Aliens: Dark Decent Review on Xbox

Aliens: Dark Decent is a squad-based real time strategy, single-player action game in the iconic Alien franchise.

The premise is you take command of a squad of hardened Colonial Marines to stop a terrifying Xenomorph outbreak on Planet 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.

The game boasts a large open levels to command your squad, dispatch orders strategically and intuitively at the touch of a button, new creatures, customizable squad and classes, pause and slowdown options and an original alien story to play through 12 levels.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there is a plethora of options to tweak and adapt the way you play this game from controller / mouse and keyboard mapping, subtitles options, UI Scaling and even a variety of colour deficiency options. This is a good selection to help those that may not normally have a chance to play such a game. 

I specially like that if players would like to play with a keyboard and mouse even on console, having the ability to map different keys is truly wonderful and sorely needed on more RTS.

Gameplay

Few games in the Alien franchise capture its tense atmosphere of the original or the action adventure of the sequel. With regards to the prior only Alien isolation was truly able to capture the original films intent and suspense. With regards to the sequel though, there has been many attempts to recreate the action of the sequel with mostly all failing to come close. The dreaded Alien: Colonial Marines still brings a shiver to my spine. The 2010 Aliens vs Predator and more recently Aliens: FireTeam Elite was probably the closest in terms of what Aliens could be like from a Marines perspective.

This is where the developers Tindalos Interactive have come in and decided to go more with real time strategy genre. To say I was sceptical was an understatement, as I really couldn’t imagine that the same action and suspense be created from such a choice.

The game starts of with you taking control of deputy administer Maeko Hayes, a Weyland-Yutani executive. Things don’t seem to be adding up at the dock so you check it out regardless of your supervisors protests. After a devastating xenomorph outbreak on your space station, you activate the planetary containment system called Cerberus. This destroys all ships coming in and out of the area, forcing you to join a USS Colonial Marine Jonas Harper on his ship called the Otago, which then currently crash lands on the nearby planet Lethe.

This then becomes your base of operations in which you shall launch parties of Marines on away missions on the planet to repair said ship and also find out what is going on. Within the Otago you can outfit your Marines, deal with dilemmas as they arise, customize their looks and classes and upgrade and provide weapons, ready for deployment. There are three main cores to continuously check over, after and prior to your squads missions. Healing, training, and weapon development.

Healing is pretty simply, after a mission your squad will need to heal for a few days before being allowed on another mission, but some members may also may have traumas from their mission that shall need removing. These are affectively debuffs that can affect that individual member or affect the whole squad and can make any deployment go from fun, to hell very quickly. Having a marine snap in the middle of an engagement and collapse on the floor screaming is a certain way to get the squad killed. You wont be able to resolve these though until after the second mission, when the psychiatric ward is unlocked, in which the individual will under go counselling to remove said trauma.

Training is next and is essential in upgrading your marines, with those that are not deployed being left to train to increase their experience level. Each soldiers start out as rookies with some having a negative trait, such as "unfit" which detracts from that soldier's max health or ‘’conspiracy’’ which reduce stress management in safe zones. You can make some adjustments to them using marine kits which include extra ammo or pouches, but it’s when you level up your marines to level 2, you can then choose a specialized class for them.

The Class of your squad members will affect their skillset, and as they earn experience points, these will help upgrade their capabilities. This allows the player to change their squads with particular Classes that are better suited for certain mission types based upon what they offer. The classes on offer are Gunner, Tecker, Medic, Recon and Sergeant.

The Gunner is perfect dismembering enemies and providing cover for the squad, whilst the Teckers will hack systems and allow you to hack doors and access bypass routes. Medics provide better healing and ensuring your squad stays calm, whilst Recon will use drones to scout ahead and allows for silent sniping. But it’s the Sergeant class keeps your squad’s morale up and bravery up whilst ensuring that you gain more command points at your disposal, which is critical in a fight.

Weapon Development is the final core element to keep an eye on, and this varies from purchasing new weapons using materials collected, or unlocking them with new skills. Xeno upgrades are created using xeno dna which then gives you access to the like stun grenades or chitin armour. All of these provide better buffs or unique skills for your already developed marines in a bid to keep you equal to the ever evolving creatures you will meet.

