Aliens: Dark Descent review: The Prometheus of RTS games

Alien: Dark descent Advertised as a real-time action game, it carefully avoids the real-time strategy classification. This new classification is not a gimmick. Tindalos Interactive has created a tense single-player experience that borrows from several different genres while offering a decidedly idiosyncratic and ambitious approach. However, just like the controversial movie series “Alien”, Prometheusthe experiment struggles to maintain creative momentum throughout.

dark descent It completely removes or deliberately narrows down the resource gathering, technical improvement, and base building aspects found in many RTS titles. There are no real-time macro layers, and the focus is moment-to-moment on the micro action of piloting a team of four US Marine Corps soldiers.it is similar star craft A campaign mission to explore with a small number of Terran Marines. It focuses on specific named characters and the tension surrounding their survival. Ammo and stress become a concern instead of ores and minerals. And when one of your grunts gets slaughtered, or worse, carried away by an alien drone and becomes pregnant, it fosters grief and regret. This is a brutal game with a collection of haunting moments.

You can easily familiarize yourself with this framework with our 45 minute tutorial. It also serves as a prologue to a larger story. This lengthy intro is welcome, as the systems in action have some quirks and require you to understand the unusual tactical options they present.

The most sophisticated of these tactical systems focus on the command point. Use this resource to lay down cones of suppressive fire, deliver powerful short-range shotgun blasts, and spew walls of fire to defend your position. The game cannot be paused, it just uses slow motion when opening the command menu. As this system is central to tactical decision-making during intense conflict, it is imperative that you familiarize yourself with this system quickly.

But this tutorial also dark descent in the most mundane. The action sequences are repetitive and offer little opportunity for interesting tactical decisions or creativity. It fails to attract new players, fails to highlight the strengths of the game and interesting cinematic combat, and is fraught with danger. This is the beginning of a similarly mechanical storyline, starting with Weiland and Yutani’s corporate conspiracy and featuring disturbing synthetic humans. There are similarly less predictable moments later in the campaign, and it’s during these stages that the game threatens to let users’ attention slip.

Much of the intrigue stems from the various subsystems that make up the feel of combat. Actually clicking and navigating is a bit tedious. Additionally, you may not send lone units or small fire teams to defend a position or flank operations. The team is forced to band together. While this streamlines the action, it also takes away some of the tactical depth. Additionally, this can lead to repetitive sequences as it tries to force an approaching horde through a bottleneck under withering fire to maintain a long, narrow line of sight. However, you can keep things simple enough. The different environments are rich and fully realized in scope and vision. You’ll be traveling through sprawling colonies and gigantic space docks with entire sections encased in Xenomorph shells. All of this is also strongly enhanced by roster management and the open world aspect of play. During this period of interim, heavily armed expedition, dark descent really take off.

Image: Tindalos Interactive/Focus Home Entertainment

There are also moments of beauty and originality. As you traverse a massive sector with internal and external combat zones, you’ll be unexpectedly swarmed by xenomorphs of all shapes and sizes. The AI ​​adapts to your tactics and avoids defenses such as sentry guns and walls of fire. You have to contend with facehuggers and acid blood, and it feels like you’re actually being chased. Sometimes even the environment itself turns against you, forcing soldiers to contend with psychological trauma by locking themselves in a room with a welding torch.

In between missions, research new equipment and unlock skills for different squads. Pour experience and resources into your barracks. This layer, obviously he took inspiration from his XCOM games on Firaxis, creates a nice loop of steadily increasing the abilities of the soldiers to make them even more attractive targets for the Xenomorphs. It’s vivid and memorable, and leads to great storytelling moments.

where dark descent Mission selection pushes beyond XCOM. The campaign is somewhat linear, but achieves an open-world feel by letting you discover new areas of the world map: various settlements and facilities on the planet Lethe, which is in global danger. increase. Each sector requires you to complete the main story objectives, but you can also return to each sector later to look for missing items or complete subtasks. dark descentThe structure also allows for evacuation in the middle of a mission, keeping squad members mentally and physically healthy after everything goes off course. There have been moments of ups and downs, as we evacuated many times when pursuing specific objectives, retrieved whatever supplies we could, and deployed the squad to Zhongwan before redeploying with new members. Do this too often and the alien threat will intensify over time. This creates the illusion that the environment is permanent and evolves itself autonomously.

Image: Tindalos Interactive/Focus Home Entertainment

Alien: Dark descent Sometimes ambitious, often willing, and sometimes rash. Some may want something more intimate and scary, alien isolation In the sequel, this isometric tactical challenge is rich with consequences and rewards. This may not be the most consistent or exceptional alien video game we’ve seen, but it’s definitely notable and imaginative.

Alien: Dark descent Available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed using the retail edition provided by Focus Home Interactive. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn a commission on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.