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Aliens: Dark Descent on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Drop into the gripping journey of Aliens: Dark Descent, a squad-based, single-player action game in the iconic Alien franchise. Lead your soldiers in real-time to stop a new and terrifying kind of Xenomorph outbreak on Planet Lethe.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a strategy, action and tactical game
developed by Tindalos Interactive
and published by Focus Entertainment.
Released on June 19th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 12 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Traditional Chinese and Japanese.
It has received 15,650 reviews of which 13,803 were positive and 1,847 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.6 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 11.99€ on Steam with a 70% discount, but you can find it for 2.43€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Aliens: Dark Descent into these genres:
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System requirements
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Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 or 11
- Processor: AMD FX-6300 / Intel Core i3-6100
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 3 GB VRAM, AMD Radeon R9 380 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 60 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 30 FPS, 1920x1080 in low
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User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This game is criminally underrated; and was overshadowed by Final Fantasy XVI, Street Fighter 6 and Diablo IV which all released in and around the time it came out. It's atmospheric, stress inducing, insanely frustrating at times - but god has it got soul and passion baked into it and gameplay that punches way above it's weight class. So what is it? Well it's a struggle to describe this to people; it's Part RTS, Part Stealth Game, Part Rogue, Part Horror, Part Tactical game. It's a blend of multiple familiar systems mixed into it's own formula and gameplay loop. Typically the first thing people tend to think when they look at the screenshots is "Oh this is X-Com but with Geiger's Aliens." I can tell you immediately; no it's not. The philosophy behind the game is strikingly different. Where as X-Com is basically a difficulty curve that you start unequipped for and you scramble to level up / research to match and then eventually lead the arms race. In Dark Descent you're in the scenario where you are rarely if ever able to just out-gear and out-last your opponent. Instead you are here to juggle a range of different factors which compound over time and managing these compounding issues and still progress becomes the nature of the game. This is due to the key difference of not being turn based, but rather real-time with slow-motion (or pause depending on your taste). The game emphasises stealth, ambushes and calculated pro/con decision making over aggression, flanking and out-gunning your opponent. At first this is, no pun intended, alien-feeling if you're coming from other squad based tactical/RTS games; and when an enemy shows up your instinct of "shoot it" needs to be recalibrated to "how can I hide or get past this without causing unneeded commotion?" An escalation mechanic drives this approach - the more the aliens have you detected, the more they hunt, the more aggressive they become, and eventually special alien variants show up. This progressively wears you down or gets you in overwhelming situations where injuries and stress rack up and leave your marines either dead or spending time in the medical/therapy ward. Meaning you either end up waiting longer before redeploying; pushing up the difficulty of your next passively by an infestation level mechanic; or making the next run harder by being forced to use less experienced marines. In turn Marines are simultaneously your most valuable and fragile resource; being easy to lose and difficult to replace. If you are a fan of seeing a soldier in X-Com develop and write their own story; you'll love Dark Descents take on it. All your marines come in with character quirks that you have to learn to play around. There's no "recruit en masse and fire the crap ones" here; instead you get a rag-tag squad each bringing their own little problems to the table and somehow you just end up loving each of these a**h**** in their own way. One marine may make recovering between encounters harder; another may reduce the available resources, others may sabotage the squads mental health overtime forcing you to change your pace of progress. You can luck out and get rid of these issues; but marines are human, and being exposed to all the nightmare fuel of the Aliens world racks up so new problems develop. Over time they gain experience, classes and can be kitted out with different weapons and utility upgrades. The squad limit is very tight (4 raising to 5) so you'll very much want a workhorse "A-Team" - but you can't put all your eggs in one basket so it forces you to make a conscious decision of when to bring a newbie along because each new face in the squad means a big gap of capability you'll need to make up for. Narrative wise it's nothing too unfamiliar to any Aliens fan. Aliens show up, things go wrong, the cast need to find a way to escape/survive. However there's a somewhat interesting twist regarding nut-job cultists; meaning this time the Corporation isn't the worst thing trying to screw you over (though inevitably it still is). The Characters are okay. No one particularly stands out but they serve well enough to push the plot forward and frankly it's the squad and what happens on the ground thats the real story; you'll be remembering legendary moments or f-up's by particular marines more than the overall plot of the game. Gameplay wise each mission is a large map that presents new objectives as you progress and lets you clear it either in a single run or break it up into shorter "runs" as it was - with you choosing when to extract once you've achieved whatever objective you were going for. The games not rogue-like per-se (barring random events), but sometimes just popping in to just loot resources you left behind and then bugging-out to come back again later can be the better option. Other times deciding what to leave behind is more important than what you take. This may seem strange at first as it feels like self-imposed friction; however it's actually a key tool in maintaining control of the risk-reward variables you need to deal with. It's also curbed by a deathclock later in the game; so I highly recommend you take advantage of it while you can. Technically, as of date of this review (June 2026), the game is in a pretty good state but still has a couple of rough edges. First is several bugs and broken scripting that pop up; things like soft-locks, tutorial messages disabling controls, and cutscenes causing your squad to stop firing occur. It can be quite infuriating at times especially as manipulating the auto-save feature is really the only way or resolving these. It's also not getting any new content and is in maintenance mode. In a way this is refreshing as a "one and done" kind of experience; but as the core game still could do with a polish here and there it's a bit of a let down. If you can get past these issues it's certainly worth picking up in a sale; and good enough that I hope at some point it leaves steam for other platforms where it can be downloaded as a complete game to keep as it's a genuine gem that doesn't deserve to be lost.
