Aliens: Dark Descent

Drifter Man · Jul 2, 2023

I am an Aliens fan, but I had not noticed this one until after it launched.
A few reviews and youtube videos later, I bought a copy.

I played a few missions, got the hang of it, and got hooked. It nails the tense atmosphere of the movie, plays very well.
The gameplay is half stealth, half combat. You quickly learn that you must avoid detection as much as possible, but the Aliens make sure that you fail, and then all hell breaks loose. The game is hard and rather unforgiving.
The Marines will usually win the fight but the more they have to fight, the more get stressed, they run low on ammo and other supplies, etc. At the same time, the Aliens get more numerous and aggressive.
Part of the fun is deciding on when to extract your squad to save their lives - and deploy another day to continue the mission (the Aliens calm down by the next day, but losing a day also has consequences). The maps are persistent. Whatever progress you have made, whatever supplies you've looted, whatever items you left behind, you will find the map as it was when you left.
Another part of the fun is managing your Marines back at base - as they gain experience, they can take different roles, upgrade their equipment etc.
The game only has a story/campaign mode, perhaps 40 hours of gameplay. More for me, because I always take more time.

Anyway, this team will be deploying soon, and the game lets me change their names. Who wants to join the Colonial Marines and take an acid bath?
I can't guarantee that you will survive. In fact, I can almost guarantee that you won't

mTk · Jul 2, 2023

I'm following the Mighty Jingles playing this. It does look really good.
As usual the "me" problem is the game is not designed to let the player "stop and smell the roses".
Wish I was a better RTS player.
Only 11 more days until I can play JA3.

Rico · Jul 3, 2023

You gotta have a Private Rico on a bug hunt ... oh, wait, different universe.

Drifter Man · Jul 3, 2023

mTk said:
I'm following the Mighty Jingles playing this. It does look really good.
As usual the "me" problem is the game is not designed to let the player "stop and smell the roses".
Wish I was a better RTS player.
Only 11 more days until I can play JA3.

Same problem here - this is my first RTS, actually. I find the pace of the game rather intimidating.
Fortunately, it can be slowed down. I play good half of each mission in the slow mode and even change to pause when things get too hectic (boss fights and other moments in the story when the devs try to wipe you out).

Drifter Man · Jul 3, 2023

Rico said:
You gotta have a Private Rico on a bug hunt ... oh, wait, different universe.

Too late, Private, to go back through the wormhole. Welcome to the USCM. Grab your gear and report to the hangar

A different universe, but clearly shares some features with yours.

Drifter Man · Jul 8, 2023

Good news, Private Rico returned from his first bug hunt in one piece. Just a few cuts and bruises + mild acid burns.
Rico bravely carried the rescued veterinarian on his back out of the Alien nest, but not before telling her first to lose some weight. Fortunately, she was unconscious at the time, which has saved him from more severe injuries.

The action starts at around 18 min. The most difficult part of this mission is not the boss fight but the way out - starting at around 52 min, see time stamps in the description. This is a relatively simple mission. Most missions are much more complicated than this one.

A lot of sneaking around and waiting for the right moment to make the next move. I watched Mighty Jingles do the same mission - he is in and out in 15 minutes, misses half of the stuff inside, but it is much more watchable

I'm playing on a higher difficulty level though, so I have to be more careful. Also, I don't get distracted by having to talk!

Private Rico will now rest while another squad deploys on the next mission.

Drifter Man · Jul 12, 2023

This one didn't go well. After the demolition attracted some critters, I led the squad into a trap and started piling up one mistake after another. Eventually I pulled them out to fight another day.

Nathangun · Jul 14, 2023

Looks good, gets tense at times as well which is what you want in an Aliens game.
I have wish listed it.
Have me down as a new recruit.

Drifter Man · Jul 16, 2023

Nathangun said:
Looks good, gets tense at times as well which is what you want in an Aliens game.
I have wish listed it.
Have me down as a new recruit.

