really enjoyed the challenge and learning curve. If you're into X-Com and the Aliens franchise this game could be right in your alley.

Finished game in 36 hours and it was so amazing. I am so impressed by this title. It is like xcom but real time and more fun in my opinion due to some unique mechanics. I highly recommend this game. Worth every penny. I love idea of APC(car-tank), it works great. As everything else.

This game is a love letter to the second movie in in the Aliens franchise, Aliens. If you can get it at a discount it is a solid 10/10. Still good for asking price, but I'd personally get it at a discount. My only real gripe is the your Marines' voice acting can get repetitive during missions.

Just completed it. Really intense in parts. 53 hours in total... I haven't completed a game in years but this was addictive as hell. It's like Cannon Fodder (Amiga) and UFO Enemy Unknown (Amiga) had a murderous, acid spitting, offspring.

I love Aliens and this was was a fantastic homage to this film. James Horners score is also used, one of my all time favourites. It really ratchets up the tension in parts and you can't help but feel nostalgia.

The graphics and lighting look great, as well as all the sound effects. I loved the earlier missions in the colony bases. Be warned, this game is bloody hard and some parts caused me to develop ptsd and a nervous tick. It's merciless with enemies constantly looping around and spawning. You will die..over and over. I was determined to complete it. I enjoyed the story and the cutscenes are great. The voice acting was on point.

Very minor grumble, when you're sneaking around and your soldiers are shouting nonsense... I found myself using a few expletives at them. Lost 2 soldiers overall... they should have kept their f**king traps shut.

I've seen people complaining of bugs (computer type)... I didn't have any issues with it at all. Ran smoothly and my rig is 4 years old.

I recommend this game highly, it's different, fun, intense, grim, sad....pew pew

it's xcom 2 but a lil worse in every way.

if you're starving for an aliens game that recycles almost every cliche line from the movies as its idea of charming, maybe this is your speed. but is not for me.

I really enjoyed the game, but I had an uphill battle figuring out how to enjoy it.

Once I figured out that the stress mechanic is a more potent killer than the enemies, I began welding rooms more often than I thought I needed to. Then my squad became a force of destruction rather than ignoring my orders.

[Potential tip to other players: I felt that I just wasn't good enough to play the game, but then I decided to try try the easiest mode. This lets you level up some marines, and when you play new game+ you can use the previous save to "import" your last marines at the level you left them at. This makes it feel a little more fair on a tougher difficulty.]

Super fun unique gameplay, true to the Alien material. Highly recommend if you like RTS and the Aliens universe.

Very immersive, lots of fun. I don't have a lot of time in so far, but it feels a lot like Phoenix Point done right. The real-time slow-mo adds even more intensity to the battles vs a TBS. The cut scenes are good so far and the story's been solid. Very enjoyable up to this point (2nd city on planet).

I love X-com and similar games and this game scratches that itch but in a different new way. It's real time but with pausing for strategizing. Its atmospheric and moody in the best sort of way. If you like Aliens, X-com like games or similar. Give this game a shot!