The track record of the Alien Games is not the best, with some catastrophic releases. The new Aliens: Dark Descent seems to be the opposite, so is there finally a good alien game again?
Alien is one of the most successful sci-fi horror franchises ever, but was lacking in the gaming department. There were some terrible releases in the last years, like Aliens: Colonial Marines in 2013. The newest addition to the franchise is the tactical squad based Aliens: Dark Descent, which gets overall positive feedback. So is there finally a good alien game?
Aliens: Dark Descent – Finally A Good Alien Game
The developer of Aliens: Dark Descent, Focus Entertainment, is known for its experience in the sci-fi genre and responsible for titles in the Warhammer 40k universe like Boltgun or Battlefleet Gothic Armada. So with them, the game had an already good foundation to be a success.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a squad based, single player action game in the Alien franchise. A lot of reviewers compare it to the successful XCOM game series, despite this game is played in real time. The player takes command of a squad of battle hardened Colonial Marines. Their goal is similar to all the other games in the Alien universe: Stop a Xenomorph outbreak, this time on the planet Lethe.
Just like in XCOM the squad and the marines are customizable, with permanent death for the soldiers once they get downed. So it's important to always keep an eye on the enemies and your surroundings.
Very Positive Feedback
And the gaming world seems to like this kind of game in the Alien universe. At the moment, Aliens: Dark Descent has a "Very positive" review rating on Steam, by 2,434 reviews over all. Of course, a tactical game like this will never get the same amount of players or even attention as an Aliens-shooter game would. But for all fans of this genre, Aliens: Dark Descent is highly recommended.
The user "ajmoore0351" describes his first impression: "Half my squad wiped on the first mission while I desperately limped back to the redeployment point. I haven't had this much fun since XCOM."
The player "Lanche", who has a longer time in game, shares his opinion as followed:
Mindblowingly good Aliens game and an absolute must for any fan of the movie series. I also wholeheartedly suggest playing this game on the hard difficulty, even for people new to the genre, mainly because it offers the most immersive experience where you'll never feel completely safe. Despite that, there's still plenty of time to explore the in-game lore, blast your way through the hive and bond with your marines afterwards.
User "Fuzzilla" had some criticism for the game, but was positive after all:
The first hour is full of some REALLY rough dialog and can be very off-putting, BUT if you make it past the prologue and into the core gameplay loop of running missions and upgrading your marines/base it is much more rewarding.
On metacritic the game got a Metascore of 75 and a straight 8.0 User Score and some very positive comments as well.
So it seems to be the case that : YES Aliens: Dark Descent is a good Alien Game. It might not be the genre for the broad mass but for all the fans of more tactical games.