- Publisher: Focus Entertainment
- Release Date: Jun 20, 2023
- Also On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
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- By date
- Unscored
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Jun 26, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a heart-pounding game that stays true to the franchise's roots, bringing action-packed sequences paired with horrifying atmosphere where dangers lurk around every moment. From the terrifying enemy AI to the Unique Quirks that define every soldier at your disposal, Aliens: Dark Descent is the perfect recipe for those who seek a definitive Aliens experience.
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Jun 20, 2023I'm shocked with just how good Aliens: Dark Descent ended up being, and I could hardly put it down from the moment I loaded it up. It clearly respects the Aliens franchise, but it uses the elements in a way that is in service to the gameplay rather than as mere fan service for the player. Its gameplay is not only incredibly fresh compared to the other games of the franchise, but it's also so well executed that it stands as a high point among real-time tactical games, let alone for an Aliens game. Out of the franchise's entire history of games, there are only three games notable for how uniquely good they are; Aliens: Dark Descent is one of them.
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Jun 26, 2023I believe the best way to describe this game would be a survival horror isometric tactical shooter in the Alien universe. Aliens Dark Descent perfectly establishes its own rules and stays true to the Alien franchise and what made it one of the greatest modern sci-fi works: the heart-wrenching fear of the unknown and the thrill of fighting against all odds.
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Aug 2, 2023What we have here is one of the best Alien games – ever. Aliens: Dark Descent not only offers a tremendous atmosphere evocative of James Cameron’s blockbuster, but also a very well-crafted gameplay that exceptionally combines multiple genres.
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Jul 4, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent adds a hefty amount of ''Alien flavour'' to the well-established XCOM formula, making it a novel, fun, exciting and challenging experience. Even if you aren't an Alien fan, it is worth checking out if you're into team-based strategy games.
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Jun 22, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is, without a doubt, one of the best games in the franchise's history. It's campy and ridiculous, intimidating and unsettling, tactical and yet still casual. It attempts to pull off a number of different (and often even opposing) themes and mechanics, and impressively rarely fails outright at any of them. The story, dialogue, and cutscene animation all work in tangent to produce a compelling narrative that stays true to the typical narrative conventions of the Alien franchise, taking what would normally be a forgettable cast and setting, and making them stand out through their reactions to situations and their contrasting personalities and approaches to dealing with the threats that face them.
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Jun 22, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a masterful blend of atmosphere, tension, and terror, coming together with dangerous combat and well-paced progression. The end result is a game that keeps you on your heels while making you feel like you’re “state of the badass art”.
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Jun 20, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a very good video game that takes the best elements of its franchise and finds great ways to build gameplay around them. Moving through dark corridors, paying constant attention to the motion tracker, and thinking about how to best use limited resources, is fun and immersive. The stress mechanic means that even winning battles can have steep costs, forcing players to think of alternate ways of achieving objectives. Aliens: Dark Descent doesn’t redefine its genre but its mechanics are strong, the narrative has interesting beats, and few other tactics-focused titles use their fictional as effectively.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is one of the most immersive and exciting tactical shooters I've played, and a worthy successor to James Cameron's masterpiece.
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Jul 16, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent successfully adapts a real-time combat system to a genre of games that are traditionally turn-based. Tindalos Interactive has clearly put in a lot of love and care, and it shows.
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Jun 29, 2023Alien: Dark Descent is an absolutely brilliant experience, incredibly well-balanced, and despite being very difficult in certain areas, it doesn't ever feel unfair. Definitely worth giving a try.
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Jun 20, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is an excellent real-time tactics game mixed with survival horror and arguably the best Aliens game around. Excellent tactical action in a world ever-succumbing to the Xenomorph threat, you will find resources scarce, leading to difficult decisions, ones made all the more difficult when time is also a factor. Add on an engaging enough story and an excellent atmosphere, and you have a game that I can't help but recommend to anybody and everybody.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a more than good real-time tactician, who manages to find the right balance between the proficiency in the marine weapons trade and the need to play smart and avoid confrontations when possible. In short, definitely a game that manages to respect the atmospheres that one would expect to encounter in the narrative universe popularized by Ridley Scott and James Cameron.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a fun real-time strategy squad game that manages to feel tense and rewarding at the same time. It isn’t a perfect game, the loop can get a bit repetitive, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every second of it.
