Aliens: Dark Descent - real-time squad-based tactical action

[BrotherFrank]

Synths wouldn't do much better against xenos. Sure they have superhuman strength but I'm pretty sure a xeno would still tear them apart. Bishop got tore in half like tissue paper. Granted it was by the queen but I imagine a regular drone would be capable of doing the same thing.

Take this for what it’s worth since i’m mostly thinking of non film sources to back this up but the reasons why synths are particularly good vs aliens isn’t because xenos would struggle in melee vs them any more then they would vs humans but due to the following factors:
-synths are immune to face hugging and impregnation
-synths don’t stink of fear and stress so are much harder to detect
-synths are faster and more accurate shots
-due to synths having no fear, they don’t break apart due to psychological distress

In the comics this is a recurring plot point, that synths are just a better choice vs aliens then humans and synth minor characters tend to always be more effective then their human counterparts.

 

[KIss My Ass]

Synths wouldn't do much better against xenos. Sure they have superhuman strength but I'm pretty sure a xeno would still tear them apart. Bishop got tore in half like tissue paper. Granted it was by the queen but I imagine a regular drone would be capable of doing the same thing.

Take this for what it’s worth since i’m mostly thinking of non film sources to back this up but the reasons why synths are particularly good vs aliens isn’t because xenos would struggle in melee vs them any more then they would vs humans but due to the following factors:
-synths are immune to face hugging and impregnation
-synths don’t stink of fear and stress so are much harder to detect
-synths are faster and more accurate shots
-due to synths having no fear, they don’t break apart due to psychological distress

In the comics this is a recurring plot point, that synths are just a better choice vs aliens then humans and synth minor characters tend to always be more effective then their human counterparts.

Didn't Bishop express fear of death in Aliens? I remember there was a brief exchange about that between him and Ripley, I think right before he climbed into that tiny vent.

 

[Tyranicon]

Synths are probably more expensive than marines though. Why send in costly hardware when you can just get the Imperial Guard to do human wave tactics, 5 people at a time?

Also, certain parts of the game are a bitch and it seems like they know it. Looking at you, Atmospheric Horror mission.

Are later levels

Spoiler

infinitely respawning?

 

[BrotherFrank]

Didn't Bishop express fear of death in Aliens? I remember there was a brief exchange about that between him and Ripley, I think right before he climbed into that tiny vent.

Apologies for the quote mastaba apparently i'm the only one on this site who can't handle imbeded multiquotes without making an egyptian monument out of them.
Edit: nvm the cool mastaba effect doesn't even appear, it's all just lots of blank space, i just suck it seems.

Well you be the judge if Bishop was afraid to die in the human sense:

Either way, the key thing is aliens won't be able to smell it and if bishop was in terror, it sure af didn't seem to affect him in any way.

And it was originally intended for there to be a scene where bishop encounters a xenomorph in the tunnel but it ignores him because he is synth:

But since it didn't make it on film you can argue it doesn't count.

Ultimately imo it depends on how accepting you are of non film sources. In comics and in some videogames (most recently that Aliens coop shooter), combat androids (which bishop technically isn't) are depicted as 100% fearless and giving 0 fucks about any dangerous orders given to them.

 

[KIss My Ass]

I think he was fearful, but yeah not in the human sense. Synths do seem to have human traits. David for example has narcissistic traits and seems to develop a god complex. Walter also seems to develop emotions for Daniels and tries to save her from David.

 

[Harthwain]

I got to say, the amount of money Weyland put into this alien thing must now outweigh the benefits of capturing one. Find it hilarious how much manpower and resources they are willing to throw at this, considering every goddamn project fails massively.

It has to fail in order to create the drama. In fact, Wayland Yutani's actions don't really make sense when it comes to Aliens. The first movie, if I remember correctly, was about an Alien who was a stowaway. Everything else is about a dumb corporation transporting Aliens to places for reasons.

 

[BrotherFrank]

True that, the Androids from the newer films were very human like and i can't dispute that they clearly showed emotions like anger on par with humans, and if you can get angry, then fear is right around the corner.

No counterpoint to that other then maybe suggesting there are different tiers of synths with various levels of sentience, as described by this overview on combat androids but this comes with a heavy * in that you have to accept comic and non canon sources:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Combat_Android
Considering some people happily dismiss prometeus, covenant and resurrection as canon, it would be a legit stance to ignore this though.

Hell the page on colonial marine synths even outright states that they are cheaper and more cost effective then actual marines, directly opposing Tyranicon's suggestion, which in turn beckons the question: wtf use human marines at all except in leadership positions if combat synths are better in every way and cheaper to boot?
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Colonial_Marine_synthetic

It's tough being an aliens fan at times if you get too much into it, the lore is all over the place because there is barely any attempt to oversee and make the various pieces of media coherent with each other and seemingly anyone can get the license and write w/e the hell they want.

 

[Harthwain]

i can't dispute that they clearly showed emotions like anger on par with humans, and if you can get angry, then fear is right around the corner.

Question: Were they angry or were they programmed to display a certain set of "emotions" under specific circumstances? There is a difference between an act and an emotion.

