The recently revealed the next in a long line of video games set in the Alien universe. Aliens: Dark Descent's announcement trailer offered several interesting pieces of information about the upcoming game. While the revelation that Aliens: Dark Descent will combine real-time strategy gameplay with the iconic horror aesthetic of the Alien franchise has been met with mixed reception, one minor detail has left many fans theorizing over where the game could be set in the Alien timeline.
While previous Alien games have been set at easily identifiable points in the franchise's timeline, evidence from Aliens: Dark Descent's first trailer suggests that the game may take place earlier in the series than any other Alien game. With one of the franchise's overarching antagonists seemingly unaware of the existence of its flagship monster, Aliens: Dark Descent may turn out to be a prequel that sows the seeds for future installments in the series.
The trailer for Dark Descent follows a squad of Colonial Marines sent to investigate a sudden communications blackout at Tantalus Base, one of the countless off-world colonies owned and governed by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Within minutes of their arrival, the squad is ambushed by a horde of Xenomorphs that quickly dispatches most of the team. Abandoning what remains of his squad to save his own life, Sergeant Leo Alvarez makes a recording of the incident on a discarded tape recorder as the pack of Xenomorphs closes in on all sides.
Based on the way a shaken Alvarez describes the Xenomorphs in his recording, it seems like none of the Marines featured in the trailer have any idea what the Xenomorphs are. While this may sound like a minor detail at first, the Colonial Marine Corps' close ties to Weyland-Yutani could imply that the corporation isn't aware of the Xenomorphs either. This contradicts several pieces of evidence presented in other installments of the Alien franchise.
Throughout the Alien franchise, Weyland-Yutani has always been portrayed as having in-depth knowledge of the Xenomorphs' biology and behavior, as well as an obsession with capturing specimens for research. As early as the original Alien film, Weyland-Yutani proved that it'll do anything to get its hands on Xenomorphs, sending Ellen Ripley and her crew on what amounted to a suicide mission to acquire a live specimen and allowing the hundreds of colonists who lived on Hadley's Hope to be eaten to cultivate a Xenomorph hive in its sequel Aliens. Driven by the selfish desire to sell the Xenomorphs as bioweapons, Weyland-Yutani will seemingly stop at nothing to propagate the species.
While it's entirely possible that Weyland-Yutani simply didn't inform the squad about Xenomorphs, their ignorance could imply that the corporation that hired them is just as clueless about the Xenomorphs as they are. If that's true, then it could mean that Dark Descent takes place at an earlier point in the Alien timeline than any of the films, video games, and comics that have preceded it. Perhaps Dark Descent will be a prequel that explores how Weyland-Yutani discovered the existence of the Xenomorphs in the first place, establishing the obsession that would drive its actions in the other installments.
Besides the Marines' ignorance of the Xenomorphs, there are other bizarre details in the trailer that could provide some hints as to when Dark Descent occurs in the series' continuity. Just before the squad is swarmed by Xenomorphs, they catch a glimpse of a group of withered humanoid beings who appear to be held aloft by tubes like puppets on strings. While these beings' role in the game's story is currently unknown, they haven't been seen before in any other installment of the Alien franchise, suggesting that Dark Descent will be set in an unexplored era of the series' timeline.
Regardless of when it takes place, Aliens: Dark Descent is already shaping up to be a unique chapter of the Alien saga. With unconventional gameplay and an intriguing story that could reveal one of the series' greatest mysteries, Dark Descent could become one of the most intriguing and engaging installments in the Alien series.
