Aliens: Dark Descent

Interest 18

CAT'S PICK : ★ 7.3

We've seen a few different takes on the Aliens franchise over the years. The xenomorphs have been handled in shooters, Pac-Man-style labyrinths, and obviously, crude repulsiveness. In Aliens: Dark Descent, the player takes command of a crack squad of commandos as they venture into abandoned space depths that may or may not be infested with multi-mouthed creepy crawlies.

A minimap with the distinctive Aliens heartbeat monitor can be seen ticking in the bottom-right corner. The mood gets better with every little pip, and once the xenomorphs are free and hunting, it can feel like you're running and hiding from a horde of bad hunters.

Aliens: Dark Descent is a strategic activity game, set progressively, with the possibility to delay and issue orders. It will feel familiar to you if you have played games that use real-time with pause before. There is only one change, you give orders to the entire squad, not to individual marines.

In the long run, Aliens: Dark Descent concentrates and condenses the battles. In one section, I was aware that the entire nest would descend upon me as soon as I activated a particular machine. I had a lot of interesting tools to ward off the horde, and this is an excellent classic setup for the Aliens setting. I could maintain range and fire on enemies as they rushed in from various vantage points, welding doors created chokepoints, and auto-turrets maintained kill zones.

8 comments