Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review

Demolishers can use a range of iconic weapons, from smart weapons to flamethrowers and the ability to fire micro-rockets. Most weapons that can be obtained between missions from secret crates in the arsenal use class attachments, but once you have glued them to a weapon class, you no longer have to assemble and reassemble them for different loading processes. One of my favorite quirks of Fireteam are the challenge cards you can play during missions to make them harder in exchange for more money and EP.

You can also add VHS-like scanlines to impede your visibility, disable supplies, and summon towers of alien drones to track you throughout the mission. Against waves of fearsome xenophobes, synthetic Weyland-Yutani enemies, and two-player AI teammates, you and your fire team of hardened marines will battle through four unique campaigns that introduce a new storyline into the alien universe. You can conduct campaign missions with friends and AI cadres, collect weapons and accessories, and replenish your Marines to unlock new perks.

Fireteam Elite is a surprising title that combines 1980s action with iconic film visuals and simple, engaging cooperative play. Fireteam Elite does not reinvent the genre of co-op survival shooter, but it adopts classic movie archetypes and translates them into game form. With the right attitude, it's a silly, explosive, fun swarm-based action game that's less derivative than Left 4 Dead or Gears of War, with a few nice little quirks. The three-player Co-op Shooter, which pits the iconic colonial marines against waves of relentless xenomorphic monstrosities, suffers from a few minor problems, such as crashes, muddy audio and the occasional janky animation, but its captivating action and cool customizations are worth the admission fee.

It is the repetitive scenarios and protracted missions of this kind that make Aliens: Fireteam Elite meh. Cold Iron Studios got away with not much more than the basics of Fireteam Elites, in an attempt to mimic a better game, and there are some irritating uses of its license. All 12 missions recycle the same stand-up shoot-em-up gameplay, which will worry the few other ardent alien fans left once you complete the main campaign.

The weapons available at your disposal and the enemies that you are fighting vary considerably during the campaign, leading you to run with comfortable waist-high blankets and ammunition boxes scattered along the way from one corridor to the next. Playing with friends creates a sense of camaraderie that guides you through the repetitive encounters and red mission goals. The game wants players to repeat missions over and over again to maximize their build, class, weapons and rank as much as possible.

There are five classes to choose from, featuring your usual alien archetypes with a twist of weapons and abilities and customizable loadouts. Leveling the class takes longer than a single play-through to unlock each class with dozens of weapons, perks, attachments and cosmetic items unlocked. It's fun to experiment with a class and upgrade another, but the game encourages you to pick a favorite and stick with it.

Much of the kit used by the Colonial Marines comes straight from the Alien movies, taking a few liberties to feel more comfortable in the Horde-like loop. Fireteam Elite does enough to reward a trio of co-op shooters fans who prefer to fight hordes of xenomorphs instead of the usual zombies. Compared to Gears of War, the gameplay is easier to make, but it is not a game about character and class progress, which means dedicated alien fans have to play GOW first.

Only in the final moments of the last campaign - four three-man missions - does Fireteam Elite offer a taste of something else. It's a strong enough sequence that I wondered if a few more set pieces could have done more to raise the game. With excellent weapon classes, enemy types and a wonderful nostalgic hat tip from Alien: Fireteam, it's a must if you have a fondness for the series.

Fireteam Elite is not about hiding in ventilation shafts and trying to breathe while xenomorphs trample doors and kick doors before unleashing a firefight with a line of weapons that would make Private Hudson salivate. It is a question of sending wave after wave of xenophobes, armed to the teeth with their ponderous colonial marines, scurrying up the chest-high walls. Between missions, you will stop at empty nodes to requisition shops and cycle through new weapons, perks, supplies, supplies, cosmetics, armor, and even paint for your weapons, but there is not much else, as it is three rooms and not an open world game.

Isolation succeeded in bringing things back to the roots of the series with a relentless xenomorphic swarm, and one mistake is enough to bring down an entire space station. It seems that gaming trends love Alien: Fireteam Elite, and they do everything to give it 100%. There are occasional crashes, weak sound and the odd animation bug test, but the bottom line is it doesn't stray too far from the horde-heavy co-op gameplay typical of multiplayer shooters and it offers great graphics, smart classes and great action.