 

[BrotherFrank]

If i recall David was supposed to be constantly evolving and learning but eh, it’s weird. The tech in prometheus and covenant seem so much more advanced then what you see in the films that are chronologically later, particularly in the case of the androids.

Also just remembered Call from resurrection, been a while since watched that one but i don’t recall her coming off as android like, if she was faking being a human and having emotions then she did a damned good job of it.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Synths are probably more expensive than marines though. Why send in costly hardware when you can just get the Imperial Guard to do human wave tactics, 5 people at a time?

Also, certain parts of the game are a bitch and it seems like they know it. Looking at you, Atmospheric Horror mission.

Are later levels

Spoiler

infinitely respawning?

But weyland and other companies have cheaper models of droids for menial work. Main issue lore wise it's the outlaw after the Auton revolution in the 24th century (Blade Runner).

 

[ArchAngel]

Synths are probably more expensive than marines though. Why send in costly hardware when you can just get the Imperial Guard to do human wave tactics, 5 people at a time?

Also, certain parts of the game are a bitch and it seems like they know it. Looking at you, Atmospheric Horror mission.

Are later levels

Spoiler

infinitely respawning?

Yes mass producing Synths to battle Aliens might not be cost effective. But sending humans with explosive vests that go boom once aliens capture them so they cannot become new hosts (or once they get facehugged) would be good idea. Even just having some brain implanted explosives that just kill the host would be smart idea.
Overall humans win because they can adapt faster (and can space travel) but it would be a very costly win.

 

[Zewp]

Synths are probably more expensive than marines though. Why send in costly hardware when you can just get the Imperial Guard to do human wave tactics, 5 people at a time?

Also, certain parts of the game are a bitch and it seems like they know it. Looking at you, Atmospheric Horror mission.

Are later levels

Spoiler

infinitely respawning?

There are certain events that cause infinite onslaughts that start up during parts of the mission and keep going until you finish the objective, but otherwise no infinite respawns per se. On infestation level 4 and 5 it could happen that single aliens keep respawning if you kill them silently. I had that issue on pioneer station where I couldn't pass through a certain corridor silenltly because every time I killed the patrolling xeno, it would just immediately respawn another one because the game absolutely wanted to have a xeno patrolling that corridor.

 

[ArchAngel]

Synths are probably more expensive than marines though. Why send in costly hardware when you can just get the Imperial Guard to do human wave tactics, 5 people at a time?

Also, certain parts of the game are a bitch and it seems like they know it. Looking at you, Atmospheric Horror mission.

Are later levels

Spoiler

infinitely respawning?

There are certain events that cause infinite onslaughts that start up during parts of the mission and keep going until you finish the objective, but otherwise no infinite respawns per se. On infestation level 4 and 5 it could happen that single aliens keep respawning if you kill them silently. I had that issue on pioneer station where I couldn't pass through a certain corridor silenltly because every time I killed the patrolling xeno, it would just immediately respawn another one because the game absolutely wanted to have a xeno patrolling that corridor.

Of course there are infinite respawns, they just spawn slow outside of special events or Hunting phase. And it is not that bad with aliens since they are always in smaller numbers and there is supposed to be a LOT of humans they used for this but when human enemies also infinite respawn and in their bigger numbers game logic goes to shit. Also human AI is often worse than alien AI :D

 

[KIss My Ass]

I messed around in the tutorial for a bit just to get a feel for the controls. Feels really good. Camera rotation, zoom, and cursor movement are all super responsive using a dual sense controller. Feels outstanding actually. I'll do a mission or two on medium to get a sense of the challenge and adjust the difficulty accordingly. If the higher difficulties are just spongier enemies I'll probably pass on them. Damage sponge shit is the laziest garbage.

 

[ArchAngel]

I messed around in the tutorial for a bit just to get a feel for the controls. Feels really good. Camera rotation, zoom, and cursor movement are all super responsive using a dual sense controller. Feels outstanding actually. I'll do a mission or two on medium to get a sense of the challenge and adjust the difficulty accordingly. If the higher difficulties are just spongier enemies I'll probably pass on them. Damage sponge shit is the laziest garbage.

You said you will finish it on nightmare difficulty. Do not be a pussy now. There is no medium difficulty testing in this run of yours.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Synths are probably more expensive than marines though. Why send in costly hardware when you can just get the Imperial Guard to do human wave tactics, 5 people at a time?

Also, certain parts of the game are a bitch and it seems like they know it. Looking at you, Atmospheric Horror mission.

Are later levels

Spoiler

infinitely respawning?

Yes mass producing Synths to battle Aliens might not be cost effective. But sending humans with explosive vests that go boom once aliens capture them so they cannot become new hosts (or once they get facehugged) would be good idea. Even just having some brain implanted explosives that just kill the host would be smart idea.
Overall humans win because they can adapt faster (and can space travel) but it would be a very costly win.

TBH fam, the cheap syths (the ones from Alien: Isolation as well as from the Dark Descent) are used to sweep coridors with brooms and stuff like that, so I would imagine they come cheaper than an actual minimum wage slave they apparently replaced (and I guess they could be programed to use weapons too).

