Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review: "Won't blow your mind but will keep you entertained" - kistlerdrach1956

Our Verdict

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a solid one-third-person co-op triggerman that feels the like information technology belongs in the franchise, but its replayability has nonetheless to be settled.

Pros

Big B-film energy that makes for sport carbon monoxide-op sessions
A solid, enjoyable arcade game
Full of cool details that reference the Aliens dealership

Cons

Mission sameness tin get ho-hum
No crossplay or shareplay
Dispute Tease feature may not be enough for replayability

GamesRadar+ Finding of fact

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a solid third-person co-op shooter that feels like it belongs in the franchise, just its replayability has yet to be determined.

Pros

+
Big B-movie Energy Department that makes for fun co-op sessions
+
A upstanding, enjoyable arcade spirited
+
Full of cool details that reference the Aliens franchise
+

Cons

-
Mission monotony can get down tiresome
-
No crossplay or shareplay
-
Challenge Card characteristic may non be plenty for replayability
-

Like the Colonial US Marine Corps of the 1986 Aliens film, zero about Aliens: Fireteam Elite group is delicate or quiet. It's not hiding in ventilation shafts difficult to silently breathe while a xenomorph stomps by, but kicking down doors and letting loose a shelling of fire from an array of weapons that would make Esoteric Hudson salivate.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is non a deftly handled tool that only belongs in the hands of a comfortably-trained white-collar, just a big ol' hammer looking at for whatsoever nails to beat in. Those nails are the xenos, and there's plenty of them to run along around. Aliens: Fireteam Elite feels like the philosophical and mechanical sequel to Alien: Isolation - the gaming version of Aliens to Alien.

Fast Facts: Aliens: Fireteam Elite

Release date: August 24
Platform(s): PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Publisher: Cold Robust Studios
Developer: Cold Iron Studios

Aliens: Fireteam Elect drops you into tense and oftentimes chaotic firefights that pit your souped-up team of Colonial Marines against waves of varying xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani synthetics. Information technology's understandably meant to comprise played with friends - despite the lack of crossplay - and the gameplay mechanics that lend themselves to co-op play are simple yet effective. Aliens: Fireteam Elect North Korean won't blow your mind with a nuanced approach to gameplay or groundbreaking graphics, but it will keep you and a group of friends entertained for several concrete hours.

Soaking in Alien lore

The first Aliens: Fireteam Elite deputation is assail an petroleum refinery called the Katanga that's flooded of the industrial hallways and tight spaces you'd expect from an Aliens game. Thankfully, however, Aliens: Fireteam Elite doesn't just invoke the Aliens film in its level designing, as the second mission takes you to the planet Katanga is orbiting - and straight onto what could cost a set from the 2012 film Prometheus.

There, during a lovely reprieve from an hour of auriferous-lined hallways, you explore ruins left-handed past the Engineers, an disaffect rush along attributable with the creation of mankind. Those ruins are being used by Weyland-Yutani arsenic a xenomorph breeding farm. Because of course, it is. The story at the core of Aliens: Fireteam Elite group is a house of Unenthusiastic Iron Studios's dedication to its source material. Any fan of the Alien franchise will enjoy picking up the hit-or-miss hidden traditional knowledge items or getting a trifle of exposition from NPCs while aboard your ship.

That's why it's so odd that there are no thinned scenes or even animated faces in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. There's little to no dialogue from the character you choose to play As - a unknown Colonial Marine you can customize in slipway that nod to the Aliens' film squad. Your character emits the occasional oink, warning, or heads up as they're remedial - but nothing else. However, there's heap of talking coming from Sergeant Herrera, who acts corresponding this game's Cortana, directing you via comms from the safety of the ship. She's often joined past a few other atmosphere voices, including a doctor you save early along and a synthetic onymous Esther. Herrera and the side characters propel the taradiddle as you act as, acting Eastern Samoa commentators fulfilling incompatible archetypes.

When you're on the ship you can talk to other members of the Colonial Marines by choosing dialogue options from a simplistic menu. And patc the voice acting here is surprisingly good, the USMC simply shift through and through whatsoever cycling animations as they chat, their faces frozen in an uncanny caricature of humanity. As I play, I can't assist only wonder why Cold Iron Studios didn't animise these scenes - especially since Aliens: Fireteam Selected has no cutscenes that could suck sprouted wanted dev time. Information technology's an odd quality that pesters me throughout, simply certainly non a deal-breaker.

