Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review
There are several Left 4 Dead-inspired games currently in various stages of development, from Back 4 Blood to Redfall. Aliens: Fireteam Elite tries the same formula, putting it into the titular survival-horror franchise as a co-op shooter. Choosing from one of five classes, players can team up with two others in co-op to take down endless hordes of Xenomorphs. The game is best played with friends, but the game will fill in missing Synth AI party members in case players go solo. On paper, Aliens: Fireteam Elite seems to get everything right, but it falls over itself on the wrong foot. Perhaps the best parts of Aliens: Fireteam Elite are its classes and moment-to-moment gunplay. Every weapon feels good in the hands of a Colonial Marine, whether it’s a wide-explosive shotgun or a heavy machine gun. Players can take one of five classes that further refine this: Gunner, Demolisher, Technician, Doc, or Recon (the latter of which is unlocked at the end of the story). Each class can be slightly tweaked with modifications that allow players to set up and kit out each class to their liking.
However, from there, the main flaw of Aliens: Fireteam Elite’s gameplay becomes more apparent. For a game designed with replayability as a core component, there’s no incentive to do this. The extent to which players can customize their characters and their classes is limited, keeping in mind that this is still one of its best features, and the lack of variety becomes apparent with each aspect of the game. For example, while there are a total of twelve missions in Aliens: Fireteam Elite’s story, playing the first mission once is what players will do over and over again on repeat. Players will descend into a claustrophobic, hallway-like structure while fighting Xenomorphs, which will open up into a larger room where players can fortify and defend. Every small action a player takes summons a horde of Xenomorphs, even collecting dog tags from a fallen Marine. The lack of variety in the gameplay is further accentuated by both the problematic environment and enemy types. Each mission takes players to a cave, a spaceship, or a lair, with the game never deviating from this pattern, and the first two are the dominant environments. Players will find intel or hidden caches in each mission of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, but these are usually easy to find. And as players go down side paths to explore and find them, they’ll encounter a dead end with nothing to show for it nine times out of ten.
For Aliens: Fireteam Elite enemies, there are three types in the game: Xenomorphs, Synths, and Pathogens. However, for most, they may all be the same. The AI seems to have only one goal: to push and get overwhelmed as often as possible. Smaller Pathogens function like Xenomorph facehuggers, Synth guards with shields mimic Xenomorphs that also deflect frontal assaults, and most enemies leave some sort of environmental damage upon death. In the end, the differences between any two enemies are very small. RELATED: Aliens: Fireteam Elite Getting the Prequel Novel Aliens: Fireteam Elite is one of those games that’s better with friends. The problem here is that the slew of technical issues never ends for any player. Having played every co-op mission at least once, there wasn’t a chance that one of us wasn’t struggling with some sort of bug. Audio issues were always a concern, as many missions featured the audio cutting out completely until we returned to base. Visual bugs aren’t much of an issue, but it’s common to see an enemy disappear completely when killed, instead of their body falling to the ground like the others. Furthermore, even though we were both playing on a PS5, the lagging issues were consistent due to the amount of enemies on screen. The worst of it is a certain game-breaking bug that doesn’t allow us to restock ammo, use our abilities, or interact with anything in the game world. Again, the only option is to return to base where our weapons will suddenly work.
The game clearly wants players to keep replaying missions to maximize their builds, as each class and weapon can rank up with the overall player. Throughout the game, players can complete gameplay-changing Challenge Cards to earn new rewards, but sometimes these rewards are cheated. The incentive to play any mission more than once is absent in all its attempts. Once the campaigns are completed, players can also unlock harder difficulties, a Horde Mode, and a new class, but those add-ons don’t encourage repeat playthroughs. The problem with Horde Mode, in particular, is that the entire game is one big Horde Mode. Aside from a few minor mechanic changes, Horde Mode has never been experienced by players in the campaign. That’s not a knock against Horde Modes, as they tend to be fun, but there’s nothing new or incentivizing to continue with it when the credits roll in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. Aliens: Fireteam Elite has an interesting premise: co-op shooter set in the Alien universe where players must push their skills, refine their build, and face a constant onslaught of enemies. In reality, though, it’s a bug-filled slog that proves to be a one-trick pony. Aliens: Fireteam Elite was released on August 24 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Today Technology reviewed Aliens: Fireteam Elite on the Neuron 4000D from Origin PC. Origin offers a variety of customizable PCs that can meet any gamers’ needs. Read more about Neuron here. MORE: 15 Most Anticipated Games of Fall 2021