Fans of the Alien franchise know not to expect much when it comes to a game based off the IP as it doesn’t have a particularly great track record. I’m going to cut to the chase and say Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a whole lot of fun, and stands right there with AVP and Alien: Isolation.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite
Developer: Cold Iron Studios
Price: $40
Platform:
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
Set 23 years after the original trilogy, Aliens: Fireteam Elite throws you into the boots of some colonial marines who respond to a distress beacon on a ship, and as you can expect things quickly devolve into chaos as xenomorphs assault the group. There’s a plot for sure, that’s told mostly via narration from your squad supervisor chiming in during missions and chats with crewmembers in your ship hub between missions, but it’s pretty par for the course for what you’d expect. Marines explore a suspiciously empty ship, find out xenos are in it, they then discover alien ruins, more aliens there, Weyland-Yutani are (obviously) the cause of it all, and it culminates with purging a xenomorph hive. A big surprise is how the game actually pulls from Prometheus as you explore ruins with design clearly influenced from that and Covenant; it’s nice seeing someone take the good stuff from those films and actually do something cool with it. So there’s definitely some fun stuff here, but that’s assuming you even hear any of it because I’m sure you and your friends will be speaking over everything. There’s also a novel, Aliens: Infiltrator, that leads directly into the start of the game if you’re into that sorta thing.
If you’ve seen any bit of footage, you’d get the impression that the game plays like a third-person Left 4 Dead, but Vermintide would actually be a closer comparison. You’ve got your squad of three, and you basically go from point A to point B fighting off hordes of xenomorphs, with the game being split into four acts with three missions each. Something I was really surprised about with this game was how well the developers managed to actually incorporate a horror element into it. Xenomorphs will pop out of nearby vents to surprise you, or a pipe will burst as a fake out scare, and there are some genuinely tense sequences that are just dripping in atmosphere. Whereas Alien: Isolation really captured the dread of Alien, Aliens: Fireteam Elite does that for the second film. Each level really shows that this game was made by genuine fans of the IP, because it’s probably the best realized Aliens game ever done.
I can’t stress enough how fun it is fighting off waves of xenomorphs in this game. Seeing them scramble at you from all directions from the floor, wall and ceiling just perfectly recaptures the hectic mania of some of those moments from Aliens. Seeing the xenomorphs jump into vents to pop out and flank you from another is especially great. The guns in particular also feel really fun to use, with the flamethrower being a highlight as you just torch those suckers with a wide spray. You’re also able to find (or bring in) consumables like fire bullets or turrets, and I really liked how any you find in-mission can be brought back to your ship to use later if it wasn’t used. It adds an interesting pause to combat as you get to a big fight and you try to decide if you need to use a particular item now, or if you think you should be good and would rather save it for a more difficult later mission. It’s not a major thing, but it’s a nice touch I appreciate.
Going back to the Left 4 Dead comparisons, the game also doesn’t do the thing that every L4D-like does where they copy the same special enemy units, and just visually redress them. The special xenomorphs you’ll encounter have enough of a difference to them that you’re not going “oh well that’s the boomer”. Some definitely do evoke those enemies, but they’ve got enough of a twist to be their own thing. Like Aliens: Fireteam Elite’s version of a boomer doesn’t just explode when it’s close. It’ll behave like a typical xenomorph, taking swings at you between ducking away into vents, and will only explode upon death which makes them doubly vicious as they basically get two shots at hurting you. Some of the special unit designs are especially cool too, like the xenomorph spitter which I love the look of. It’s one of those games where I’d actually really dig a model viewer to get a closer look at their design.
A thing I really enjoy from games like L4D or Vermintide is how the characters themselves comment on the world or speak with each other, and it’s something I wish they did here but I get why they didn’t. Budgetary reasons was likely a big reason, but also because the game allows you to create your own character which would make that sort of dialog a bit trickier to do. Speaking of, you can take that character and swap them between five different classes between missions: Gunner, Demolisher, Technician, Doc and Recon. They all play exactly how you would expect their roles to, such as the Demolisher being your heavy weapons kinda class or the Doc being the healer. Something I particularly enjoy about this game is how it doesn’t restrict players from running the same class, something I stubbornly accept as an expected thing in this genre. Running multiple Demolishers, all firing their shoulder-mounted rockets into an incoming wave of xenomorphs is an insanely satisfying feeling.
