Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review: ‘An uninspired struggle through a tired gameplay loop’

Aliens: Fireteam Elite review for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

The Alien IP has had a mixed bag of representation in video games, with the terrifying Alien: Isolation as a high point, and the awful Aliens: Colonial Marines as a spectacular low point. The next dev team up to bat is Cold Iron Studios with Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a co-op third-person shooter that has the potential to deliver compelling horde gameplay enhanced by deeper-than-you’d-expect character class progression. Unfortunately, I was hoping for game over, man, long before the credits rolled.

Humans good, aliens bad

Without diving too deep into spoiler territory for those who really care about Aliens lore, players are put in the shoes of a Colonial Marine who is sent off to investigate a growing Xenomorph threat. These make up the bulk of the enemy encounters, though Synthetic foes are also introduced partway through the campaign.

The campaign’s plot is forgettable; it’s all very gung-ho soldiering about the place and not much more, with the Colonial Marines shooting first and asking questions never. While it stays somewhat true to the more action-packed elements of the source material in this respect, it’s treated like a complete afterthought, despite players being forced through the campaign before Horde mode becomes available.

So, I heard you like spaceships

The campaign is mostly comprised of dark corridors broken up by the occasional larger room. The majority of levels take place on a spacecraft and environments quickly become repetitive. There is a nice change of scenery when moving from the first set of levels to the second, but the third and fourth sets are disappointingly bland.

The game runs without issue on PC with minimum requirements that make it accessible to all but the oldest of systems. Pushing the settings to the max results in some pleasing visuals in darker environments, with torchlights cutting through the industrial wreckages. During the brief moments when the levels open up and offer an alien vista, it can be genuinely awe-inspiring and I paused on more than one occasion to take a screenshot.

Fireteam Elite’s audio is perfectly fine. The voice actors do a good job of escorting you through missions and the music gets appropriately dramatic when there’s a sudden ambush or an elite alien appears.

Level up your Marcus Fenix

The comparisons to Gears of War’s gameplay are easy to make and, if it weren’t for this game’s character class progression, I’d say all but the most dedicated Aliens fans can just play GoW instead. However, Aliens: Fireteam Elite has a surprising level of depth that helps players craft their own perfect soldier.

From the different weapons they use to the different perks and abilities they have equipped, each class handles noticeably differently in battle. Those looking to surpass the 10 or so hours that a single playthrough of this game demands can look to leveling up other classes to extend the experience.

Unfortunately, the need to replay missions that were a bit of a chore in the first place is where this game starts to fall flat. Objectives are often just a matter of defending a point from waves of enemies and little else. This is fine for the Horde mode, but I was expecting something more for the campaign.

Challenge Cards can add some variety, however, with these mission modifiers implementing buffs and nerfs that can help or hinder the player. Those that increase the difficulty award bonus XP, though failing the challenge will lose the card. It’s a risk and reward system that more hardcore players will like.

Just let me play

It’s the demand for players to reach an arbitrary Combat Rating for each mission that really ground my gears. After leveling up my Gunner Class for a couple of hours, I figured I’d try out the Demolisher for the next few missions. However, the Demolisher’s low Combat Rating discouraged me from using it. I suppose the game wants players to replay missions in order to level up the other classes to make them viable.

What’s more, my character who I mained for every single mission didn’t seem to be ranking up quickly enough to keep up with the increasing Combat Rating. I don’t know if this was due to the way I played, but I found myself a full 60 points below the rating for the final mission. Needless to say, it was a tough fight.

Pushing players to replay content before they’ve even completed the game a single time wouldn’t be so terrible if the Horde mode was unlocked right from the start. Instead, players must finish the story in order to access it.

Oh, and healing is done using med-kits. This adds value to the Doc class, but health management becomes a serious pain if you happen to matchmake without a healer. Health regen on the Casual difficulty would be nice, at the very least.

More content is good, but…

There has been post-launch support announced in the form of a free Season 1 content drop and a paid-for ($9.99) Endeavor Pass with a bunch of cosmetic items, but I’m more concerned about quality-of-life fixes that will benefit the overall gameplay experience.

With some of the lengthier missions, I found myself needing to pause the game. Sadly, even with bots, this isn’t possible, and the seemingly infinite supply of aliens punished me for momentarily dashing away to handle real-life interruptions.

Then there’s the matchmaking, which is just a nightmare. With a niche title like this, there really needs to be a Quick Play option for players to quickly find a lobby across any map, with or without Challenge Cards enabled.

The timer needs removing, too, or extending at least. The game simply doesn’t provide enough time for players to get into the same lobby through matchmaking, quickly giving up and filling it with bots instead. How about the majority of players can start the match by readying up, when the lobby is finally full?

As for the PC version of the game, while there are a number of helpful graphics options, there really needs to be a field-of-view slider. Console players, too, are also beginning to see the value in that feature, even when sitting further away from the TV.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review: The final verdict

At $40, Aliens: Fireteam Elite succeeds in being a mindless horde mode shooter with decent gameplay blessed with the bones of an Alien story. There is lore to be found in collectibles and successfully fighting the urge to skip dialogue, but only the most passionate fans will care.

Sadly, matchmaking woes get in the way of the stupid, dumb fun at times, making it an even tougher recommendation for those looking to play with like-minded randoms. Playing alone is a last resort that is experienced all too often and I’m hoping Quick Play can be added to help fix this.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite sits squarely in the middle of other Alien games. There’s certainly worse out there, but there is also much better. It’s an uninspired struggle through a tired gameplay loop that just happens to be slathered in Alien slime and plays like one of the older Gear of Wars.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite was reviewed on PC with code provided by the publisher.