Aliens: Dark Descent was revealed during the 2022 Summer Game Fest Livestream. No one may be able to hear you scream in space, but they’ll be able to hear you scream in your living room. And there will be plenty of fear to go around when this squad-based, top-down shooter finally releases. 

Focus Entertainment, makers of A Plague Tale, released the first cinematic trailer for Aliens: Dark Descent and the atmosphere is absolutely chilling. It reminds me greatly of James Cameron‘s take on the Aliens universe with a seemingly endless horde of Xenomorphs hunting down a team of unsuspecting space marines. 

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The trailer opens with a small team of Colonial Marines working their way through a large complex of some kind. The audio is eerily quiet, too quiet. We then see the Marines get ambushed by several Xenomorphs, pushing them back into the base. It appears that all hands are lost in the expedition, and only an analog audio recording is left behind. 

The trailer ends with a brief look at the gameplay where squads of Marines are shown fighting off waves of xenomorphs in a top-down perspective. It’s unconfirmed how these marines will be controlled at this time and whether or not the game supports co-op. Right now we assume it will take a squad-based approach to combat rather than a solo adventure like in games like Alien: Isolation. I’m hoping for gameplay similar to the Gears of War franchise with a horde mode myself.

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I’m interested to learn if the story is going to be told through the squad we see in the trailer or another. Are we seeing our character’s ultimate demise first or if we will be a part of a mission that is sent in to recover the fallen soldiers, learning their story through lost audio logs along the way?

All I know for sure is that this summer is shaping up to be the season of space horror adventures and I LOVE it. The release date for Aliens: Dark Descent is set for sometime in 2023 right now. Are you a horror fan? Do you need more gameplay before you are sold on this game? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

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