Also I wouldnt underestimate the cost of Marines - expenses to train basic IRL grunts are fairly high and Colonial Marines seem to be a more high-end type of outfit. Plus of course it takes a lot of time too, to actualy train a person up, while the synths presumably could be mass produced. I guess some kind of a combination (with syths being used to recon dangerous areas or zerg rush them while the marines focus on more complicated issues that synths might not be suitable for) would be a winner, as usual.

 

[Parabalus]

How fucked are you with regards to the global timer if you exit and reenter the same mission?

 

[Tyranicon]

I have a feeling that the ammo mechanic was designed later in the game and this might be why:

1. Tester realizes it's actually pretty easy to bait all the enemies into a kill zone (a la Hitman with bathrooms).
2. Designer notices this would trivialize the game difficulty, so they add respawning enemies.
3. Tester spend 30 minutes sitting in a corner killing aliens before realizing they respawn. Says real players are probably going to be stupid too.
4. Designer adds ammo mechanic so players won't do that.
5. My dumb ass sits in a corner killing 300 gorram aliens thinking I'm clearing out the map when they just respawn

How fucked are you with regards to the global timer if you exit and reenter the same mission?

You can only deploy once a day. So if you extract, you have to pass the day before you can deploy again. I average about three deployments or so a mission, but some maps are larger and angrier.

Your days are limited, so it provides good tension. The problem though is if your run gets borked, I would be really annoyed having to sit through those unskippable cutscenes again.

 

[ciox]

What weirded me out a bit is somewhere after mission 2 you get a huge amount of those special events that bait you to exchange your daily deployment for some mediocre benefit, if you get carried away you could easily lose a week of deployments on that, some pretty mean stuff. And yes I understand randomness is probably a factor, that helps to keep it interesting, if anything.

 

[Harthwain]

What weirded me out a bit is somewhere after mission 2 you get a huge amount of those special events that bait you to exchange your daily deployment for some mediocre benefit

What are the benefits?

 

[ciox]

What weirded me out a bit is somewhere after mission 2 you get a huge amount of those special events that bait you to exchange your daily deployment for some mediocre benefit

What are the benefits?

Get some materials, or some xeno samples, or 1 extra engineer, or 1 extra physician, the one that grants a physician is probably worth it, but there's a lot that aren't great especially more than once.

 

[Alienman]

What weirded me out a bit is somewhere after mission 2 you get a huge amount of those special events that bait you to exchange your daily deployment for some mediocre benefit, if you get carried away you could easily lose a week of deployments on that, some pretty mean stuff. And yes I understand randomness is probably a factor, that helps to keep it interesting, if anything.

I just finished the game on normal with the "ironman" save system. I fucked around with all these kinds of stuff, and I still was able to finish it with 5 days to spare, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I even completed a mission where I had a 75% squad wipe. With that I mean, I still had time to replace those guys and level them up.

And damn, that last mission... what a disappointment, just like Zewp said.

Spoiler

You don't even get to use your trained marines. You assault an alien city with characters important to the narrative, and they can't die, at least not in the beginning. These dudes just mow down aliens like they are nothing. Maybe they should have gone on the tactical missions instead. And I really didn't care about the Cassandra thing. I'm not even sure what her purpose was. I might have zoned out or missed some text diary thing. I guess, she was there to control the aliens somehow? Also the BS leader synth thing. It's like they took every Aliens trope and up the ante, but when doing so, they just made a joke of the whole thing.

Besides that, the game was good. I will probably never play it again, though, now knowing the story. The tactical aspect was fine, but I wish it was in a more sandboxy game instead of this, very linear campaign.

 

[Tyranicon]

What weirded me out a bit is somewhere after mission 2 you get a huge amount of those special events that bait you to exchange your daily deployment for some mediocre benefit

What are the benefits?

Get some materials, or some xeno samples, or 1 extra engineer, or 1 extra physician, the one that grants a physician is probably worth it, but there's a lot that aren't great especially more than once.

Engineers might be worth it if you get them early on, as they passively produce resources. Doctors are super useful. But yeah, around probably the halfway mark you're basically going to click no on anything that robs you of a deployment.

The tactical aspect was fine, but I wish it was in a more sandboxy game instead of this, very linear campaign.

Agreed 100%. For once, the reviewers were right that the story just got in the way. I wouldn't say the writing was horrible, but it was basically the longest, most boring Aliens movie ever made.

I'm not a fan of proc-gen games, but if this had a procgen element, and maybe some additional content that adds new classes/weapons later on, this game could have legs. But as is, people will just play it once and probably never touch it again.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I'll take a linear game any day over all that bloated stuff out there. I thought the game would be cheap licensed crap, but the more I read here, the better it sounds. How long does it take to finish the game?

 

[Alienman]

I wouldn't say the writing was horrible, but it was basically the longest, most boring Aliens movie ever made.

Yeah, and the biggest mistake of all, like every other game based on this franchise - making the story like Aliens. Jesus Christ, how many times can this specific story get told? I guess they switched it up a little, by making at least one Weyland employee good, but even that might be a stretch considering what happened in the beginning.