This game was surprisingly good and enjoyable! To get it out of the way, I'm not big into the Aliens IP as I'm a chickenshit when it comes to the survival horror aspect the IP is known for and have limited knowledge of the franchise, but this game plays out like an RTS XCOM with slow motion mechanics. After watching a couple of friends play a mission or two, I decided I'd give it a shot. The story is told rather well and is surprisingly lengthy, the atmosphere is immersive, the tension was high, the dialogue is well-written, and I was honestly left wanting more at the end. The game has the right amount of challenge to where it's not a cakewalk on the easiest difficulty but also not impossible on the highest difficulty. Resource and unit micromanagement is something that can make or break a strategy game, and this game has just the right amount to where it's not exhausting. There is also NG+ for those who want to jump right back in after the tutorial and level your Marines even further into the ultimate badasses they were meant to be. My biggest nitpick that annoyed me was not being able to choose who takes point in exploring. Venturing into the unknown fog of war, I wanted to have my Recon with the suppressed sniper rifle able go in first and silently take out enemies, but the game's UI already has a chain of command set that can't be changed. This gets notoriously more challenging in the higher difficulties as enemies detect your squad faster, and more times than not there's nothing you can do but get detected. Despite being fun and challenging, the game has its fair share of bugs that are thankfully not game breaking such as: -One of the achievements is bugged, and the only solution was to downgrade to a previous version of the game. -There's a certain side quest where no matter if you do the right thing or not will always result in the ship sabotage event the next day. -There's a bug where any civilians/Marines you rescue can have a certain negative trait applied to them that takes away some of your hard earned looted materials at the end of a deployment. Overall, I do recommend this game. If you love strategy games and are a fan of the Alien franchise, you'll most likely enjoy this game! It was well worth it for the price, and I'd love to see if the dev team does something else with the IP like a sequel.
This game nails the theme of Cameron's Aliens. The only things stopping it from being Aliens: The Game is the different background scenario and the specific characters involved. Everything else about it exudes the tense, creepy atmosphere from James Cameron's masterpiece. The game is a squad-based real-time tactical one. It has a very novel control scheme, as rather than controlling the 4 or 5 squaddies individually they all move as a single squad (which is well disciplined of them!). I suspect this novel control scheme was concocted to allow you to play it on the controller. Still, I like the way it works, even on mouse and keyboard, as it ultimately means you're a single "avatar" with lots of arms, legs, and guns, which is very helpful when the stress is rising and you can only focus on one thing amongst the panic: shooting xenos. For the first few hours of play I was stressed beyond belief, exactly the kind of fear the game tries to encapsulate in its gameplay mechanics, and exactly as the film wanted you to feel. It does a fantastic job of keeping players wired and white-knuckled. Eventually though you'll cotton-on to how all of the mechanics and alien spawns work and it'll become a lot less terrifying and much more mundane, yet the game is structured and designed well-enough that even by the time the final levels (eventually!) roll around the nature of the action still keeps the adrenaline going. The game has more in common with Commandos-style RTT stealth games than RTT horde shooting like Infested Planet. I didn't know this going in, but it works fantastically well in these settings, as you'll get the best and most satisfying experience from ghosting around the levels, only having to go loud once you've bumbled into a xenomorph and now need to desperately sprint for cover, panicking that you are you going to trigger a death spiral. There's a slight disappointment here though in that when watching the movies my favourite thing is the pew pew, but in this game you want to be firing as little as possible! If the game had wrapped up at 35 hours instead of 45 I think I'd look much more favourably upon it. It has a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and quirks, especially in the later missions, but even with the extraneous length I still recommend anyone interested in Aliens or RTT games to give it a go. A disparate set of observations: 1. The cinematics are pretty decent, but they stray too far into the wobbly-mannequin uncanny valley for me. 2. There's some kind of performance problems where the longer the game is running, the worse the performance gets. You have to quit and restart the game to fix it, which can often be tedious as saving in this game is an entire resource-costing gameplay mechanic. 