Reviews
‘Aliens: Dark Descent’ Review – Brutal Tactics and Nail-Biting Experience Captures the Essence of ‘Aliens’
I’m of the mindset that there has never been an excellent modern video game based on the Alien franchise. Alien: Isolation was an exercise in misery, taking what should’ve been a well-crafted 4-8 hour horror experience and stretching it beyond the 20-hour mark. Aliens: Fireteam Elite was a fun-as-hell co-op shooter, but repetitive gameplay and light content at launch kept it from its potential. The less said about Aliens: Colonial Marines, the better. The point is that there has yet to be a game to land not only the aesthetics the series is known for but the feeling of tension and dread that comes with it. It’s understandably a tricky balancing act, so maybe it was “game over” all along for this franchise in video game form. And then I booted up Aliens: Dark Descent.
When announced a few months ago, many assumed this isometric view game would be a twin-stick shooter or Diablo clone. So expectations were truncated going in. I’m not sure what I even expected from an Aliens game. What I found in Dark Descent was an absolutely nail-biting experience that made me the most anxious playing a video game since Darkest Dungeon. At its core, Dark Descent is a brutal tactics game with Real-Time Strategy combat that replicates the feeling of hopelessness and being outnumbered. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to a game successfully replicating the feel and tone of the films.
Aliens: Dark Descent sees players take the role of Maeko Hayes, a Weyland-Yutani commander. After an explosive but slow-paced introduction/tutorial, she finds herself in charge of a platoon of the series’ signature Colonial Marines as they’re stranded on the derelict moon of Lethe. Soon she discovers the moon is overrun with the deadly Xenomorphs, which need to be stopped before spreading throughout the galaxy. From what I can tell, it’s a relatively simple premise that takes place after Alien 3. But even if you’ve never seen the films, there’s plenty to enjoy from its story and characters.
Aliens: Dark Descent takes the X-COM approach to its commander gameplay. Players will oversee a base where they develop weapons, initiate research, and kit out their marines for missions. It’s an established formula that works, and honestly, I’m shocked that “X-COM in the Aliens universe” hasn’t been a concept sooner. After preparing your marines, you choose which expedition to send them. That can range from searching for survivors, gathering intel, or even hunting down certain enemies. It creates a satisfying gameplay loop of completing missions, returning to base, performing research and development, and repeating the process. If you found this loop satisfying in X-COM or Marvel’s Midnight Suns, you will find it satisfying here.
The gameplay shines once Marines get deployed. Players will command a group of marines in real-time combat and exploration. I found this to be more engaging than X-COM in its moment-to-moment gameplay. Instead of plotting out my moves and watching them play out in turn, I felt I had more active control over my squad and could make more tactical decisions on the fly in case things went horrifically awry. When you move your squad, the Marines auto-attack anything in their sightlines, but they cannot use weapons when you command them to run. This decision provides a push-and-pull style of gameplay where you can weigh your options of standing down and fighting or fleeing to escape from the mission. The only time the gameplay slows down is when using ability commands, where the game’s speed slows, and you can issue a command such as telling a marine to lay down suppressive fire or set up an auto turret. It gives the game an even more tactical feel, as it’s best to do this when enemies do not surround you.
Gear is essential in the game too. While on a mission, it’s going to be critical that you monitor how many health packs and toolkits your marines have. Health packs do what they say on the tin and prevent your marines from dying in the field because they’re gone for good if they do. Long story short, don’t get attached. Due to the game’s brutal difficulty, you will inevitably have marines die on missions.
Conversely, toolkits will provide a reprieve from the horrors marines will face. They can seal doors to either force the Xenomorph into a choke point or stop them entirely so your marines can rest. There’s a constant bevy of decisions that players must make at all times, and how this plays out in real-time can be a tense but satisfying experience.
I want to talk about difficulty, as this is where many players may feel intimidated. Make no mistake, Aliens: Dark Descent is a brutally difficult game, even on standard difficulty. Sometimes I would go on a mission with fully kitted-out marines only to have an unexpected horde of Xenomorphs completely wipe them out. The game employs a light stealth and “danger” level. The more your squad encounters and fights the xenomorph threat, the more dangerous and frequent hordes will become. The best way to slow this is to stealthily move across missions using clever cover and routing. The only problem with this is that it’s unreliable and often resulted in me engaging in far more gunfights than I was prepared for. You can find more resources in the field, but I never felt quite prepared 80% of the time, which feels like an intentional design choice.
Performance is excellent on PS5. I never ran into any bugs or glitches, and the game ran exceptionally well. Helmet’s off to the team for creating a polished game right from release. The only issues I ran into on the console version were the controls. Aliens: Dark Descent is a game designed for the mouse and keyboard. The controls on the pad function fine but replicate what one would do on a keyboard and mouse configuration; it’s a little finicky with the shoulder buttons acting as left and right mouse clicks, respectively. As a result, a lot of the UI isn’t made explicit for the console or bad. It’s a PC port, and I recommend playing it there.
Overall, I had a good time with Aliens: Dark Descent. After getting over the initial learning curve with the controls and mechanics, I was left with a game that poked at all the right parts of my brain. The game’s design creates a satisfying loop of entering the breach, escaping, strengthening yourself, and returning to the fray. At the same time, the somewhat frustrating horde system makes it so that you’re never comfortable while delivering the number of thrills and hopelessness you expect from the Aliens franchise. Aliens: Dark Descent is the most exciting Aliens game yet and one I’ll find myself returning to often to see if I can pull off the perfect mission.
