PETER HOSKIN reviews Aliens - Dark Descent

Aliens to amaze you… despite the bugs: PETER HOSKIN reviews Aliens – Dark Descent

Aliens: Dark Descent (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £34.99)

Verdict: Bug hunt

Rating:

Park Beyond (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £49.99)

Verdict: Fun while it lasts…

Rating:

Seriously, I spend about 90 per cent of my time thinking about aliens. And I don’t mean the bobble-headed, Roswell kind — but the sleek, murderous xenomorphs from the Alien movies. They’re great.

The remaining 10 per cent of my time is generally spent playing video games in which you move little soldiers around dioramic 3D maps. Sometimes, they’re great too.

Aliens: Dark Descent offers both, which is why I’ve been so desperate to play it. Does it live up to my wants and expectations? Well, it’s certainly the best Alien game since 2014’s Alien: Isolation, though that’s not saying much. And it has the potential to become one of the best Alien games of all time.

The first thing that stands out is its atmosphere. The claustrophobic corridors around which you’re guiding your space marines are all flashing lights, horrifying shadows, and little details that will make fans of the movies salivate.

And the gameplay is thrilling, too. The xenomorphs that you face are, individually and en masse, a proper threat.

Does it live up to my wants and expectations? Well, it’s certainly the best Alien game since 2014’s Alien: Isolation, though that’s not saying much. And it has the potential to become one of the best Alien games of all time

The variety of designs and colours is extraordinary. And after a while settling into the controls, which can seem cumbersome at first, you’ll soon be laying down huge, twisty-turny creations that stretch far beyond the edges of your screen

You really need to get your tactics and strategies right to make it through some of these levels.

But you might have noticed that word lurking in the dark above: ‘potential’.

This doesn’t yet feel like a finished game, as it’s so full of bugs that often ruin the experience. I lost count of the times my characters got stuck on the scenery and started running madly on the spot, forcing me to go back and reload an old save.

Happily, bugs can be fixed — and surely that will happen with Aliens: Dark Descent. Only then will we know how majestic this creature truly is. Like I say, I want sleek and murderous, not a bobble-headed crash landing.

WHEEEEEEEEE! Whoooooooo! Arrrrrrrrgh!

Whichever philosopher said that life is a roller coaster had it right; playing Park Beyond over the past few weeks, life has indeed been a roller coaster.

This is another one of those old-school theme park management games, like the classic Theme Park or RollerCoaster Tycoon, but with a whole load of modern polish and pizzazz.

The gameplay is thrilling, too. The xenomorphs that you face are, individually and en masse, a proper threat

You really need to get your tactics and strategies right to make it through some of these levels

This is most noticeable when it comes to making the roller coasters themselves.

Then it’s tremendous fun to ride these creations, as though you’re a punter strapped into one of the cars. Park Beyond excels at bouncing you through its cartoonish, imaginative world, round loops, through cannons, into the sky. Like I said: wheeeeeeee!

But the problem is basically everything that’s not the roller coasters. When it comes to the actual park management — whether in the game’s short narrative mode or its freeform sandbox mode — Park Beyond just doesn’t have the depth of its predecessors.

You have to keep your customers fed, keep your rides staffed, but, beyond that, there’s . . . just not that much. It starts to feel about as substantial as candyfloss. And so you hop on a roller coaster again, only it’s not as exciting this time. Then you decide to leave.

If you want serious fun and serious management at the same time, there’s a game called Two Point Campus on the other side of town.

I’ll see you there.

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