An unsettling stillness permeated the station. Buildings have been scrambled on the within – rooms dotted with bloody streaks and furnishings upturned. Guttural sounds echoed from ebony nests; pounding steps grew louder the longer my marines stayed nonetheless. While not a survival-horror title, Aliens: Dark Descent masterfully bottles the franchise’s menacing ambiance. It comes packaged as a stable squad-administration XCOM-lite puffing a brand new terrifying model. But whereas it respects the supply materials and nails its inspirations fairly nicely, squad coordination and battles could be a bit unruly and frustratingly unfair at instances.
Crash touchdown on the moon generally known as Lethe, a Xenomorph outbreak slings you into the footwear of former Wayland-Yutani administrator Maeko Hayes and U.S. colonial Marines officer Jonas Harper. The narrative comes out swinging in that every little thing-goes-to-hell Alien style however slips in a number of jaw-droppers and humanizes characters, retaining you hooked and pleasantly paying off for investing in the place Dark Descent heads.
You lead a squad as a single unit into mission zones coloured with targets and sources. Fog of battle hid enemies as I huddled troops by doorways — keeping track of a pulsing radar. During these instances, reminiscences of Alien: Isolation got here to thoughts, and Dark Descent truly replicates points of that hair-elevating hook. Suspense and zone format add terrifying substance to exploration, and that pressure explodes throughout battles.
Players gun down iconic creatures like Facehuggers and Alien Queens by actual-time battles. A click on of a button slows down or pauses encounters to focus squad fireplace. The mannerisms of Xenomorphs are trustworthy to the collection, with them wildly charging and dragging off my troopers when doable. Using squad sources to shoot a large-spreading shotgun or flamethrower offered loadout depth and management as my marines robotically fired.
Unfortunately, stealth sections by packs of sleeping Xenomorphs make squad motion really feel cumbersome. And at instances, crouching and clicking different buttons aren’t snappy, resulting in lethal encounters with enemies. Depending in your final save after a bitter dying, you might have to backtrack to organize and slog again to attempt once more. Dark Descent is conscious of its issue – as famous by the tutorials – however the issue spikes, backtracking, and clunky controls will be annoying to work round.
When not in sweaty fight situations, battles are quick and lean into extra playful complexity as you stage up troops. Harkening to XCOM, there are position-primarily based courses that excel at gunnery or hacking with a flying bot. Without a Tecker, I couldn’t unlock particular doorways. Medics revive teammates from a comatose state, and Sergeants present essential stat boosts. Each class feels instrumental throughout a given mission.
At your own home base, you’ll be able to spend provides to get your class’ distinctive expertise or assign physicians to get injured troopers again into the sphere faster. Under the hood of Dark Descent is the framework of an XCOM sport. I initially believed this design to be a protected crutch, however there’s a satisfying development loop cooking right here that works collectively with the setup of an Alien story, turning into gratifying the extra you pour into it.
Soaked in darkish sci-fi environments and human personalities, Dark Descent nails the hallmarks of an Alien title and executes a lot of its squad-primarily based gameplay. Despite some downsides and squad management throughout exact moments, loads of its components stored me jacked in to see its conclusion. It was an exciting trip with ups and downs, however I left fulfilled and appreciated its experimental twists.
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