JustWatch
Advertisement
Aliens: Dark Descent is an atmospheric RTS, but it irritates me because of raw gameplay elements, half-baked stealth mechanics and identical mazes.
Aliens: Dark Descent manages to absorb the player, with its main arsenal being the strong atmosphere and the high level of challenge. However, I feel that it would need a better sense of control during battles to make it a truly memorable game.
If all of its technical issues can be fixed, Aliens: Dark Descent will prove to be something special. It treats the franchise with respect and care — and when working properly — it nails the tension the series is famous for. Unfortunately, a full, completed release simply should not have this many technical issues, nor cause so much frustration that has nothing to do with the aliens themselves.
8
Julien1993
The game is simply **** you're an Alien fan, go for **** me, it's the second-best Alien game ever made, just behind Alien: Isolation. Unfortunately, the game is very poorly rated due to an overly assisted community. I finished it on maximum difficulty without a walkthrough in “Nobody Will Hear Them Scream” mode.There is nothing insurmountable!Positive:- It's a new genre. It's a real-time tactical shooter. The style is excellent and will surely be copied. - The atmosphere and tension are great during the first few missions. - The management of the marines is excellent. The traits and psychological development are great! Even if they are too random. We are forced to reload our games to get the perfect traits on maximum difficulty.- The stress during the missions is a total success. The alien atmosphere is worthy of the first two films.Negative points:- The game runs out of steam after missions 5-6.- There are a lot of bugs on PS5.- The equipment is very limited. More customization would have been nice. - You end up playing in only one way, which is a bit of a shame. They should have added some life to the vehicle and upgrades to nerf the biggest technique. (30x Sensor near the vehicle, you ring it to clear the map and attract everything to the vehicle, then you explore without aliens).- Let's move on to the so-called biggest negative point...A lot of players gave up because at the beginning they were told that there was a limited time before the planet exploded.Players thought they wouldn't be able to reach the end because they were given something like 30 days.First of all, it's incredibly simple. I finished it in 8-9 days.Secondly, this time limit is deactivated after a **** sum up, you can do 5-8 round trips per mission. Complete the mission that changes this timer. Then redo the missions unlimited times. I find it incomprehensible that no one saw this. I think it shows the state of gamers in 2026... we want open worlds everywhere so we never have to finish games. Up, I forgot a few negative points:- In terms of customization, it's already pretty poor (we would have liked more weapons and upgrades), but above all, ammunition management is a disaster. It should clearly have been possible to bring ammunition back to the ships and create more.- The game completely runs out of steam after mission 5-6.- The scenes with a single character are pretty mediocre.- The balancing is rather poor. For example, the sniper is the best class in normal mode but becomes completely unusable in high difficulty mode.Traits such as having 3x accuracy and 3x critical hits are far too powerful compared to the rest.I'm being very critical in this review, but please note that this game is excellent and, in my opinion, a must-have if you like aliens.
5
hellorty
Feels like the game has a very, very narrow niche - you have to be both an Alien franchise fan (I am), but also love learning tons of game mechanics and buttons, to still have not really much control over the situation. I don't mind a challenge and complete all of the games at least on Medium or Hard, but here you have to sweat A LOT, because pressure is coming from everywhere, also without any kind of reward/satisfaction. A lot of bugs and clumsiness. Aside from that, all the aspects of the Alien vibe are preserved really well.
9
ruichi
Fantastic game. What a surprise! Best Alien game after Alien Isolation. It is a tactical shooter. Hard, but not in it's mechanics, which is good. The story is surprisingly good. It can give you goosebumps. Scary. Fits right in the Alien universe.

Aliens: Dark Descent

Released On: 
Jun 20, 2023
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
My Score
Drag or tap to give a rating
Hover and click to give a rating