You may think this may take up a lot of your time, but actually it will be the deployments, usually on Lethe's surface which is the meat of where the gameplay is. Before any mission starts, the player must selects four marines (can be upgraded to five later), marine kits if not already specked, and purchase squad-wide resources like med kits, sentry guns, and tools. With little resources to your name, the later is almost impossible and will require to pick these up on your deployments and bring them back for later use. Once done, you jump in your armoured vehicles and air lifted to the area in question.

When landed on these highly detailed and large maps, you will be given a series of objectives. As you progress through them, side optional quests will appear giving you choices in what you wish to do next. Side quests are almost as important as your main quests as these often lead to npc’s which in turn will increase your squad choice, or resources back at your homebase. How you approach any objectives is entirely up to you and there is no push from the game to go a certain path at a certain time.

Moving said squad is tactile and easy using, plenty of pointing and clicking as you move them around, or assign tasks for them to deal with in order to complete objectives. Unlike most tactics games, you control the entire squad simultaneously, and only split-up when asked to loot multiple resources, before returning back to the squad. Resources looting is essential and you will need to scour each locale using your flashlight whilst interacting with the environment in various ways, to ensure you pick up the most resources you can, before returning.

Ammo can only be found on the battlefield, so its paramount you pick these up when you can. However there is a catch to this as the maps are persistent maps, and they bear the scars of previous encounters. This means if you don’t think you can complete all objectives in one sitting. And you mostly wont, you will need to ensure that some resources are left behind for future deployments.

When you do engage, they are truly terrifying and the emphasis is to be as stealthy as possible and kill an enemy before it becomes a problem. There is an "Alien Aggression" meter in the top right hand corner and when ever the team is spotted the rating starts to climb. The rating goes from easy to medium to hard, with each level dictating how many Xenomorphs and types will be present in the level.

Should the aliens have a line of sight on the marines, they are considered "Detected" until the its killed or the marines escape from view and location. When they are no longer detected, the squad enters a "Hunted" state where the xenos will search the last area they where spotted. The aliens are smart and will actively search the map for its prey, popping out of air vents and remaining clear of sightlines, even attempting to take your screaming wounded alive for impregnation. This slowly fades away as long as they aren't spotted again. Throughout the Detected and Hunted phases, the Alien Aggression meter ticks up to a harder level and will only pause when a hunt fades.

Combat plays out in real time with activating actions or skills then pausing or slowing down depending on your game setting. These range from automated sentry guns to portable flamethrowers to sniping which are all needed in turning the tide against overwhelming odds. I preferred slow-down as this was more tense but still allowed me to react to the enemies attacks in question using said skills. 

To activate skills or actions you will need to use your command points. They are a limited commodity that slowly regenerate over time, meaning you have to plan your strategy carefully if you don’t want to leave yourself vulnerable. Your Marines will automatically fire upon enemies they see, but you can and hide behind cover and not fire should you wish to play it more stealthy.

With every encounter with the aliens, your squad stress will continue to rise, shown under each marine loadout at the bottom of the screen. At 100%, a random stress effect is added to the unit. The stress then rolls over to the next level and starts again at 0%. These soon build up, and like traumas which appear at the end of missions, will soon be the downfall to the entire squad if not resolved.

To reduce said stress the squad can use a pill to remove one effect or use a resource to weld certain doors closed, making a safe room where they can rest. Resting not only heals stress, but also saves the game and can provide a number of other benefits that can be improved with upgrades. Keeping an eye out for room to rest in is paramount if you want to ensure your squad doesn’t mentally break before the objective is completed.

To ensure your not always in the dark with the aliens, a helpful map shows the movement of many enemies within a certain radius of the squad, which then allows you to do a lot of tactical planning. A starting ability allows the team to set down a sensor, revealing enemies within its area even when the squad has moved on and is an essential tool in the player's kit ensuring you know where the enemy is always.

One good element is the game will tell you when you are about to start a boss fight, which then allows you to go back and prepare if necessary. Why you may ask, well another not so lovely feature is that one any marine is captured or killed, they are gone forever. And being that the game autosaves, you may have to go back quite abit to ensure you keep the marine you lost.

