Plays like CRPG stiched together with Xcom; most resembles Xcom: Apocalypse, which surprised me. Actually handles stealth in an interesting way despite the irritating tutorial. Found it had a certain respect for the franchise and builds off the Alien TTRPG, which is good. Enjoyed the revised and updated aesthetic features, although I think it didn't take very many risks and the writing was middling or mediocre. Sometimes the terrain feels a bit cut-and-paste, but overall it's tolerable.

Overall would speak highly of it to fans or laypeople, though I wish it took some risks in gameplay.

Awesome hardcore tactical experience in the Aliens universe. Every time you hear "it's like XCOM in real time but in Aliens" it's 100% true and you'll especially see this in the class system. Aliens: Dark Descent lays a lot of really good groundwork that I feel like could be expanded upon in a sequel (at least spiritually if not directly) such as the Inventory system having more options, and the enemy AI being expanded upon between humanoid enemies and xenomorphs as I feel they can act in a very binary fashion at times. The narrative wasn't anything too-too special but offers a put-together and solid story experience. I actually re-watched Aliens while I was about halfway through my play through of the game and realized how much material is pulled directly from that movie in a very appreciative way that manages to not be too heavy handed, like the APC design or the phrase "I believe the term is artifical person. . ." turning up.

Overall, a very solid tactical game that sets itself up well & executes exactly what it's going for without being too fantastical. I had a great time with it, and I think I would be most disappointed with this title if the developers didn't do anything with either a spiritual or direct successor for it because of the potential it has set up for expansion.

as of 12/30/24 7:17PM I have finished it...there has been moments where i was pissed where my squad would get jumped and immediately get either knocked, coma, wounded... GAWWDD them xenos from chicago or sum LMAOOO but overall really enjoyable if you got patience. huge fan of the alien franchise. Can't wait for future games (i recently brough a VR Headset to play Alien Roque....i can't wait) i really recommend this game

Game over man, Game Over!

It's not perfect in but it is a very commendable effort, takes around about 20 - 25 hours to play through, potentially up to 30 if you tackle all the optional side objectives. It's a real time tactics game but it absolutely scratches the same itch that XCOM does, at least for me. In all I had a lot of fun with it, so much so that I've restarted the game upon completion right away.

I have no problems recommending Aliens Dark Descent, it never crashed once and I only encountered minor bugs at best which I could count on 1 hand, far as I am concerned, it is worthy of your time and investment.

An amazing, cinematic and game play masterpiece. Just straight up amazing game, story, and better than most of the movies after Aliens. I highly recommend it, just don't know why they never made a DLC or a sequel.

Imagine Xcom but now its real time, The Alien ticking motion tracker ticks as you're deep in some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mine, Your Recon blows the head off an alien but before she can do that it shrieks alarming the Hive. Then 10 of them approach your position, the only lights coming from a flare turning everything into a crimson red.

This game really creates the Alien atmosphere, and makes you care about each and every marine, as he gets wounded, hurt, or gets burned by nasty Alien Acid.

Gameplay is FANTASTIC, just imagine imrpoved Xcom you can choose if you want to "slow down" time and play it realtime or stop and play it more like an xcom and pre-plan stuff.

Only "mediocre" note for it would be the facial animations during ingame cinematics are a bit clunky, but the story and gameplay are fantastic, the sound design and weapons SOUND great.

One of the best games i've played in 2024. strong 8/10 or 9/10 if i wake up in a good mood.

stay frosty

Played on the Deck and its very Playable. Alien version of XCOM :D

Although the game isn't really bad, it is aggressively mediocre in pretty much every area. If you are a diehard strategy AND aliens fan you will probably enjoy it, while being frustrated as well. But if you aren't so diehard, you won't lose out much.

Bugs
The game has a LOT of minor bugs, 1.5 years after release, so being fixed is unlikely. Not gamebreaking or showstopping, but immersion-breaking and slightly annoying.

Enemies dying offscreen sometimes don't fall down, leaving them frozen like statues. A voice line can get stuck on the screen. An item is visible on the map, but not in game and so can't be picked up. Sniping a story enemy from a distance before you are supposed to trigger a script leaves them frozen and bugged. Sometimes mines don't detonate.

It feels like the game uses an old standard engine, but the developers weren't solid in scripting.

Voice acting
Voice acting is mediocre. It is acceptably good for the main characters, subpar for the soldiers you control. Certain annoying phrases will be spoken a LOT, not sounding at all like actual soldiers. It would be middle of the road for a 2000 game.

Graphics
Graphics and animation are mediocre. They look acceptable mostly, occasionally poor. A man dragging his leg looked like what I would expect from a game from 2005-2010. Engine looks dated - often small visual problems.

Story
The story is mediocre. The center part of the story is extremely, extremely cliche, not immersive in a believable way. It's like a story designed by committee, except the committee is pretty small and has seen 1 alien movie not too long ago. There is nothing relating to the latest Prometheus stuff. A lot of smaller cliches. Some things make no sense at all.

Gameplay features
The features are mediocre to decent for a strategy game.
Enemies can be killed using stealth, but spawn again very rapidly, like the game is set to have 3 enemies on patrol so the moment you kill one a new spawns in a few seconds.
You will rapidly find a certain strategy that is by far the most effective, but also tedious and involves waiting for command points to regenerate.

Overall I don't regret purchasing this at a big discount, but I fall squarely in the target group and was still slightly annoyed throughout. You shouldn't have any regrets if you give it a miss.