Aliens: Dark Descentis the subject of a trailer that reveals new gameplay footage and provides a release date for the game all in the same breath. TheAlienfranchise has a long history in the world of video games and spans a wide variety of genres. The franchise’smost notable game in recent history isAlien: Isolation, regarded as one of the best modern survival horrors.Aliens: Dark Descentwill be the firstAliengame in the real-time strategy genre sinceAlien Versus Predator: Extinctionreleased in 2003 to an overall lukewarm reception.
The first trailer forAliens: Dark Descentwas revealed at the 2022 Summer Games Festbut didn’t contain much gameplay footage. The Summer Games Fest trailer mostly consisted of an unnamed marine recounting what he had seen and experienced at the Tantalus Base where the game will presumably take place. The trailer closes with the unnamed marine surrounded by Xenomorphs. Only a few seconds of gameplay were featured at the end of the reveal trailer before “2023” is displayed.
RELATED:Evil Dead Director’s Alien Sequel Sounds Like A Return To Form For The Franchise
The new gameplay trailer gives prospective players their first look atwhat to expect fromAliens: Dark Descent.The game is a real-time strategy where the player acts as the Commander for a squad of Colonial Marines tasked with investigating a massive Xenomorph outbreak. The combat system appears to have an intuitive design whereby the player issues commands and the game automatically dispatches the marine best equipped for the job to carry out the work. Players can slow down time during combat to facilitate the issuing of commands, but are unable to completely stop the flow of time.
The gameplay trailer gives the impression thatAliens: Dark Descentwill be a fairly hardcore real-time strategy offering. According to the trailer, losing a Colonial Marine is irreversible, but it does appear that the player can encounter survivors hidden around Tantalus Base that could possibly be recruited into the squad. Towards the end of the trailer there is a brief description and footage of how upgrading and customizing the squad will work. Finally, the trailer closes out by revealing the release date forAliens: Dark Descentas Jun 16, 2025.
Aliens: Dark Descentis being developed by Tindalos Interactive and will be published by Focus Entertainment. The developer has previously worked on real-time strategy titles set in theWarhammeruniverse, namelyBattlefleet Gothic: Armadaand its sequel which were relatively well-received, which should give fans some hope thatAliens: Dark Descentwill break theAliengame cursethat some believe has plagued the franchise since the infamously disastrous launch ofAliens: Colonial Marines.
Aliens: Dark Descentwill release on July 23, 2025 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
