Aliens: Dark Descent is the Prometheus of real-time strategy games

polygon.com:

Aliens: Dark Descent is billed as a real-time action game, carefully skirting the real-time strategy classification. This new classification is not a gimmick. Tindalos Interactive has produced a tense single-player experience that flirts with several disparate genre traits, while clearly providing a singular and ambitious approach. However, much like the divisive Alien franchise film Prometheus, its experimentation struggles to maintain creative momentum throughout.

Dark Descent entirely strips or purposefully narrows the aspects of resource gathering, technological improvement, and base building found in many RTS titles. There’s no real-time macro layer to speak of, with the moment-to-moment focus on the micro actions of maneuvering your team of four USMC soldiers. It’s akin to StarCraft campaign missions where you’re exploring with just a handful of Terran marines. This spotlights the tension around specific named characters and their survival: Instead of ore and minerals, you’re worried about ammo and stress. And when one of your grunts is slaughtered — or worse, carried away by an Alien drone to be impregnated — it fosters grief and regret. This is a brutal game of moments that stick with you.

You’re eased into this framework with a 45-minute tutorial, which also functions as a prologue to the greater story. This prolonged intro is welcome, as there are some quirks to the systems at play, and you need to come to grips with the unusual tactical options they present.

The most sophisticated of those tactical systems are focused around command points. You spend this resource to lay down cones of suppressive fire, deliver powerful short-range shotgun blasts, and spit walls of fire to protect your position. You can never