Aliens: Dark Descent Review- A non-traditional Alien experience

You'd be forgiven for thinking a game titled Alien(s) is going to be a horror experience full of tense moments and light-restricted corridors. You'd also be half-right for thinking that. The game succeeds in conveying the atmosphere of a Xenomorph-infested planet, but without the horror.

The perspective of the game is what I think mostly contributes to the overall muted tone of the horror elements. The game proposes an isometric view of the environments, which does a lot to distance you from the blood, gore and guts. You control a squad of marines exploring various settlements on an Alien-filled colony. The gameplay style is something I'd associate the most with the Real-Time with Pause combat style. You can issue a set of commands to your marines in a slow-motion Matrix-like mode, but otherwise its you against the horrifyingly quick Aliens.

The special bits

I have decided to try to include a special passage about what I enjoyed the most about this game inside these opinion pieces, in order to make them a little more free-flowing.
What I most enjoyed about the way this game was thought up was the combination between the constant unnerving sound of the sonar-radar thing, and the chaos that ensues while the blips get closer and more intense. Being spotted by the Xenomorphs usually results in a high intensity combat encounter involving dosens of aliens, and this, coupled with the sonar makes everything feel even more tense.
Another shout could go to the idea of the slow motion mode. The game does allow a pause button which you can use to replace the Slow-Mo, but I think that's an extremely inferior choice. Watching your marines mow down the alien hoarde at snail's pace brings a tear of joy to the eye. Acid, dismemberment, slowed machine gun fire...

Story

The story is really nothing to write home about. The narrative is not why any of us are here for, and while does take some interesting (for lack of a better word) liberties with the whole Alien "ecosystem", but if you're not overly sensitive about deviating from the cannon Alien lore, you should be fine. The story is a vague revenge-search mission without any true emotional impact, but does enough to keep you going in the right direction.

Gameplay

The gameplay feels very simple at first, and by all notions of the word, it is relatively simple. It feels like a game you can enjoy regardless of your remaining energy levels after a long hard day at your day job. It does not require an impressively high APM, and it has enough visual and acoustic flourishes to keep it consistently engaging.

The UI may seem a bit more cluttered than you may be used to, but in motion it does look and feel adequate.

Conclusion

A unique take on what the Aliens copyright could be used for. A largely non-horror "RPG" with a distinct take on the Real-Time with Pause combat style. The RPG elements are really subdued and not very expansive but they let you have a vague sense of progression. The world design is wonderfully detailed and varied enough that the experience is not stale after 20 hours. I came to this game only from the screenshots from the store page as reference and was glad to have taken the plunge.
You should play this if you enjoy a generally atmospheric experience that does not demand too much micromanaging and actions per minute to enjoy.