3. The barks coming out of your squad are incessant and samey. They'll drive you mad. You can disable them but they're useful for some thing. 3. Medium was a little bit too easy as by the end I had one main squad I could just use on every mission so they were ultimate badasses. I imagine hard would have been too difficult in the beginning and just take longer? 4. We have a squad of badasses here, but what about the rest of the ship? Why don't they help??! 5. It's got a lot of great, well-paced action packed sequences that force you out of stealthing about. Again, this often recalls those corridor defending turret scenes in the movies. 6. I like the idea of the stress mechanic and the multiple deployments, but on medium it faded into obsolescence by the last missions 7. Same for the death clock. I ended with like 20 days left. It didn't spook me out at all. 8. The last level was abysmal and completely unsatisfying. I don't see why they didn't include your team, instead including just the main character. It effectively means the level before that is the actual last level, and that had a pretty epic showdown at the end. 9. The last few missions contains all of the bugs. 10. Drone controls are awkward and stupid. 11. Far too much back and forth between the various loadout and upgrade screens to edit marines. This should just be a single screen. Infact that's true for basically everything about the upgrade and levelling system. It could all be done in one place really. 12. minimap doesn't work with hotkeys or mouse movement 13. Why doesn't the minimap pause? :( 14. lol colonists don't react to mates getting shot infront of them but aliens do?!
Aliens: Dark Descent is a hidden gem that is bold enough of a project to bring something revolutionary into the tactical shooter genre. That's a relief to see that some developers are brave enough to experiment! The unique features: 1) Squad as a single entity: This isn't a typical shooter where you babysit one hero. You control a cohesive squad as a unit. It’s a brilliant mix of RTS elements and squad tactics. The way the AI handles your orders while you focus on the bigger picture feels incredibly fluid and smart. 2) Tactical slowdown / hard pause. Instead of classical turn-based combat (which I adore btw), the game uses a visceral slow-motion. It’s a game-changer. It keeps the pressure at 100% while giving you just enough room to make life-or-death decisions. You feel the heat of the moment every single second - though, it may be changed in game options to hard pause, giving precious moments to think at nightmare difficulties. 3) The "Human" factor: This is where the game truly shines, and what makes it stand off and be distinctive. Your Marines aren't just fearless "toy soldiers", as units in majority of games - they are fragile humans. The stress system is really cool. Your squad succumb to PTSD and panic in a lot of ways. The system isn't dumb, it starts out with small stress (Marines gain debuffs) being easily relieved, and then progresses towards serious and various trauma. The stress factor is deepening the immersion impressively, and it's easier to relate yourself with those "more-of-a-real" humans. I loved it! 3) Stealth & Vulnerability: Your Marines are elite, but they aren't invincible Ordo Xenos Terminators. A huge part of the game is stealth and silent maneuvering. If you go in guns blazing every time, you’re dead - at least until you build the squad for fearlessness. This balance between being a badass hunter and being hunted is perfect. 4) The atmosphere and respect to lore. The Pulse Rifle clatter and the Motion Tracker pings are identical to the movies. It’s an authentic, claustrophobic horror experience that treats the source material with massive respect. Additionally, though it's not a "unique feature", the game runs smoothly after all the patches and effort from the devs. Time for rough edges: Despite being imo a successful novel experiment, the game is not perfect - the environments can get "samey", despite the good atmosphere, and missions feel a bit too long for their own good. Also, soldiers replies to commands are repetitive, just 1-2 voice lines for each action, which becomes sooo little when hearing them 200+ times (like, looting a crate or reading datapad has only a single voice line for the action - the action which would be taken dozens of times). But these are minor cons. And what about the plot? The story is straightforward but effective - it involves you immediately. It's that kind of plot (like in Xcom) which is simple, but good old hooking, where we have good guys and bad guys (and a corpo). It wouldn't win the plot competition, but sometimes I even miss such a straightforward storyline. Tldr; great experiment with tactical shooter genre, marvellous stress system implemented, genre blend, 100% alien vibe.
