The squad that stays collectively, slays collectively

Over time, we’ve seen a number of totally different takes on the Aliens franchise. The xenomorphs have been tackled in shooters, Pac-Man-style mazes, and naturally, uncooked horror. With Aliens: Darkish Descent, the participant takes command of a crack squad of commandos, heading into derelict depths of house which will or might not be crawling with the multi-mouthed creepy crawlies.

The query, actually, was whether or not a slender deal with only a squad of models, with particular person skills and a excessive threat of instant doom, may incorporate the stress and concern one may search for in an Aliens recreation. The reply is sure, this can be very tense, and has some actually cool methods of conveying the omnipresent concern of the xenomorphs. But it surely’s just a little difficult.

Quiet house goliaths

Sitting down for my demo at PAX East 2023, I used to be intrigued by the premise. I’ve actually loved small, targeted takes on the technique style. Developer Tindalos Interactive has beforehand labored on some Battlefleet Gothic video games, and that legacy exhibits right here. Proper out of the gate, the environment is great. Even in a top-down, overhead view, corners felt harmful and the shadows have been imposing. Fog of conflict, a method mainstay, works extremely properly right here as a software for stress.

Ticking within the bottom-right nook is a minimap, full with the Aliens signature heartbeat monitor. Every little pip heightens the temper, and as soon as the xenomorphs are unfastened and on the hunt, it might actually really feel such as you’re scrambling and hiding from a horde of the nasty hunters.

What begins out as a routine mission rapidly descends into chaos as you attempt to work your approach by a ship overtaken by the xenomorphs. So from the outset, Aliens: Darkish Descent nails the setting. It’s the fight that provides a number of extra wrinkles.

All for one

Aliens: Darkish Descent is a tactical motion recreation, set in actual time, with the potential to pause and problem instructions. When you’ve performed a real-time-with-pause recreation earlier than, it is going to really feel acquainted. There’s only one twist: you don’t problem instructions to particular person marines, however to the whole squad.

Instructions will let sure marines enact their very own particular strikes, or robotically assign them primarily based on proficiencies. In any other case, ordering the squad means ordering the complete squad in Aliens: Darkish Descent. A part of this helps, as a full squad can mitigate the injury that may in any other case overwhelm a single marine. Once I was exploring, sweeping for info and further munitions for an eventual holdout in opposition to the xenomorphs, it labored high quality.

Finally, Aliens: Darkish Descent narrows the battles down and focuses them. In a single part, I knew that the second I activated a sure machine, the whole nest would descend on me. It is a basic set-up that works nice for the Aliens setting, and I had many fascinating instruments to carry off the horde. Auto-turrets may preserve killzones, welding doorways allowed for chokepoints, and totally different vantage factors meant I may preserve vary and fireplace on enemies as they rushed in.

As soon as the swarm began up, although, it was an ungainly second of sitting and watching. There are skills to make use of, just like the flamethrower, however they felt just a little awkward. A developer I spoke with afterwards talked about this specific slice takes place later within the recreation, after a few of these components have been defined. Perhaps they’re a bit simpler to implement when the participant’s extra aware of them.

Both approach, this was the one second I needed to pause and shift round a bit. Establishing alternate angles for canopy, and even getting a finer management of my marines, would’ve made me really feel extra in management. It’s a nitpick, however one I felt instantly because the motion obtained heavy. Regardless of all that, I nonetheless beloved the holdout sections. Whereas the mission had as much as that time been a whole lot of eerie quiet punctuated by sudden xenomorph strikes, this was all-out chaos, wanting on as I attempted to mete out what assets I may to maintain the waves of xenomorphs from overwhelming my hapless crew.

All the way down to the wire

I ultimately limped my approach by the mission, perishing to a wave of aliens my few surviving marines couldn’t deal with. Xenomorphs are intimidating, and I actually felt like I used to be consistently up in opposition to troublesome odds. The useful resource administration is an particularly fascinating wrinkle; taking inventory of ammo, capability factors, and the turrets I needed to cowl retreats was a relentless supply of stress. These moments made Aliens: Darkish Descent click on much more for me.

Management woes apart, that is a minimum of a novel tackle the franchise. Tindalos Interactive and Focus Leisure have the environment nailed, and among the useful resource and squad administration meta-layers appear compelling too. I’m curious to see how this lands, as Aliens: Darkish Descent will head to each PC and consoles, by way of PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X|S. Console technique video games have their ups and downs, and possibly the targeted squad controls will really feel snug on a controller. I’m nonetheless actually into Tindalos’ tackle the Aliens world, and even after seeing my squad worn out, I’m nonetheless curious to see whether or not the stress can carry over mission-to-mission.

We’ll see quickly, as Aliens: Darkish Descent arrives on June 20.