I am about halfway through the campaign. The 6 missions so far have each a different feel, each challenged me in a different way. All of them got very tense (and intense) and I haven't had a boring moment. The story is ok - good enough for a game. It's not a movie.
On the bad side, I have encountered some game-breaking glitches that could only be fixed by exiting the game and reloading. Aliens not spawning on a level. Both yours and enemy characters becoming stuck, all or almost all of them - Marines not carrying out orders because they couldn't move. An Alien Queen waiting idly in place until grenaded to death. So, waiting for a few more patches may be a good idea.

I'll team you up with @Rico on the next mission.

Drifter Man · Jul 22, 2023

This team raided the Montero, sister ship of the (in)famous Nostromo, for some supplies we need.

There are 5 roles the Marines can specialize into once they reach Level 3, and we have all 5 here. I've seen various opinions online about the relative usefulness of the different roles, which is a good indicator that all are useful depending on your style. But all seem to agree that Recon is the most important one (and I agree too).

Sergeant can increase the supply of command points (allows performing special actions - basically anything other than shooting enemies with anything other than the primary weapon) and reduces the rate at which stress accumulates for the squad.
Recon has a sniper rifle - can kill individual enemies without getting detected, provided he has enough distance and time to perform the Precision Shot action.
Gunner is the only one who can use the Smart Gun - the most powerful primary weapon
Medic can heal Marines in a coma and has other perks that generally increases the Marines' survival rate
Tecker can hack terminals and operates a drone that can be used for scouting and other actions. I don't like this role much because the drone is another asset for me to manage in real-time, which is a headache.

I have given the first two the Heavy Pulse Rifle. I don't like its looks - it's just too big for a useful rifle - but it has more firepower than the Pulse Rifle that the last two guys have. Still, the smaller Pulse Rifle has a grenade launcher and it is advisable to keep one or two of these in the squad.
As the Marines gain experience, they can be promoted and given additional attributes and equipment. I mostly focus on upgrades that 1) increase the supply of command points and 2) increase accuracy and the chance of critical hits. I care less about bravery (= resistance to stress), extra health points or extra armor. You don't need armor when you kill them before they get to you

I don't want to spoil the game for others (once you know the missions they get easier). This video shows the squad's escape from the Montero after completing the mission. With a big dose of luck, it was a relatively smooth exfil.

An event happens each day, in which you usually have to choose from two or more options. In this case, I needed Ruiz to lead the squad on the next day and so I put @Nathangun in the brig.

Nathangun · Jul 22, 2023

Oh no I'm bad luck. What bearing does that have on missions?
Nice touch with events like the mess hall brawl, any other random events?

Drifter Man · Jul 23, 2023

Nathangun said:
Oh no I'm bad luck. What bearing does that have on missions?
Nice touch with events like the mess hall brawl, any other random events?

Bad luck is fine - it just means that you accumulate XP a little more slowly than the others.

I think that the worst negative attributes a marine can come with are Poor Sight (reduced accuracy), Disobedient (reduces command point supply) and Clumsy (reduced time the enemies need to detect the squad). Gloomy and Bad Attitude are also quite bad as the make the squad more susceptible to stress.
I try to remove these when promoting the Marine (by selecting the Redemption attribute). In most cases - including Bad Luck - I don't bother.

Most random events are much less colorful. Some will try to make you lose a day of deployment - unless you can't deploy for some other reason, it is always recommended to forgo the offer and ensure you deploy every day to progress with the campaign.
Some events are linked to what you did in the missions or to your decisions in previous events.

Drifter Man · Jul 23, 2023

Drifter Man · Aug 19, 2023

So, I finished the game - some time ago, actually. I had great fun. The worst thing about Dark Descent is that it ended - I could play another mission or two. Or ten.

Especially the last two missions were monstrous in terms of size. Each took me several hours to crack. I am not counting the final mission 12, which is a story "mission" without an actual challenge.

I lost a man - a pair of enemy sentry guns was responsible, I walked my squad into a corridor they covered. They were marked with green color, so I didn't consider them a threat. I was wrong and didn't get the chance to fix my mistake.