I dare say that “Strangers” is lucky to have adaptations. First of all, there are a lot of them, from books to board games. Secondly, they are more or less all right with quality. When I was a kid, I remember reading the novellizations of the first films, and when I got a little older, the video games were just as fascinating. Even though they were mostly crossovers with another charming alien guest, the Predator, the developers loved copying the stylistics of the Xenomorph movies, especially the second part.
Aliens: Dark Descent also experiments with the genre – we are trying to create a tactical strategy, which is not quite usual for the franchise.
Self-Isolation Mode
The protagonists of Dark Descent are everyone’s favorite colonial marines. However, the narrative begins on behalf of Maiko Hayes, the administrator of the Pioneer station orbiting a planet called Leta.
By someone’s malice, the aliens infiltrate the station and begin to process the personnel into meat and live cocoons for larvae. Hayes, as a member of the administration, decides to activate the Cerberus protocol, which quarantines the station, the planet itself, and the Colonial Marines’ ship Otago, which happens to be in the vicinity. The quarantine is very simple – a hefty pack of torpedoes, attacking any ship that tries to leave orbit. Both the station and the Otago, which Hayes manages to get to at the last minute, are damaged as a result.
The entire plot takes place against the backdrop of the first tutorial mission, which somewhat stuffily explains the basics of the game. The landing ship, meanwhile, crashes, and Hayes meets Sergeant Jonas Harper, who takes command of the survivors. They join forces to survive, repair the ship, and get off this planet — preferably by clearing it of the xeno menace.
The Marines on the ship don’t sit idly by: while Hayes and Harper entertain the viewer with plot scenes, the soldiers lick their wounds and prepare to go into battle. Soon after the crash, the team decides to explore the settlements on Lethe in search of answers to the questions: what are those things, how to get rid of them, and what happened in general? There are more pressing goals, though – like fixing the ship and providing a communications channel to report back to the Company about the disaster.
Another glorious day in the hull
The main story begins with the first landing operation: the game is divided into sortie missions, during which Marines visit the colony’s settlements and even climb the orbital station. Upon arrival, the squad is placed under your control (assuming that the soldiers are led by Sgt. Harper and Hayes via radio communication). Moves as a single unit – you can not give orders to individual soldiers, they choose who to do what, depending on the skills, specialization and their location.