Aliens: Dark Descent is much more than an XCOM clone

When we talk about Alien’s video game transmissions, there is room for one title in the hearts of gamers: Alien Isolation. In fact, the game represented the perfect synthesis of the first iconic film signed by Ridley Scott in 1979, and today both the community and critics alike give Creative Assembly’s work a high scrutiny. But what if we add an “s” to the header, ifForeign It is possible aliens? The team will answer Tindalos Interactive and Aliens: Dark Descent and publisher Focus Entertainment.

Here the player will no longer play the role of a single hero who intends to escape a Xenomorph, but will have to lead the entire team as we are talking about tactical squad based action. On the days when Gamescom 2022 will be held in Cologne, we attended a presentation where many points about this game were clarified and we are telling you about it in this presentation. Aliens: Dark Landing preview.

Persistent game world

Aliens: Dark Descent takes place twenty years after the events described in Alien 3. Here, a group of Colonial Marines are shipwrecked on Lethe’s moon, which is home to several Xenomorph nests. The narrative element seems very important and permanent game world, all actions of the player will have a significant impact on the story. The plot runs along the main missions, but obviously there will be no shortage of secondary missions that can be interrupted and resumed at will. During the presentation, Tindalos informs us that even the quietest missions can take a bad turn and it’s a wise choice not to stay on the pitch all the time. The game world of Aliens: Dark Descent is permanent, which means any changes will occur within a level. permanent until further intervention: if a hatch is left open on the map during a mission, it will remain open until the player closes it. This also applies to Marines killed in battle, if the body is not recovered you will find it where it fell on your next visit.

We didn’t see much during the presentation. map from the main menu, but with a little surprise when it rarely opens, we noticed that it is a very noticeable extension of the game world. Aliens: Dark Descent levels look huge and very dangerous, consisting of a complex series of episodes, most of which are dark; We don’t know if the situation will change in other biomes, but if nothing else, the level we saw (an abandoned spaceport attacked by Xenomorphs) conveyed the correct atmosphere.

this missions Dark Descent is carried out very simply: you prepare the team of four Marines for battle, equip each of them with military equipment and weapons according to their class, you land on the game map, where the main mission takes place, you arrive. at the destination and back to the meeting point for extraction. The challenge, as you can see, is surviving the intermediate stage.

graphical interface, i parameters The most important thing to keep under control during the mission: the resources of the team, which are very scarce and must be used with great stinginess, the level of enemy aggression that will show the awareness of the enemy on your side, and lastly, vital elements. Parameters of Marine Corps consisting of health and stress. High levels of stress negatively affect the productivity of Marines who will miss their targets during combat. Under normal circumstances, four team members can independently perform a number of basic actions without player intervention: for example, if the group passes a chest containing supplies, the closest Marines will stop to open it and collect the contents.

You can openly intervene micromanagement of the team Anytime, with the option to slow down time as much as you want if needed and then get back to the action in real time.

Sailors vs. Xenomorphs

As expected, one of the parameters that should always be taken into account is the aggression level of the enemies. this xenomorphs they patrol the maps, always on the alert: if something catches their attention, their status will change from “patrol” to “hunting” and at that point everything can end in only two ways: or you are hunted and found and at that point you will definitely have to get into a fight or hide. If you succeed, after a while the aliens will abandon your search and continue the patrol. Unless a buoy is placed on the map, Marines simply never know where the Xenomorphs are.

This mobile motion tracker used to scan large parts of the map, identifying nearby moving enemies; these work automatically and their effects are active even when Marines are out of range. Clearly Xenomorphs are intelligent creatures, so your boa won’t stay hidden forever, in fact, it won’t be long before aliens find them and destroy them.

It’s not hard to imagine how stressful it can be to walk through a dark military base filled with deadly aliens – our Marines are trained soldiers, but at some point they too will give up in body and spirit. to keep it under control vital signs You can obviously use the team’s medkits, but like all resources they are invaluable and the advice is to use them in really difficult moments. To avoid wastage, the group of soldiers can camp and breathe to cool off. These stages are called safe areas and can be set up at strategic points on the map; In the demo seen, the safe zone was set up in an old windowless office where the Marines closed all the doors and barricaded inside. Managing the environment is really important in Dark Descent, and as we saw during the presentation, using the gaps well and being strategically prepared for the engagement in focus definitely makes the difference.

battle stages

If the first episode of the show was characterized by many minor skirmishes against a handful of aliens marching down narrow corridors against a Marine Corps group, the final stage took the form of an arena. tower defense. Arriving at a control room, the Marines started a data download procedure that drew the Xenomorphs’ attention to them. The player then instructs his team of soldiers to seal all the gates and place automatic towers to defend the main entrances, while the four soldiers remained to guard the most vulnerable spots. We really understood the concept of “” in this scenario.take a bad turn“. When awakened, it’s really hard to control groups of aliens, both in terms of aggression and numbers. Forget a single Xenomorph hunting you in Isolation, there are hundreds here and they’re not as the developers say they are the toughest enemies.

One really negative note we would like to make is, animations aliens: it’s true we’re talking about something strategic looking from above, but it’s clear that there is something deeply wrong with the aliens’ animations, they are so clumsy that they occasionally distract us and tear us apart. a smile despite the most exciting moments of the action.

The escalation of the conflict has had the following consequences: numerous damage: one turret destroyed, another out of ammunition, one Marine killed and one seriously injured. The team therefore left the dead teammate on the field to move to the removal point; On the way, they rescued a civilian who, once brought to base, would become a useful resource to help rebuild the ship destroyed in the accident. However, it’s not over with the team’s removal because once back in base, the player will have to deal with what happened during the mission and send the wounded soldiers inside. infirmaryhe will not be able to be put on a mission until he is healed, this will obviously depend on the extent of the injuries sustained.