Each class has their own set of weapons (some unique, some shared) that you can further customize with a variety of attachments and level up through repeat use. If you’re familiar with Vermintide, or even Destiny, you’ll recognize the “Power Level” your marine has. Each mission has a recommended level that at times seems oddly tacked on considering you should have no problem being well over the requirement after a while. The only time it was an issue was when I tried to play with a friend who hadn’t played as much as me, but in that case the game (annoyingly) straight up locked that content from him. I would’ve preferred if it let him in, and let me deal with him being underpowered as opposed to me having to replay hours of content to get him to where I was at.
You can further personalize your class with the game’s perk system. Each class has a selection of perks and modifiers you can attach to a Resident Evil 4 inventory screen styled grid, as you try to slot in as many perks as possible in the space available. Modifiers only apply to one of the three perks you attach it to on your grid as well, so your Demolisher could be built pretty differently from how I have mine. You’ll even get modifiers that drastically change the base perks themselves, like swapping the Demolisher’s basic shoulder-mounted rocket that launches three missiles, into one that launches twelve (slightly weaker) rockets that have napalm. On top of that, because this game really wants you to play it a lot, you’re actually incentivized to play multiple classes because you can take perks/modifiers you unlock in one class, and attach them to another. The only issue I have with this system is with how slowly you level, even on the standard difficulty. I got halfway through the game playing the same class and somehow was only level two of eight. That took me four hours to get to, and for a game that wants you to max out each class to truly customize things, they’ve really got to speed up the leveling system.
Every game’s gotta have a gimmick nowadays and Alien: Fireteam Elite’s is the inclusion of a card system. Now I share your immediate revulsion to that word, but in game’s case it’s fine here. Before each mission, every player has the option of playing a “challenge card” that adds a particular modifier to the mission, with the reward varying from XP or money bonuses, to new equipment. It’s a fun bit of challenge that you get to play on your own terms, with some decently varied effects. You’ve got some pretty expected modifiers like not being able to use consumables, or requiring no deaths on a run, but then you’ve got more fun ones like your guns randomly jamming or a funky filter that covers the screen.
My only gripe is how the game is pretty stingy with doling out these cards. You only get them from completing daily challenges or buying a pack from the store (with one of the game’s two in-game currencies) which means you’re not getting them as often as you’d like. This also plays into my complaint about the game’s molasses leveling, as it clearly wants you to use cards to quicken your XP gain, but you’re not given enough cards on a regular basis to do so and some cards don’t even give XP bonuses. It’d help immensely if you could get one after a mission, or at the very least move it from the cosmetic currency merchant over to the equipment currency merchant. I want to be able to look through a wide selection of cards with my friends to decide what hellish card combo we want to put ourselves through, and right now that’s not possible with how small of a handful you get.
With Aliens: Fireteam Elite being a $40 game you’d assume it has a “budget” quality to it, and the lack of lip-sync in dialog with NPCs doesn’t help. Which is honestly a bit of a surprise because the game nails it on the visual front, and the sound design is probably some of the best I’ve seen in a video-game in years. Whoever worked on the sound and music in this probably aren’t be paid enough, because as a longtime Aliens fan, they did a killer job recreating the sounds of that world. The soundtrack in particular is incredibly evocative of those films, with a couple tracks being total standouts.
Despite how well the game nails the aesthetics of the franchise, a major issue with the game is the lack of a quickplay option. I was never able to find another player to play with (besides my fellow staff members) because the way matchmaking works is you select a mission and it searches to see if anyone else is queuing up for the same mission. With twelve total missions in the game, that means you need to not only hope that someone is queuing up for the exact same mission you’re doing, but that they’re also queuing up in one of the five different difficulty settings as well. I could be looking for someone to play on Standard, while another is queuing up on Intense, and at that point either player might be okay with the difficulty change just for the option to play with an actual human being. I understand adding lobbies is work, but a simple “quickplay” option at whatever difficulty you want would completely fix this issue. Like Vermintide, the game is built around replaying missions on higher difficulties to get better loot/ XP, and the AI companions are useless at anything higher than Standard (and they’re even pushing it there). I just want to play with random people when my friends aren’t available and it’s made difficult by the way you (try to) match up with other players.
The Final Word
I can’t stress enough how much fun Aliens: Fireteam Elite is. As someone who came in with extremely low expectations because of the franchise’s history of terrible games, I was surprised to find myself at three in the morning screaming with a friend as xenomorphs overran us. If you’re a fan of the franchise, don’t pass this one up.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