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Jun 21, 2023A powerful generator of gnawing tension and tough tactical decisions, Aliens: Dark Descent is a script pass away from being an all-timer.
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Jun 30, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is, simply put, a wonderful addition to the franchise as a whole. It feels authentic to the movies in a way that surprised me given the type of game it is and it captures that trademark tension and fear.
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Jun 19, 2023Quotation forthcoming.
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Aug 13, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent manages to absorb the player, with its main arsenal being the strong atmosphere and the high level of challenge. However, I feel that it would need a better sense of control during battles to make it a truly memorable game.
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Jul 16, 2023This is a game that stays true to the source material. It adds something fresh to the table that has long been desired. Danger lurks at every turn as you balance alien danger and marine mental condition. A sequel to Aliens Dark Descent is in order! I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
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Jul 14, 2023It might not look that way at first glance but this is the best Alien game in many years. It’s a strange mixture of ideas which perhaps shouldn’t work together as well as they do. We’d certainly welcome a sequel.
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Edge MagazineJul 13, 2023The best Alien-licensed game not made by Creative Assembly. [Issue#387, p.114]
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Jun 25, 2023Aliens Dark Descent is a tough game, as well as belonging to the real-time strategy genre. Don't expect a walk through the chill forest, the game will demand quite a lot from you and punishes mistakes harshly, so you will have to have a thousand eyes to enjoy it. Its performance on PC is somewhat uneven (playing on high and with some options such as post-processing in ultra), and fails to fully stabilize its framerate rate especially when turning the camera and focus on different points of the map in a High Spec PCs. For the rest it is a remarkable game that if you are a fan of the Alien universe, it will surely win you over. For that it deserves a final note of 80/100.
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Jun 23, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent marries its inspirations with reverence for its source material to create arguably the best Aliens game of all time.
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Jun 22, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is an excellent addition to the Aliens canon. The Darkest Dungeon-style stress mechanics end up fitting the setting like a glove, and the RTS combat and disposable marines definitely suit the tone and style of Aliens perfectly. Although the reliance on infrequent autosaves can often prove frustrating, the game is overall easy to recommend for fans of strategy games, survival horror games, or Aliens fans hungry for something which strongly evokes James Cameron’s 1986 classic while adding its own new elements.
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Jun 22, 2023Overall, 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.
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Jun 21, 2023Soaked in dark sci-fi environments and human personalities, Dark Descent nails the hallmarks of an Alien title and executes much of its squad-based gameplay. Despite some downsides and squad control during precise moments, plenty of its elements kept me jacked in to see its conclusion. It was a thrilling ride with ups and downs, but I left fulfilled and appreciated its experimental twists.
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Jun 21, 2023The degree to which the game encourages you to find key strategies to manage everything from stress to resources is impressive, even startling.
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Jun 20, 2023The undercooked strategy layer notwithstanding, nothing quite compares the Aliens: Dark Descent. With its open, persistent maps and tactics that oscillate nicely between quietly menacing exploration and gun-blazing battles, this one has a pull of its own that's hard to resist. It lacks polish, no question, but this game has heart, brains, and a takes great delight in making your heart go faster. An imperfect favorite of mine this year, and at just 40 bucks, fans of the series are going to have a blast with this one.
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Jun 20, 2023Even if some features may deserve a better treatment, Aliens Dark Descent deliver us an enjoyable real time strategy trip in Alien's world.
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Jun 19, 2023It’s safe to say that we’re very impressed with Aliens: Dark Descent. Developer Tindalos Interactive is clearly a fan of the franchise, and it’s plain to see that much love has been poured into this title. Aside from its engaging gameplay, the story had us gripped right from the get-go, helped along by excellent voice acting. The only disappointment for some might be that there are no multiplayer offerings, but it is priced accordingly. If you’re an Alien fan after some single-player thrills, this is well worth picking up – even if you don’t usually get on with real-time strategy games.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a great strategy game with a lot of replayability and is set in the perfect horror franchise, even if long-time fans of the genre may have some minor complaints.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a fantastic Aliens game. It absolutely nails the feel of the films and brings exactly the kind of tense and thrilling strategy combat you would want. The iconic motion tracker and creature design fit perfectly with the genre and there is even an interesting narrative that introduces some new perspectives to the series. While game over can come far too swiftly at times, there is always something to draw you back in.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent doesn’t overly complicate itself with deep simulation strategy combat. Instead, it finds the perfect balance of action, horror, and strategy to be accessible to all fans of this series. The narrative is the biggest highlight, fueled by clashing personalities, double-crossing, and a high-stakes conclusion. The player is made to feel like they are commanding these tropes, and that is found throughout each mission and choice made during dialogue. If you’ve been eager to immerse yourself in the world of Aliens, look no further.