Aliens: Dark Descent is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Bloody Disgusting was provided a PS5 code for this review.
Reviews
‘The Last Temptation of Becky’ Review: Threequel Has A Blast Destroying Nazis [Fantasia 2026]
Over the course of three films, Lulu Wilson’s Becky Hooper has emerged as the unlikeliest of action heroines. What kicked off as a surprisingly brutal thriller back in 2020’s Becky evolved into a full-blown franchise with 2023’s The Wrath of Becky. Now there’s a third and possibly final film with The Last Temptation of Becky.
The latest entry hails from Jenn Wexler, the director of The Ranger and The Sacrifice Game, who co-writes the script with Matt Angel from a story by Angel and Suzanne Coote (The Wrath of Becky). Temptation opens on a now-adult Becky on her latest mission with the CIA. The caper is a complete failure, ending unsurprisingly in extremely bloody fashion.
In a post-mission debrief, CIA director Baker (Fiona Marr) explains to the young agent that she’s too much of a loose cannon, but as flashbacks to her psych evaluations and select events from the first film confirm, Becky has never truly recovered from the murder of her father by white supremacists.
It makes sense, then, that this outing brings Nazis back to the forefront as a kind of full circle moment. Becky’s new adversary is General Wilhelm Reuss (Neil Patrick Harris), a devout member of the Reich who believes so strongly in the cause that he recently moved his family, along with enforcer Russell and Dr Friedrich Metzger (James Urbaniak), to the Wolf’s Lair in Poland.
Turns out that despite the passage of several in-universe years between films, Becky still hasn’t learned how to play well with others or follow the rules, despite the guiding touch of handler Montana (Kate Siegel, Hush) and the model set by fellow agent Rigby (Brandon Flynn, Hellraiser). When Becky is given one final opportunity to prove her worth to the CIA, it sets up a collision course between her and Reuss that is guaranteed to be an all-out bloodbath.
The series continues to get good mileage casting against-type for its villains, although it should be noted that NPH doesn’t get as much to do as either the first film’s Kevin James or the sequel’s Sean William Scott. That’s because, in part, Reuss’s family comes as an evil package. Introduced in a great comedic scene when Becky checks in – all smiles – to the family’s Nazi motel, mother Helga (Catherine Walker), daughter Luisa (Aiofe Hughes), and son Otto (Noah Leggott) are as much of a threat as the patriarch.
Of course, the main selling feature of the film is Becky, and Wilson continues to have a blast bringing the prickly, quippy, and trigger-happy character to life. Wilson remains an absolute delight, from her delicious voiceover (“Mission ‘find out what these fuckers are up to’: commence”) to her dinner table banter with the Reuss family (“Where do you heil from?” she asks them). Three films in, there’s no fear that Becky could actually die, but the film isn’t afraid to put its characters through the wringer – Becky sports a broken nose for most of the film’s last act – and there are, naturally, some extremely cathartic Nazi casualties.
While there’s a disappointing lack of rocket launchers in this entry, by employing the tropes of the spy movie, The Last Temptation of Becky does get to have its James Bond/Q moment when Montana walks her pint-sized agent through a litany of Chekhov’s items that are inevitably used to destroy Nazis later. Ditto Becky’s newfound interest in fencing with Rigby, which serves her well when she goes up against Luisa in a duel. This sequence also includes the best exchange of the film, when Becky enquires where the girl went to Hitler Youth Camp and Luisa replies: “Mississippi.”
The Nazis are rightfully portrayed as a legitimate threat and, simultaneously, the subject of complete mockery. The brownies – armed guards who do the dirty work of patrolling the woods and escorting prisoners – are comprised of men who explain they’re just following orders or they are “media and Performing Arts majors from Ohio State.” They’re idiots who are the brunt of multiple jokes and insults throughout the film, including Becky’s immediately iconic jacket emblazoned with “Fuck Nazis” on the back.
Then there’s the hilarious reveal of Reuss and Dr. Metzger’s master plan, which is simultaneously pathetic and hilariously short-lived…because even The Last Temptation of Becky understands that the only logical response to Nazis making a literal comeback in 2026 is to barf on them, punch them in the face, or blow them up. Preferably all of the above.
If there’s a misstep, it’s the film’s uneasy mix of practical FX and CGI. An early death involving a drone and a landmine would be much more compelling if the accompanying explosion and fire were real, and a decapitation winds up looking cheap because of the digital blood. Compare this to another death later when someone bleeds from every facial orifice: it’s clearly practical and, as a result, looks great.
There are a few other instances of violence that miss the mark. A potentially brutal knife in the mouth is partially obscured; some of the hand-to-hand combat in the last act doesn’t hit terribly hard. But overall, it’s impossible not to cheer on Becky as she fucks Nazis up at every opportunity.
If that’s what your heart desires, then The Last Temptation of Becky will be right up your alley. Here’s hoping that, despite the possible implications teased by the title, Lulu Wilson decides to return to the role every three years (or less!) for a new Becky film.
The Last Temptation of Becky made its world premiere at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival. Release info TBD.
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