Your Marines have access to an armoured transport vehicle, which can be used to safely redeploy around the map or to extract the squad back to the Otago at any point in time. Once a mission is completed you jump back in your armoured vehicle and head back to base to confirm your resources you managed to find and the progress of said mission. 

After every mission a day moves forward, and this plays into the games larger aspect, the alien world threat level. Much like the in mission ‘’alien aggression’’ meter, there is an increasing ‘’alien hive threat level’’ which will also increase with each passing day, adding more xenos to the missions regardless. Taking too many deployments to complete the main objectives can soon lead to more complications down the line, which I wont spoil here.

The gameplay is nigh perfect in its ability to keep you on your toes through-out every mission, every objective. Fire fights are tense but highly enjoyable and being able to take on huge waves or even queens with your squad and come out the other side, somewhat intact, is a great feeling. There are bugs though, with some aliens clipping on a door that may hinder your progress, but these are being taken care of, as whilst reviewing this a huge patch dropped. I expect more to drop later, but Id be remised if I didn’t mention it.

Graphics

The games visuals are superb and can be seen to be a true labour of love. From its hard-sci-fi industrial look with blood-soaked Weyland-Yutani logos to its dead filled damaged corridors, each area provides atmosphere. The game is also diverse in its locations you can visit, like space stations, hives, mines, towns and even the planets surface, each moody, dark and uninviting.

The lighting however has to be the highlight as it when its used, it illuminates perfectly from its use of red flares to the fire spewing out of a flame thrower. Combine this with its clever fog, wind and rain effects, each location becomes a truly memorable experience. Each level is its own ecosystem which you will need to remember every aspect as you make your way through, in order to strategize the best approach so you can minimize the chance of casualties. The source material has been used to its fullest to really capture the games world and it shows in all its glory.

There is also a vast way to customise the game marines with its naming, looks and voicework, ensuring that each marine becomes more than a plain NPC and can lead to you being emotionally attached to your troops which is even more devastating when you lose a familiar face.

With regards to the aliens, there is a good selection of variety with its Queens, Praetorians and Crushers being backed up by the rank-and-file Drones, Runners, and Facehuggers. This combined with cult-like human opponents and more stranger ones that I shall not let on, you never feel as there isn’t enough variety.

Sound

The game is fully voiced, and the voice actors does a superb job portraying their avatar’s characteristics of being in a difficult situation. It helps that the story is one of the more engaging parts and whether it’s the main story missions or side objectives, each provides good multiple narrative arcs. Through-out your deployments, your marines will also make cliché and quips straight from the film that suit the source material perfectly.

The atmosphere though is by far the best I’ve heard in terms of suspense and tension. Missions start off slow, tense and creepy, and can go full fight fire in a matter of moments before backing down to its unnerving dread inducing prior status. Noise of the weapons are chunky and punchy as per the film as it rings through hallways echoing the shots. 

The sonar’s beeps bring me dread at every sound as enemies dart around the map, and the aliens hiss in the vents before dragging of a screaming squad member, will forever be burned into my memory. The developers have created a deeply disturbing authentic experience that will bring joy to those familiar with the franchise. My recommendation here, is a good quality headset to hear the hiss of the aliens as they crawl across the wall ready to attack you at every turn.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Aliens: Dark Decent is a "Must Own’’.

This is the closest you will get to the feeling of being a part of the marine squad shown in the 1984 film, Aliens. From its hordes of xenos attacking you, as a squad member snaps and fires widely before being dragged of, to a fate worse than death. To your slow creep around derelict infrastructure watching your sonar slowly beep, being fully aware any hole is potential death trap. To the dread and actual fear of opening a door, and of what lies beyond it, of what lurks in each shadow. Each of these moments will capture you and makes you ponder carefully your actions in abid to survive.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £34.99 or approx. $40 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 50+ hours worth of gameplay. Combine this with a nice variety of difficulty levels, secrets to find, and optional side quests to complete, this could easily add another 10+ hours.

Aliens: Dark Decent does for Aliens, what Alien Isolation did for Alien. It nails almost every aspect of the alien world perfectly and if you like real time strategy games, you need this in your collection. I really hope they add dlc to this game as I cannot get enough of it.