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Jun 23, 2023With Aliens: Dark Descent Tindalos Interactive merges one of the coolest sci-fi-horror licenses of the last decades with a cleverly designed realtime tactics foundation. Combined with permadeath mechanics, challenging enemies and a persistent world that allows you to retreat if things get too dangerous, players will experience high levels of tension. Despite a remaining technical problems, deficits in the number of alien types you encounter and a sometimes too predictable plot, Dark Descent still snatches our insider’s tipp award for June 2023.
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Jul 5, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent brilliantly translates the 1986 movie into a fun strategy game with good combat, an interesting story, and rewarding squad management, marred by some minor stealth and tech issues.
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Jun 19, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a notable tactical action game similar to XCOM, respectful of the Alien universe, and which knows how to innovate in certain aspects. It is a love letter to the fans, which can also convince lovers of the genre, although with somewhat unfair difficulty peaks and with graphics and mechanics that need to be improved.
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Jul 13, 2023Aliens Dark Descent is a fresh RTS-adventure that stays true to the Aliens roots, whilst building upon its foundations. The squad based tactical action feels fresh, and gets intense pretty quickly when out in the field. Traversing the multi-run stages is engaging, but multiple technical flaws do hinder the game from reaching its full potential.
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Jul 11, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a challenging and extremely satisfying tactical shooter whose music and visual side will make every Alien fan feel right at home. It’s a shame, however, that the gameplay is marred by bugs and chaotically placed save points, which sometimes make missions mercilessly time-consuming and ruthlessly difficult.
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Jul 3, 2023Without a shadow of a doubt Tindalos Interactive has managed to pack an interesting horror-tinged adventure. What is most intriguing is the set of action, tactics and stealth proposed by the experience, which manages to competently return the atmospheres and tension of the Alien films. Basically, if you are a fan of xenomorphs you could give the game a chance but RTS fans will have to deal with a not very developed strategic dimension, a sometimes lame soldier AI and a series of bugs that in our test have caused some setbacks that are hard to ignore.
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Jul 2, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is a nasty and ruthless strategy game, just like the Xenomorphs.
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Jun 23, 2023A top-down, real-time strategy that successfully implemented the tension unique to the well-known franchise. Except for the overall clunkiness, the game's combat system with tough resource management provide both immersive gameplay and a bit of horror.
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Jun 23, 2023The real-time tactical game from the Alien universe is both great fun and challenging... and frustrating. Like in the movie Aliens, which you will remember almost at every step.
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Jun 26, 2023Aliens: Dark Descent is at times ambitious, often to delight, but occasionally to indiscretion. While some may desire a more intimate and terrifying Alien Isolation sequel, this isometric tactical challenge is rich in consequence and reward. This may not be the most coherent or exceptional Alien video game we’ve seen, but it’s certainly noteworthy and imaginative.
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Jun 19, 2023I absolutely can’t blame Tindalos for wanting a game with such a recognisable and beloved license to court appeal outside of genre fans, but I also think that if you’re going to make a strategy game, you should probably make it full-heartedly. 2012’s XCOM felt like a genuine revolution in turn-based tactics, but Aliens: Dark Descent too often feels like a compromise, or, more accurately, a console-mise. If you’re thinking, wow, what a snob, then, congratulations. You get to enjoy something more fully than I did, which is much better than griping about things. Dark Descent is beautiful, engaging, and absolutely drips with authentically atmospheric Aliens goo. But, again, like those face huggers, it’s also just a bit too restrictive, and I don’t think it needed to be.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 51 out of 69
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Mixed: 9 out of 69
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Negative: 9 out of 69
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Jul 3, 2023
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Jun 28, 2023
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Jun 25, 2023