Aliens: Dark Descent – A Tactical Descent into Terror (36-Hour Review) Gameplay Overview Aliens: Dark Descent is a hybrid of real-time tactical combat, survival horror, and psychological management. It’s not just about eliminating xenomorphs,it’s about surviving them, out maneuvering them, and keeping your squad mentally and physically intact. The game rewards precision, patience, and a deep understanding of both tactical systems and franchise lore. - Squad-Based Tactics: You lead a team of marines with distinct roles, traits, and stress levels. Every decision, whether to push deeper or extract early, can determine the fate of your squad. - Real-Time with Tactical Pause: Instead of traditional turn-based combat, time slows to allow for command input. This creates a cinematic, high-pressure flow that mirrors the chaos of the Aliens universe. - Persistent Consequences: Injuries, trauma, and death are permanent. You’ll grow attached to your marines, and their loss carries real weight. Strengths - Atmosphere and Authenticity: The game captures the oppressive dread of the Aliens franchise with precision. The motion tracker, ambient sound design, and hive escalation mechanics create a constant sense of unease. - Stress and Sanity Mechanics: Marines accumulate psychological trauma from combat and environmental tension. Managing their mental state adds a layer of realism and strategic depth. - Combat Flow: Tools like suppression fire, flamethrowers, and overwatch are impactful and satisfying. You’re not just fighting enemies, you’re managing space, timing, and morale. - Lore Integration: The narrative respects the franchise’s tone and themes. Weyland-Yutani’s presence adds familiar corporate menace, and the xenomorphs are portrayed as truly lethal threats. Weaknesses - Technical Issues: Pathfinding bugs, UI glitches, and occasional crashes can disrupt immersion. For a game that demands tactical precision, these flaws are particularly noticeable. - Map Repetition: While atmospheric, the environments can feel visually and structurally repetitive. This may lead to fatigue during extended play sessions. - Story Pacing: The plot begins with promise but loses momentum midway. Some narrative threads, especially those involving synthetics and corporate intrigue, feel underdeveloped. - Limited Strategic Layer: Outside of missions, base management is minimal. Players seeking deeper resource planning or broader strategic control may find this aspect lacking. Psychological Edge One of the game’s standout systems is its stress mechanic. Marines accumulate trauma from combat, darkness, and hive encounters. If unmanaged, this leads to breakdowns, hallucinations, or desertion. It’s a compelling mechanic that adds emotional stakes, though it can feel punishing without careful planning. Final Thoughts After 36 hours, you’ve likely: - Refined your squad compositions and learned how to exploit enemy behaviour. - Experienced both triumphant escapes and devastating losses. - Grown attached to your marines, only to lose them in moments of chaos. - Pushed through technical flaws because the core experience remains compelling. Aliens: Dark Descent is not a flawless game, but it’s a bold one. It restores the xenomorphs’ menace, respects the franchise’s tone, and offers a tense, tactical experience that rewards careful planning and emotional investment. For players who value atmosphere, lore fidelity, and high-stakes decision-making, it delivers a memorable descent into darkness. Rating Summary (Out of 10): Atmosphere & Immersion: 9.0 Tactical Gameplay: 8.5 Story & Lore: 7.5 Technical Stability: 6.5 Replay Value: 7.0 Overall Experience: 8.0
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Frequently Asked Questions
Aliens: Dark Descent is currently priced at 11.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Aliens: Dark Descent is currently available at a 70% discount. You can purchase it for 11.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Aliens: Dark Descent received 13,803 positive votes out of a total of 15,650 achieving a rating of 8.61.
😎
Aliens: Dark Descent was developed by Tindalos Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment.
Yes, Aliens: Dark Descent is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Aliens: Dark Descent is not playable on MacOS.
No, Aliens: Dark Descent is not playable on Linux.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a single-player game.
Yes, there is a DLC available for Aliens: Dark Descent. Explore additional content available for Aliens: Dark Descent on Steam.
No, Aliens: Dark Descent does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Aliens: Dark Descent does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Aliens: Dark Descent is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Aliens: Dark Descent.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 19 July 2026 04:26 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 28 July 2026 16:44 UTC |
| Steam price | 29 July 2026 10:25 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 27 July 2026 02:00 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Aliens: Dark Descent, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Aliens: Dark Descent
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Aliens: Dark Descent concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Aliens: Dark Descent compatibility
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Game modes
Features
Online players
307
Developer
Tindalos Interactive
Publisher
Focus Entertainment
Release
19 Jun 2023
Platforms
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