Aliens: Dark Descent

With a fresh take on the Aliens game franchise and a deep understanding of what made that movie tick, Aliens: Dark Descent is a great Real Time Strategy.

Aliens returns to video games with a great new story full of terror and action in which our decisions will be key to the survival of the colonial marines.

This game perfectly captures the feel of the Aliens movie from the perspective of a marine squad dealing with xenomorphs. Fans of survival games that enjoy some super intense battles should give this game a try. If you’re an Alien fan, definitely give this game a shot. I’m not really too big of a fan of real-time strategy games, but this game pulled me in as I learned more and more about it. It’s very hard from the start but as you start to learn it, it gets a bit easier, but you’ll never have a truly comfortable time with all the different situations that keep popping up and that is what makes this game fantastic!

Aliens: Dark Descent sees Tindalos serve up a cracking RTS that manages to capture the essence of this terrifying sci-fi series whilst giving players plenty of sweet strategy to sink their teeth into. Tweaking the established XCOM setup to better suit the nature of the enemy at hand, this is an Aliens adventure that leans into stealth, studious preparation, consideration of resources and slow-burn exploration as you manoeuvre through evocative environments whilst attempting not to disturb the deadly xenomorph hordes. There are a few rough edges here and there, and some strategy fans may mourn the loss of individual unit control, but overall this is one express elevator to hell we absolutely recommend taking.

Aliens: Dark Descent does a great job of mashing up tactical action and the tension and fear of its source material. Not without its pain points however such as the lip syncing during cutscenes, controller buttons not being recognized usually when in the heat of battle, and some other bugs and glitches. I commend these developers for taking so many different things and successfully putting them together to deliver a wonderful tactical strategy game, some more time gestating and this one would have been ready to really burst forth and do some real damage.

The idea is good, but the execution leaves you wanting more.

Aliens: Dark Descent is a great strategy title with oodles of potential. However, game-breaking bugs and annoying sound bites hold it back. Yet, if the problems can be ironed out, you'll enjoy a tough and deep trip in to the Aliens world.