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Aliens: Dark Descent
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.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “real-time tactical squad combat” (80 of 103 reviews) and “dark immersive visual design” (16); the most common complaint is “limited individual unit control” (23). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-28 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
80 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Incredible game. Scratches a particular itch of top-down scifi-horror that no other game has ever hit for me. Kind of like the creepy Zerg-infested space station levels from the Starcraft games, but a million times…”
“I love the Alien franchise but I can't recommend this game sadly. I think they nailed the vibe and missions feel tense and spooky but I feel like the game just isn't well balanced and the story is turning out to be…”
“I just wish there was a sequel. :( can be replayed real well tho. Story is amazing. Dialogues well written. Atmosphere real immersive and the combat is good too. The devs were some real fans of the universe and…”
16 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I didn't like it. It has great atmosphere but frustrating execution While the game perfectly captures the Aliens universe and theme, the actual gameplay experience left me disappointed. The story begins with an…”
“I just wish there was a sequel. :( can be replayed real well tho. Story is amazing. Dialogues well written. Atmosphere real immersive and the combat is good too. The devs were some real fans of the universe and…”
“To keep it short Aliens: Dark Descent is a good game. It is not a masterpiece or timeless, but i had fun playing this game. I do not really play this type of games often (X-com like, real time strategy, etc.), so i do…”
15 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Really enjoyed the game, tells a good story and has a great setup! It goes a but crazy with some of the plot at times, which may turn off some of the more purist Aliens fans out there, you might even say it would…”
“I just wish there was a sequel. :( can be replayed real well tho. Story is amazing. Dialogues well written. Atmosphere real immersive and the combat is good too. The devs were some real fans of the universe and…”
“To keep it short Aliens: Dark Descent is a good game. It is not a masterpiece or timeless, but i had fun playing this game. I do not really play this type of games often (X-com like, real time strategy, etc.), so i do…”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Excellent squad based game with time slow mechanics. The game captures the essence of the aliens movies and also is a lot of fun to play. This game is difficult as the intro screen tells you, so be ready to die and load…”
“i have never been so stressed in my life”
“This game is very difficult to get into at first. The rules are not straight forward as I played the entire first mission in one go, losing several times which was frustrating. But once you understand the rules and get…”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“if you mod the hell out of it and ignore the DEI trash where their main takeaway from the series is Whamen Stronk... you might find something interesting to do. It's not xcom style ..you are "herding" the squad not…”
“This game is very difficult to get into at first. The rules are not straight forward as I played the entire first mission in one go, losing several times which was frustrating. But once you understand the rules and get…”
“Great top-down tactical game. Gives you the full Alien experience with a little less horror and more tense action/suspense. Great mod support; can mod campaigns to be less tense and more "hack and slash" if the constant…”
23 of the 103 reviews raise this · 15 of them still recommend the game.
“I didn't like it. It has great atmosphere but frustrating execution While the game perfectly captures the Aliens universe and theme, the actual gameplay experience left me disappointed. The story begins with an…”
“I wanted to like this, was almost getting Xcom like vibes from it.. but.. it takes forever. I keep thinking: Oh man, I hope it gets fun soon.. and it doesn't. The tutorial takes forever, and my dumbass decided to try…”
“I love the Alien franchise but I can't recommend this game sadly. I think they nailed the vibe and missions feel tense and spooky but I feel like the game just isn't well balanced and the story is turning out to be…”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“elevator bug frustrates the hell out of me. Game been out almost 3 years and a simple fix issue that brakes the game still around.”
“Excellent squad based game with time slow mechanics. The game captures the essence of the aliens movies and also is a lot of fun to play. This game is difficult as the intro screen tells you, so be ready to die and load…”
“Very well made. Still some small bugs in 2026 but have seen much worst. Looking forward to a sequel”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“I didn't like it. It has great atmosphere but frustrating execution While the game perfectly captures the Aliens universe and theme, the actual gameplay experience left me disappointed. The story begins with an…”
“I love the Alien franchise but I can't recommend this game sadly. I think they nailed the vibe and missions feel tense and spooky but I feel like the game just isn't well balanced and the story is turning out to be…”
“fantastic. maybe not the greatest voice acting at times, story being decent, but gameplay wise i really love it. really wish there was some other mode one can endlessly play or something, but still wooooorth it. wish…”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Incredible game. Scratches a particular itch of top-down scifi-horror that no other game has ever hit for me. Kind of like the creepy Zerg-infested space station levels from the Starcraft games, but a million times…”
“A beautifully crafted RTS game that couldn't get any better. Except for a Level editor or mod support so the community could make it even bigger and better.”
“Well. This is the one hell of a Aliens game. Felt like I was playing in the shadow of the Aliens film. The story is pretty basic, but it's fun. The atmosphere is dark and full of terror. I liked the upgrading and…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“fantastic. maybe not the greatest voice acting at times, story being decent, but gameplay wise i really love it. really wish there was some other mode one can endlessly play or something, but still wooooorth it. wish…”
“SEQUEL! I NEED YOU SEQUEL!”
“This is a very great game, I wish there were more campaign DLC, and I do hope that they make Aliens Dark Descent 2”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 87.6% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“I put about 70 hours into a single nightmare difficulty save file with plus 5 damage to boot. This is to say it was an exhilarating experience but also at certain points pretty frustrating. Though if you are looking for a gripping and butthole clenching experience that isnt too…”
— a player, Steam review · 82 hrs played“Just finished this game on Medium difficulty, it's pretty solid, however it's too idiotic that you can't choose which soldier leads the group. I often want Sniper to lead them and make a silent headshot when necessary, however they randomly rearrange and too often I have to move…”
— a player, Steam review · 69 hrs played“I really enjoyed this game until I hit a progression breaking bug that I couldn't resolve. I reached out to the developers on multiple platforms and never received even a courtesy response. Therefore I cannot in good conscience recommend it despite its strengths.”
— a player, Steam review · 37 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-21.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-21). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Play Aliens: Dark Descent on Steam Deck now!
Dear players, We're happy to announce that Aliens: Dark Descent is now playable on Steam Deck ! Fight to keep your team alive and contain the terrifying Xenomorph threat... from anywhere! Enjoy. 😁
New Patch for Aliens: Dark Descent
Hi everyone, Thanks to your feedback, we worked on a hotfix to resolve the issue regarding your missing marines when launching a New Game + campaign. We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope you'll
Nominate Aliens: Dark Descent for the "Most Innovative Gameplay" Award 2023!
Tindalos Interactive's developers put together and brought you a whole new twist to the strategy genre with a fresh and unique blend of real-time action and turn-based strategy games that took many of
Patch Notes: New Game+ update
- DISTRESS SIGNAL - Attention, this is a Priority One distress message from the survivors at Jackson's Landing on the planet Lethe. We are broadcasting on all available channels. The situation here ha
A Free New Game+ Mode Makes Landfall in Aliens: Dark Descent
We at Tindalos Interactive and Focus Entertainment have been feeling all of your support for our take on the always-terrifying Alien series, and we want to say thank you! We've been hard at work devel
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Action, Strategy |
| Player tags | Strategy · Action · Tactical · RTS · Sci-fi · Real Time Tactics · Singleplayer · Aliens · Dark · Action-Adventure · Horror · Survival (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Adjustable Text Size · Camera Comfort · Color Alternatives · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty |
| Languages | English * , French, Italian, German, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Traditional Chinese, Japanese * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 45 |
| Official site | https://www.focus-entmt.com/games/aliens-dark-descent |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: 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