You know the drill

Aliens: Fireteam Elite feels ilk a solid arcade shooter from the late 2010s with much added perks. Thither's zip here gameplay-wise that will belly laugh you, but its core features stimulate been tried and well-tried by its predecessors, and they work. While you can pick from ane of five classes - Gunner, Demolisher, Technician, Physician, and Recon - some of them find half-cooked, particularly the underwhelming Doc. There are RPG elements, just they seem equally screwball. However, the classes testament definitely assistant make co-op sessions more fun, especially if everyone is active over the heavy flamethrower that only the Demolisher can carry.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite feels wish Left 4 Dead and Gears of War successful a baby that then burst through individual's stomach. It sends waves upon waves of xenomorphs at you that scuttle complete thorax-high walls at your heavy-footed Colonial Marine WHO is armed to the teeth. Extraordinary of the guns feel disappointingly idle, while others (like the flamethrower) afford you all the index of an absolutely demented soldier facing something taboo of their nightmares. You can't serve simply scream with all the himbo power of the deep Bill Sir Joseph Paxton's Hudson when firing some of these guns and unlocking attachments, which comes from opening crates or buying them with in-game credits from the vendor, helps make the weaker ones find better.

There are four campaigns in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, to each one split up into three missions. The basic missionary station structure is arsenic such: head through several spaces clearing aliens, get in at a bigger space that requires you to set out up margin defenses in front triggering a gigantic legion, defeat that horde and end the missionary station. Yes, this format can begin a tur stale, but Cold Cast-iron Studios is banking on the variety that comes with Centennial State-op and a bevy of Take exception Card game (which we'll make in a moment) to keep you from acquiring as well bored.

The first commission in Aliens: Fireteam Elite throws only a handful of xenomorph enemy types at ME like swarming, skittering soldiers and acid-spit spitters, but atomic number 3 the campaign progresses I hit a dainty miscellany of baddies. On that point are xenomorph warriors that stand 7-feet-tall and charge you same a horrific bipedal bull, twitchy facehuggers that leap out of unfurled eggs, Weyland-Yutani synthetics wielding flamethrowers, and a semi-invisible opposition called the Leon stalker. Aliens: Fireteam Elite does a enthusiastic job of capturing the feel of Aliens, where a seemingly impossible amount of xenomorphs swarm and rush out at you at all turn. IT privy quickly bugger off resistless, and playing with friends means there bequeath be a quite a little of panicked laugh.

The only save points come at the end of to each one mission, which can run anywhere from 20-40 proceedings depending on your difficulty level. Yes, that means you could get the whole way to the end of a nearly 30-minute stretch of gameplay and undergo to restart it because you died, so mentally prepare yourself for this. I was only playing happening casual and this happened to me much once - the most painful of which was when I felled deuce xenomorph praetorians (the biggest you can get aside from the queen) clean to receive a single abstract from a lowly underlin and die right before the mission ended.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite again?

Despite my struggles and the fact that I only played with two AI teammates uproariously skinned like friendly Weyland-Yutani synths, I'm through with Aliens: Fireteam Elite in almost cinque hours on a careless playthrough. Beating it on casual mechanically unlocks the option to play through the missions on some 'extreme' and 'insanity' difficulties, which bequeath unquestionably entice accomplishment chasers.

Then there are the Challenge Cards, which Cold Iron Studios is very distinctly banking on in terms of replayability. In that respect are over 40 different Challenge Cards that play mutators, either making your play-throughs more difficult, more easy, or just more chaotic. I don't use any Take exception Cards during my play-finished A I'm keenly aware of my review time bound, but myself, Surface-to-air missile Loveridge, and Leon Hurley used a couple of during an Aliens: Fireteam Elite active preview. They'Re unquestionably amusing, only dish up the same purpose in terms of replayability A the difficulty levels, in that information technology will only entice accomplishment chasers or players WHO equivalent to repeatedly up the ante. For those of us who crave new smug Oregon a longer campaign, it doesn't seem like Aliens: Fireteam Selected has any plans to deliver along that.

With the unretentive take the field and revolve about three-person multiplayer (sans crossplay), I can't avail but wonder if Cold Iron Studios should go through a share-romp option. At $40, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is non a full-priced game, but with the go through so heavily invested in the concept of getting friends together on the same consoles, it would be nice to offer a way into the fray for free - straight-grained if it's just for a mission operating theater two.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is just okay as a solo shooter, but the inclusion of friends makes the gameplay sing. As far atomic number 3 the curse of Alien games goes, Aliens: Fireteam Elite seems to have safely avoided it - this is a fun, excited third-person shooter curing to a score that feels like James Horner himself wrote it. Xenomorphs will rain from the ceiling, scammer concluded walls, and jump out of external respiration shafts almost ceaselessly, which makes for a genuinely fun, fast-breaking playthrough. Whether operating theater not Aliens: Fireteam Elite will keep players enticed for a endorsement go-round has yet to be determined...

Reviewed on Xbox Serial publication S with a code provided away the publisher.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite group

Aliens: Fireteam Elite group is a coagulated third-person cooperative hired gun that feels like information technology belongs in the franchise, only its replayability has yet to be determined.

More information

Available platforms

PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Serial publication X, PC

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Alyssa Mercante is an editor and features writer at GamesRadar based out of Brooklyn, NY. Prior to entry the industry, she got her Masters's level in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle-upon-Tyne University with a dissertation focusing along contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Instrument panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare clip Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays association football.