Aliens: Dark Descent Is A Must-Play Hybrid Of Strategy And Survival Horror On Xbox Game Pass
Game over, man!
The survival horror game Alien: Isolation perfectly captures the vibe of the Alien film, putting players in the shoes of an unlucky crewmate desperately trying to escape a rampaging Xenomorph. The film’s sequel, Aliens, opts for a more action-forward approach, with human marines fighting back against the threat with extreme force. Because of that, it’s surprising that Aliens hasn’t gotten a definitively great video game adaptation the way that Alien has, but a new addition to Xbox Game Pass comes pretty darn close.
Released in 2023, Aliens: Dark Descent is a bit hard to place, genre-wise. Yes, it’s a squad-based real-time strategy game, but it puts a heavy emphasis on stealth, adds some squad stress management à la Darkest Dungeon, and even incorporates plenty of genuine survival horror. The result isn’t perfect, but it’s an extremely compelling, sometimes unbearably tense mashup that comes closer to nailing what makes Aliens great than any other game.
You need to carefully monitor your squad’s physical and mental health to make it out alive.
Aliens: Dark Descent starts off slow, and I mean that as a compliment. Like the film it’s based on, the game takes its time introducing you to your squad and their mission, letting tension build over time rather than coming right out the gate with guns blazing. You find yourself on Lethe, a moon owned by the Weyland Yutani megacorp, investigating the crash of a colonial marine ship. After the game’s terrifying tutorial, you find yourself investigating abandoned outposts and poking around for clues in the extraterrestrial dirt before provoking the ire of a Xenomorph hive that’s set up shop on the moon, turning the investigation into a fight for survival.
Even once the action has kicked off, Aliens: Dark Descent does an excellent job of balancing tension with explosive action. Your entire squad always moves together, and they share a pool of extremely limited resources to use abilities like suppressing fire and frag grenades. Once you’re in a fight, it’s crucial to use your skills wisely — even better if you’ve thought ahead and set up traps and turrets ahead of time.
This is exactly the situation you don’t want to find yourself in.
As you might expect, avoiding Xenomorphs altogether is the best course of action. You spend a considerable amount of time in the game with your eyes glued to the radar in the corner, avoiding any signs of hostile movement. Even a stray Xenomorph or two can do some real damage, leaving your small squad with injuries that will slow them down and need to be patched up later. But that’s not even the real threat. Any time you’re spotted by a Xenomorph, the entire hive gets a little more riled up. The more agitated the hive is, the more drones it will send looking for you and the more aggressive they’ll be. That means every mission escalates in tension and difficulty as it goes on, with even the chance that you’ll be seen by an enemy providing a palpable threat.
If the danger gets to be too much, you can always bail out early. In a stroke of genius, you’re able to evacuate from missions even before completing their objectives, giving you a chance to rest and recover before coming back to try again. Doing so can save your squad members’ lives, but it comes at the cost of giving the hive time to grow, meaning the next time you try the same mission, it will be even more difficult. Figuring out the least awful way to proceed through a mission that’s gone south adds to the desperate strategy that permeates every level of the game.
Even with all the firepower you can muster, it’s careful strategy that will save your life.
Outside of missions, you have an XCOM-style base to attend to. Here you can upgrade and heal your allies, with the same risk that if you take too long, the hive will have evolved too much for you to handle it when you next set foot outside.
Aliens: Dark Descent falls short in its narrative and technical performance. The story is mostly forgettable, aside from the emergent narratives that come out of your own play. That’s not entirely unexpected for a squad-based RTS, but it does feel like a missed opportunity when you consider its source material. The game also has its share of bugs, though usually they’re not enough to break the game. Dark Descent’s missteps pale in comparison to its strengths, but they’re worth keeping in mind to set expectations before you go in.
You might not need any help feeling a creeping sense of horror these days, but at least with Aliens: Dark Descent, you’ll know what to do about it. Whether you’re an Aliens fan or just want to experience a unique blend of strategy and horror, Dark Descent offers exactly the kind of bug hunt you’re looking for.
