What I like about Alien (s) video games is the variety. We had lots of stuff. Generic Pac-Man clone, first-person adventure, FPS, metroidvania, survival horror... Time is on our side here. People in control change and so is the vision of how franchise should be represented in video games field. Sometimes it leads to things like Fireteam Elite. Which was just... stupid. Think about it. They wanted to enter co-op shooter territory, they wanted to go big, but they didn't have money for that. As the result, we've got poor man's HELLDIVERS II people refused to play just because it had nothing special in it, while there were way better games on market. Dark Descent, on the other hand? There's nothing like it.

Well, technically, there is. But not exactly. First, let me mention one of my most favorite Alien games ever – the one that was released in 1984 for Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and (a bit later) for the Amstrad CPC. We had a map, separated by decks (lower, middle, upper), we had a team (since it was based on the original film, it was a Nostromo crew) and, naturally, we had Xenomorph. That alien bastard who wanted to kill our guys. The idea was to lure the sucker into the airlock and then blast them into space. In which no one'll hear 'em scream. Or, if things were going bad, we were able to escape on Narcissus, exactly like Ellen Ripley will do in 2122 (What? Alien was a documentary!). Jonesy, the cat, was there too. And if something, our ginger friend caused lots of troubles, since in order to track Xenomorph we were supposed to use certain detection tools and... Let's just say there was no way to tell who's who. Who's the cat and who's... You know. A death incarnate? Anyway, you've got the idea. It was a rather deep and atmospheric experience. Keep that in mind for now.

Another game that needs to be mentioned is XCOM. Firaxis' remake, not the original X-COM: UFO Defense. Well, technically both, since the main formula of having a base of operations and alien beings to hunt down was introduced in 1994, but It was Firaxis who gave formula a modern look. Gamepad-friendly and sh*t (yes, 1994 game was on PlayStation and even CD32 too, bu-u-ut... Let's just say there was a reason the PS version had PS Mouse support. It was still a mouse-oriented game. No changes whatsoever. Now, Firaxis, while keeping the original formula, made it so comfortable that game feels satisfying even on mobiles (think I still have it on one of my phones). All while adding a certain cinematic touch that made the 2012 game so cool.

Now. Finally, it's time to talk 'bout our new kid on the block. Aliens: Dark Descent. By Tindalos Interactive, creators of Etherium and Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. What is it? Well, I didn't mention the 1984 Alien game and XCOM for nothing, since what we've got here? Is some sort of a mix between those. 50/50. The first half of a concept here is an obvious XCOM rip-off (again, I'm talking 'bout Firaxis' stuff here). And it's so-o-o impossible not to notice. We've got the same exact base of operations (in this exact case, it's the Andastes class USS Otago, but all in all, it doesn't make any difference since everything, time limit included, is exactly the same), we've got labs, we've got med-bay, we can customize troops (names, appearances, etc) and level them up within different classes, etc. You know how it is. If it looks like XCOM, feels like XCOM, and plays like XCOM, something is telling me it is no duck. But.

That's where the 80s come in. We all know that XCOM, even in its Firaxis form, is a turn-based game, right? Well, Dark Descent is not. When we leave the Otago to do one of them operations? It's real-time. Sure, sure, it has one of those “smart pause” things (we're free to choose between the slow-mo and full pause in options menu), but all in all? It's real-time. Not only that, the entire formula is different from what we had in XCOM. It still has a couple of elements taken from it here and a couple of elements there (the barrage fire is a nice example of that), but honestly, operations feel nothing like XCOM. Instead, they feel more akin to what we had in that 1984 game. Again, we heavily rely on our trackers. The maps are quite big and (again, exactly like in 1984 game) divided by floors. This time, though? There's not one Xenomorph, but many (after all, it's “Aliens”, not “Alien”). Blips on your map? Pay. F*cking. Attention.

Talking about enemy count. There'll be a lot of 'em. Like, a lot. Up to the point where you'll feel overwhelmed. Don't even expect twin-stick shooting here. You're supposed to play smart. Especially since (another XCOM element to mention) your marines won't be cold-blooded killing machines. Like in XCOM, those are people. People don't do well under lots of pressure and let me tell you – there'll be pressure here. Lots and lots of it. Those medkits your guys will carry with 'em? Sometimes you'll waste those to heal not physical but mental wounds. Just to keep soldiers from breaking up. And it's rather brilliant. The way Tindalos simulated the Xenomorph action? It's the best f*cking thing I've seen since 1984. Very atmospheric, very realistic, very awesome. You'll be able to weld the doors to create some sort of a safe room in order to give troops some rest, you'll be able to use APC to provide fire support, you'll be able to save people to add 'em to your crew (what's even more interesting, sometimes those'll end up being traitors), you'll need to deal with facehuggers (later in game you'll be able to research way to remove them, but during the early parts you should be really careful not to lose soldiers to them) and if things will go bad, you'll need to just try to evacuate the rest of the team in order to try later. Because yes, you can finish the mission in more than one run. Like R-Truth likes to say, AWESOME!

Don't expect Dark Descent to be perfect, though. There's a series of problems with it that make it rather... Arguable. First – pretty soon you'll notice just how limited it is. Kill Xenomorphs for their DNA (required for research and carrying the advanced tools), collect the materials (required for unlocking better guns), heal your wounded and... That's pretty much it. Even those PDAs you're supposed to find and collect are just that – the collectibles. They're doing nothing. Kinda disappointing. When one of the characters mentioned catching the living Xenomorph, I expected some XCOM stuff, but no. It was just a funny nod. Dark Descent is a very limited thing. Gets old pretty quick too. Thanks to how tricky it can be to just move from one point on map to another, it may take a bit too long to finish the mission and since the gameplay won't change much with time... Like I say, there's a big chance you'll get bored quickly. Finally, Tindalos did a poor job with the UI. What we have here is the opposite of Firaxis' XCOM. Usually, it's easy to tell which kind of controls was supposed to be the main dish. When you play 1994 X-COM on consoles, it's obvious that it wasn't made for gamepads. And vice versa, it's obvious that Firaxis' take on it was made with gamepad in mind. Dark Descent? I dunno. Kinda sucks with both gamepad and mouse. In other words, it's one of those games that have lots of good in 'em, yet in the end leave you a bit disappointed. Just because of how much room there's for 'em to improve. Dixi.

Its an OK game at best. The writing is aweful and rushed so definitely do not recommend it for the narrative. Lot of subplots in the beginning are suddenly dropped with no explanation.

The mechanics are interesting and the diffculty is insane. Seriously, its easily frustrating for those that haven't mastered its basics and the game will have steep difficulty spikes to make you suffer. Definitely had to make interesting plays with no room for error and tons of luck.

However, there are mechanics you can see in some level designs that were rushed since it only appears once and then never seen again for no apparent reason.

The ending was aweful both in terms of narrative and gameplay. Its anticlimatic and kinda undoes the whole tension the game was building from the beginning.

Nice