Unraveling the Enigmatic Alien: Dark Descent - A Thrilling Journey to Conquer

Aliens: Dark Descent is an innovative single-player game that expands the Alien franchise to new territories. In this real-time strategy game, players control a squad, directing them as a cohesive unit to explore various locations and fight against the relentless Xenomorphs. As the thrilling story of Aliens: Dark Descent unfolds, players will find themselves issuing commands and strategizing for their survival.

Fans of the Aliens franchise will undoubtedly be intrigued by the trailer and gameplay reveal of Aliens: Dark Descent. They may be eager to know how long it will take to complete the game. Aliens: Dark Descent offers not only an engaging main story but also a multitude of secondary missions. Additionally, players will need to navigate through squad and base management gameplay as Administrator Hayes, which includes upgrading weapons, managing the medical bay, and much more. These additional gameplay elements contribute to the overall playtime, ensuring a rich and immersive experience for gamers.

How Long Does It Take To Beat Aliens: Dark Descent?

Players can expect to spend anywhere from 13 to 30+ hours completing Aliens: Dark Descent, depending on the difficulty level chosen and the extent to which they explore each map location. In addition to the main storyline, the game also offers optional secondary objectives that completionists may choose to pursue. For those aiming to achieve all objectives, such as locating all resource boxes, the gameplay time will be considerably longer.

Newcomers or those unfamiliar with real-time strategy games may require some time to become accustomed to the game's intricate mechanics. On the other hand, experienced players in the RTS genre are likely to make faster progress. The tutorial itself lasts approximately 30 minutes, while individual missions can vary in duration from around 20 minutes to over an hour.

Players may also find it necessary to occasionally switch between missions and tending to the well-being of their fatigued marines. Taking the time to extract troops and revisiting missions at a later point often proves to be a more logical approach. Furthermore, the process of leveling up individual marines requires a significant amount of time. It is crucial for players to strive for a synchronized progression of all their marines, ensuring an evenly balanced selection of soldiers that can be deployed while others recuperate.

How Difficult Is Aliens: Dark Descent?

Aliens: Dark Descent does not shy away from its reputation as a challenging game with a unique gameplay experience. Right from the start, players are informed about the game's difficulty through an information screen, which serves as a pre-warning, indicating the presence of numerous mechanics that need to be mastered. However, the developers have also taken into consideration the accessibility of the game by incorporating various features, gameplay options, and helpful tips to assist players in gradually familiarizing themselves with the mechanics. Additionally, players have the freedom to make necessary adjustments to the difficulty level, ensuring a more enjoyable gaming experience.

Adjust Pause & Slow-Mo

Aliens: Dark Descent introduces a feature where players can toggle between pause and slow-motion options during enemy attacks. By selecting the slow-motion setting in the Gameplay Settings within the Options menu, players can experience alien attacks at a reduced speed, allowing for a brief opportunity to execute skills-based attacks such as Suppressive Fire. On the other hand, choosing the Pause option provides a slight advantage by completely halting enemy movements during attacks, granting players more time to strategize and issue commands to their marine allies.

Adjust Lighting

Aliens: Dark Descent is filled with numerous dark corridors where players can easily lose sight of helpful resources like med-boxes lurking in the shadows. To overcome this challenge, players can enhance their visibility by increasing the brightness settings. However, it is crucial to remember that apart from the radar detector, players can only spot aliens within the marine's field of vision. To adjust the brightness, players can navigate to the Gamma Settings in the Display options menu.

Adjust Difficulty

Players have a range of difficulty options to choose from in Aliens: Dark Descent, including a custom option. The available modes are Story, Medium, Hard, Nightmare, and Custom, each affecting various aspects of the game such as alien health, detection, aggressive behavior, campaign death clock, and availability of autosaves. For those seeking a more manageable or moderate experience, selecting Story or Medium is recommended, while more experienced RTS players may be enticed by the challenge of Hard or Nightmare. It is important to note that once players have made their initial difficulty selection in Aliens: Dark Descent, they cannot change it later unless they start a new game.

Aliens: Dark Descent is available to play now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and Xbox One.