Where to Buy

Advertisement
Metascore
Generally Favorable
64% Positive
42 Reviews
33% Mixed
22 Reviews
3% Negative
2 Reviews
  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
Jun 26, 2023
95
KeenGamer
Aliens: Dark Descent is a heart-pounding game that stays true to the franchise's roots, bringing action-packed sequences paired with horrifying atmosphere where dangers lurk around every moment. From the terrifying enemy AI to the Unique Quirks that define every soldier at your disposal, Aliens: Dark Descent is the perfect recipe for those who seek a definitive Aliens experience.
Jun 20, 2023
85
Wccftech
Aliens: Dark Descent is an excellent real-time tactics game mixed with survival horror and arguably the best Aliens game around. Excellent tactical action in a world ever-succumbing to the Xenomorph threat, you will find resources scarce, leading to difficult decisions, ones made all the more difficult when time is also a factor. Add on an engaging enough story and an excellent atmosphere, and you have a game that I can't help but recommend to anybody and everybody.
User score
Generally Favorable
66% Positive
150 Ratings
22% Mixed
50 Ratings
12% Negative
26 Ratings
  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
Apr 23, 2024
10
jakerfv
One of the best games I've ever played. Yes, there are bugs (even long after release), yes, the game has limited enemy units, yes, the story is kind of predictable, yes, the intro **** and the ending isn't great. But the game uses its license effectively. It's absolutely fantastic and its the best Aliens game ever made. Alien isolation was a great Alien 1 game, AVP Colonial Marine campaigns always had priority split between the other campaigns and were sometimes too derivative anyway (AVP 2 human campaign is literally a half-life clone) and the arcade games, despite being good, were not what I wanted out of an Aliens title. Colonial Marines was a disappointment, even with a patch and mobs. This game is fantastic, it's strategic, it's tense, it's fun. Go buy it. First game since I was a kid that I've beaten 3 times and the first game on PC I've ever 100% finished with all achievements (with a library of over 2000 games on Steam). Give it a shot.
Oct 28, 2023
10
Skjaergaard
Best game since Alien Isolation. i have so many hours in it already, and I hope there will be many more games just like this
Jun 23, 2023
80
Cultured Vultures
Aliens: Dark Descent marries its inspirations with reverence for its source material to create arguably the best Aliens game of all time.
Jun 23, 2023
79
GAMES.CH
With Aliens: Dark Descent Tindalos Interactive merges one of the coolest sci-fi-horror licenses of the last decades with a cleverly designed realtime tactics foundation. Combined with permadeath mechanics, challenging enemies and a persistent world that allows you to retreat if things get too dangerous, players will experience high levels of tension. Despite a remaining technical problems, deficits in the number of alien types you encounter and a sometimes too predictable plot, Dark Descent still snatches our insider’s tipp award for June 2023.
Aug 8, 2023
70
GameCritics
If all of its technical issues can be fixed, Aliens: Dark Descent will prove to be something special. It treats the franchise with respect and care — and when working properly — it nails the tension the series is famous for. Unfortunately, a full, completed release simply should not have this many technical issues, nor cause so much frustration that has nothing to do with the aliens themselves.
Jun 19, 2023
70
IGN
If not for the technical issues, this would be easily one of the best Aliens games ever. And it still probably is. Borrowing from some of the greatest squad-based tactics games and adding its own twists, I don't think I've played anything that really gets what was so cool about Aliens, the film, since Monolith's Aliens Versus Predator 2 way back in 2001. And many have tried! It's the sort of game that makes me wish I could look the other way and praise it even higher, but on balance, I just can't. With a few weeks in the med bay for a bit of extra technical polish, it could shine up nicely into something amazing. As-is, it's still an intriguing, inspired, imaginative survival RTS that I can enthusiastically recommend, but only with some caveats.
Jun 19, 2023
30
TheGamer
Dark Descent is a generic XCOM clone with brief moments of engaging puzzle-piecing strategy. The horror is underused and feels wholly out of place as it pushes you further and further into action. Music is adrenaline-pumping and clearly designed to compliment firefights, troops yell ‘LET’S GO TEAM’ every time you move, and xenomorphs are easier to mow down than avoid. Nothing about Dark Descent wants you to be scared, but everything about Aliens does. Mix in the cocktail of performance issues and thin mechanics, and what you have is another disappointing entry in the catalogue of Alien games.
See All 68 Critic Reviews
Oct 2, 2023
10
Markethers
Excellent game which is brutally hard. Felt like I was in the aliens franchise. The work the Devs put in to create the aliens universe was fantastic. Play the game with surround sound system. The sounds and effects/music is mind-blowing
Dec 11, 2024
7
Zeneko90
Das Spiel hat mich direkt in den Bann gezogen. Es war richtig klasse. Packende Atmosphäre etc. Da ich aber zu schlecht gespielt habe und demnach es nicht geschafft habe die Bombardierung zu überleben, hat es schlagartig mir den Spaß genommen. Und ich habe das Spiel nicht durchgespielt Trotz dessen hat es mir bis dahin Spaß gemacht,
Mar 19, 2024
7
Adamkah
Nem volt rossz játék, a történet rendben van, grafika megállja a helyét egy felülnézetes játékhoz képest, bár tény, hogy nem vitték túlzásba a textúrák minőségét és azok változatosságát. Ami kicsit unalmassá teszi a játékot, az egy-két pálya ismétlődése és hogy a Boss harcok kimerülnek a királynők legyilkolásában. Emellett elég nehéz a játékmenet, ami idő után megint elveszi a játék élvezhetőségét. Remélem ha lesz folytatás, lesz történet nehézség is amit lehet választani... :D
Apr 17, 2024
4
TomasLacerda
The story is really cringe. The forceful "strong independent woman" is really cringe, and it's simply badly written. So many situations where it's way too forced, either this being, she running away from xenomorphs, all men being whimps, she shows no fear whatsoever, it's just so hard making a point that it's just a joke all and all. Gameplay and UI is good, story is utter trash.
Jul 3, 2023
3
Satanski666
Technical problems - mouse lag in vsync mode - didn't see this one for years. Even turning on tripple buffering in nvidia drivers didn't solve the problem. Overall game felt clanky at times with frame skipping or something. I run it on RTX3070, Ryzen 7 58003D with 32GB ram, so hardware was not the problem, and as an IT guy i know what im doing with it. Regarding presentation, voice acting is _really_ bad, at times actors read their lines like in children cartoon or puppet show, breaking immersion. I don't know who wrote script for this game, but that person clearly hates men, portraying all of them as incompetent bullies towards strong, competent, diverse female lead. It was enough for me to refund the game pretty quickly.
See All 72 User Reviews
Advertisement
SummaryIn Aliens: Dark Descent, command a squad of hardened Colonial Marines to stop a terrifying Xenomorph outbreak on Moon Lethe. Lead your soldiers in real-time combat against iconic Xenomorphs, rogue operatives from the insatiable Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and a host of horrifying creatures new to the Alien franchise. Infiltrate large ope... Read More
Rated Mfor Mature
  • PC
  • PlayStation 5
  • Xbox Series X
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One
Jun 20, 2023
Advertisement
Advertisement
Related Content: ijumpman | fishie fishie | lucha libre aaa heroes del ring | disgaea 4 a promise unforgotten medic | disgaea 4 a promise unforgotten pirohiko ichimonji | four in a row 2010 | zombie square | super sniper hd | the will of dr frankenstein | chuck e cheeseand39s party games alley roller