Aliens haven’t had it easy in recent years. Like any other famous brand, every possible company is furiously trying to squeeze them in every possible format, from movies, to books and comics, to video games. As excellent as the first two films in this series are, it’s been a long time since the last really good translation of these qualities into video game form. I myself remember quite fondly version from machinesor on AvP (the original Jaguar even later PC verze). In general, the most recognized use of the template is of course Alien: Isolation. I also had a decent time with Fireteam Elite. However, I looked at the brand new development of the license in the form of a top-down realtime strategy from a relatively unknown French team rather hesitantly. However, after playing it, I dare to say that no video game has hit the atmosphere and key elements of the second film so successfully and thoroughly, both in terms of processing and gameplay itself.
Platform: PS5 (reviewed) PS4, X1, XSX|S, PC
Date of publication: 20. 6. 2023
Manufacturer: Tindalos Interactive (Francie)
Genre: real-time strategy
Czech localization: it is
Multiplayer: it is
Data to download: 60 GB
Game Time: 30+ hours
Cena: 950 CZK (Steam)
Engaging story campaign
For a so-called “budget” game, Dark Descent begins unexpectedly bombastically: the combination of great cinematic sequences with partially scripted linear gameplay is more reminiscent of high-quality AAA story video games than typical strategies. At the same time, well-known movie props are used in a way that is pleasantly original: for example, the way in which an entire area affected by an alien attack is technically quarantined. Or the arrival of the first intruder (a large one/drone) on the scene, referring to a passage from the film, but at the same time almost iconically incorporated into a new context. In short, almost immediately after turning on the game, you realize that you have a much more ambitious and epic title in front of you than you dared to expect.
The moon Lethe (which is somewhat deceiving in its size and might be mistaken for a planet by some) has seen its fair share of hardships during its existence. While Weyland-Yutani employees operate the atmospheric reactors, the colonists have built several smaller and larger outposts in the inhospitable climate, among others focused on mining the precious metal. In addition, the Marine Corps warship “USS Otago” remained parked in orbit after the civil unrest of 77. Interstellar transport and supplies in the region are handled by the obsolete Pioneer orbital station, where the administrator Maeko Hayes works as one of the supervisors. It is she who becomes your main character as soon as the station is infested with invaders. After the ensuing cascade of accidents and disasters, he will have to link up with the commander of the troops, Sergeant Jonas Harper, aboard the Otago. From here they will manage dwindling supplies or risky research, but mainly send four-man units of soldiers on missions, taking place both on the surface of Lethe and in the space around it.
A much more ambitious and epic title than you dared to expect.
Although the bombastic opening prologue of the game was already a pleasant surprise, the fact that the intensity of the narrative has not decreased anywhere since then, neither in content nor in form – the game constantly loads you with other great film sequences, which are excellently graded together with the course of the story, turned out to be even better . In the same way, you will also get those partially scripted, very story missions that serve as nipples between traditional missions with full freedom of the player. As a result, this is by far the best alien story we’ve had in a video game with this license to date. Towards the end of the game, I was really experiencing not only the drama related to the effort to stop the invading infection, but also tremendously rooting for the individual central characters – who will see interesting developments, but also unforgettable heroic moments or crushing deaths. To top it all off, while the game sticks to the existing lore of the second film most of the time, it adds its own brand new monster variations in the second half.
Pure space terror
However, the praise of the story is far from the end of the list of surprising qualities of this game. Perhaps I was even more excited about how perfectly the creators managed to achieve the almost perfect atmosphere of the second film – in terms of gameplay – through the sophisticated layering of mechanics. Just like in the original, you’ll have to be careful not to shoot the intruders too close. The motion detector can occasionally confuse you when it targets something or someone other than you expected. Some soldiers in your unit can be so stressed out that they become unreliable and a contagious weakness for the whole team. And I could go on like this for a long time. With each new mechanic, the creators seemed to only think about how to best imitate the situations and problems that the soldiers got into in the second film. The result is an absolutely excellent shot at what makes Aliens a legend, including the fear, stress, lack of supplies, etc.
Fundamental to this whole charm is also the top-notch mastering of audiovisual processing. Visually, the game looks absolutely great – although it offers two quite different camera positions when zooming in (one is almost behind your soldiers as if the game were in third-person, and the other is very high/point-of-view), both of these camera positions feel, as if each of them was the main one intended – soldiers, invaders and the environment do not lack a lot of great details. Add to this great realtime lighting (you often move in the dark, where you can shine with flashlights) and special effects such as volumetric fog, wrapping the ankles of your characters and realistically deforming the beams of emergency signal lights or flares thrown by you. On PS5, you have the option to play either in native 4K with 30 frames per second or in 1080p (upscaled to 4K) and 60 frames. I chose the second option and still admired how good the game looked throughout the game.
With all those superlatives in mind, you’re probably thinking: why isn’t the final grade even higher? Unfortunately, the reason is predictable. Like many other games recently, this one didn’t arrive in good technical condition. Although these are mostly minor bugs, there are not a few of them and unfortunately they almost always have a direct impact on the gameplay. Fairly sophisticated persistent (= you can escape from them and when you return to them you will find everything exactly as you left it) missions sometimes do not have sufficiently reliably scripted conditions, so they can get stuck on you and force you to upload a position or leave (mostly secondary) unsolved tasks. Although the game is perfectly controlled on the controller, the artificial intelligence of your soldiers sometimes gets angry, they get stuck somewhere and you have to go back for them with the others. The creators have already released two very comprehensive patches, but minor flaws still remain. Still, I only cursed at these flaws about three times in the entire game, the rest of the time I had an absolutely wonderful time, and any future game with this license will have some work to do to reach a comparable level.
Review
Aliens: Dark Descent
We like
Narrative story campaign Engaging thrilling gameplay Well-solved controls Audio-visual processing Music and sounds from the movie
It bothers us
Auto save only Minor technical errors
2023-07-16 06:00:32
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