Aliens: Dark Descent

Am balancing this against Boltgun and now Diablo 4, so some stiff competition, but I keep coming back and remaining very impressed. Into the third mission now, anybody much further?

It reminded me I never got the Prometheus-esque DLC for Fireteams Elite so that might be back on the radar, looks great.

I’m on the final stretch but haven’t had time to game for a week or so and am going away. Hope to finish when back off holiday but I’m in the high 90s.

I’m not sure what mission you are on sorry so difficult to offer specific advice.

I can offer some general advice that may be a smidge spoilery (in terms of mechanics not story) However I don’t think anyone here cares enough about the game so I will just go for it.

1. Consider starting the game again. I eventually did this and it’s like a different game if you bring in your existing knowledge and add that of others, leading me to
2. Hit the subreddit and get some tips.
3. Concentrate on getting as many marines as possible to level 6, and try and get a bunch to 10. When you get the intensive training upgrade to the barracks this can help.
4. As you are ranking up marines, always try to prioritise class promotions to sergeants, gunners and medics. Make sure you have at least 2 scouts though. If you upgrade them to the silenced sniper skill, it can really help maintain stealth in later levels. Tekkers are an irrelevance because as long as you have a squad member with ‘wiseass’ you can hack doors, and the tekker drone is useless.
5. Prioritise the skills that increase accuracy, dismemberment, kill that bastard bonus (gunners) and command points.
6. If you are attacked, don’t panic, walk backwards from the enemy slowly. Sprinting loses accuracy, this doesn’t. This is the single best way to survive.
7. Use the time slow mechanic and your skills. A lot. Grenade, flame and shotty will save you. There’s also, separate from the skills, a secondary ability where you can have a temporary buff to command points and bravery - it builds the more scared your squad gets. Save that for a tight spot.
8. Take a mix of secondary weapons. You want one shotgun minimum but the flamer is amazing. It will melt enemies in cover, and stop or weaken mobbing enemies. Upgrade the grenade launcher with xenotech as soon as possible because it has a further slowing effect.
9. When you trigger a massive onslaught, get into an area, often a corner, with only one means of approach. Deploy as many sentries as possible, chuck down a couple of flares, and put everybody on suppressive. On topic, I’m not 100 per cent sure but I think marines on suppressive don’t only suppress in the initial direction.
10. Tools, tools, tools! Prioritise this resource. Not only does it let you rest by sealing doors, you can trade them for command points.
11. This becomes less important when you have a core squad of rank 10s and a bunch of mid level backups but for at least half the game also prioritise hunting the upgrade resources. This will allow you to quickly add gadgets to your marines AND trade for tools/sentries before deployment. There’s a frequent between deployment narrative mission that can gain you these resources - use it and use that time lost for healing in medbay.
12. Take. It. Slow. There are several missions where you’ll end up underground or at the top of a tower and as you’ve described, no going back. However, you can tackle the mission in chunks by extracting at key points and coming back refreshed. Do this for that last stretch.

Sorry, a LOT of info there, I’m quite aware that I am not a concise writer, but it’s a hard game which is often poorly explained. I’ve got the above and doubtless more I’ve forgotten about by experience and research, and my second play through is night and day.

It is a hard game though, and it’s supposed to be, but is IMO a quietly brilliant one.

Bonus - take it slow.

I was woken up this morning by the sound of a M314 motion tracker going off. It was a bin lorry reversing outside and yes, I have played far too much Dark Descent over the past week. I'm really loving it though, super tense, excellent atmosphere, it really feels like Aliens. Sad to read there is currently no word of DLC.

Same boat as you about this, wanted it when it came out but a bit on the fence now

Do you like Aliens, darkness and descending?

Xenomorphs do not have soft hands.

It’s very very good, but I didn’t complete it - found a pretty steep difficulty spike. One day I’ll probably return and start it afresh. If you like the universe it’s well worth a go. Despite the low budget it’s probably the best representation of Aliens (plural) that we’ve seen.

Agree with what Tufty & Drake have said and definitely worth £22. Part of me regrets not restarting on ironman mode once I'd learned the mechanics but the game is/was a bit too janky to do that reliably.

bichii2 Have you played it much yet? I bought it as well but not made it too far in yet.

It seems pretty decent from what little I've played so far. They've certainly nailed the whole vibe anyway.

Back to the first mission to finish it up after one marine died and one lost an arm.

I do like it but my god just let me save it. The auto save feature is shit and I don't want to ha ve to repeat 15 minutes because I clicked the wrong button..

I'll see how I go. I'm doubtful I'll complete it then as I don't have the patience.

I'm on normal. On the first main mission I ran out of tools and only rested twice on the first deployment. However I'm probably playing it wrong at the moment as I'm learning the ropes.

I’ve not played this in ages but I remember this:

Always load up on tools so you can seal doors and save/recover

Take as many sentry guns as possible

Take a smart gunner

Take a shotgun

Take flamers

Also if/when you can get a silenced sniper, they can make the stealth sections much easier.