Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
The year is 2207, and UACM starship Endeavor lands on planet LV-558 after picking up a distress signal from a Weyland-Yutani mining facility. If that particular sequence of letters and numbers mean nothing to you, don’t worry; despite its title, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 does not demand franchise familiarity. The only mission briefing you need is that Xenomorphs have overrun the place, and it’s your job to send them packing.
Despite a middling critical response, 2021 co-op shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite quietly went on to become one of the surprise success stories of gaming’s initial post-pandemic years, making a follow up all but inevitable for Cold Iron Studios. The developer hasn’t rested on its laurels for the sequel, either, harnessing its player-affirmed mandate to expand not just the playable squad size from 3 to 4, but their individual and collective capacity for combat expression.
Unfortunately, perhaps as a result of this raised ambition, Fireteam Elite 2 struggles to shake off the general lack of polish that also held back its predecessor, ultimately undoing much of the progress it does make towards delivering a superior sequel. Take its story, for example, which plays out dynamically along a narrative throughline that’s immediately more compelling than the first game’s throwaway, threadbare plot, where characters were unable to even move their mouths during dialogue interactions.
And yet both character models and their dialogue remain pretty wooden, making the execution of that story feel more like a straight-to-video affair than a piece of science-fiction worthy of its cinematic namesake, despite some of the fun connections to the wider universe for those who want to find them.
In better news, you can play Fireteam Elite 2 with up to three other players across a lengthy campaign, and for those struggling to enlist human recruits, the game can also be enjoyed alongside Android AI companions instead. Like any co-op game, Fireteam Elite 2 is best enjoyed with friends where you can communicate tactics and strategy in real time, but the Androids can hold their own rather impressively too, with the game’s ping system allowing you to easily issue commands at the press of a button.
Despite its many rough edges, Fireteam Elite 2 still manages to capture the tone and atmosphere of its cinematic counterparts.
As for the Xenomorphs themselves, Cold Iron have gone further than perhaps any other Alien adventure in expanding their evolution as killing machines, with a wide variety of enemy types that demand tailored combat approaches. Take the Warden, a quadripedal tank of a Xeno that presents a very different type of threat to the Harbinger, a foe mutated by Prometheus‘ black goo pathogen, who will obsessively hunt down players in an angry tangle of limbs, teeth, and terror.
Your arsenal is equally expanded to match this enemy onslaught, which – without spoiling too much – isn’t just exclusive to the Xenomorphs themselves. Up to six classes are available for your squad to pick from, each with their own kit made up of perks, abilities, and signature weapons, and Cold Iron now lets players run duplicate classes to explore new permutations to squad composition. Further elevating this focus on experimentation is the Specialist, a new endgame class that can mix and match loadouts from any other classes for advanced buildcrafting options. Want to play as a Flamethrower-wielding Medic with a penchant for explosives? Game on, man.
Combat encourages a “shoot first, aim later” approach to accommodate the sheer number of enemies you’ll be dealing with at any one time, but this comes at the expense of kills that singularly satisfy with the crunchiness you’d find in other contemporaries, such as Gears Of War. Another area that feels particularly wanting relates to character movement, which feels stilted and unintuitive at the best of times, not least when you’re trying to effectively navigate through high-density combat scenarios. Weapons do, at least, feel fun to use across the board, with certain gadgets such as the shoulder mounted rocket a particular highlight, adding an unofficial Aliens Vs Predator dynamic to the action.
Despite its many rough edges, Fireteam Elite 2 still manages to capture the tone and atmosphere of its cinematic counterparts, right down to the percussive spatter of its pulse rifles. That sense of authenticity is enhanced by composer Austin Wintory’s welcome return to scoring duties, too, lavishing the action with another brassy, operatic score that perfectly invokes the unholy majesty of the Xenomorph horde.
All of these ingredients serve Fireteam Elite 2‘s core offering of mindlessly entertaining spray n’ pray action, of which there is plenty both within the campaign and its returning horde mode. Even so, the game’s higher asking price makes it difficult to overlook the same general wonkiness that its predecessor that could pass off as B-movie charm. This sequel is far from the perfect organism, then, but remains a half-decent way to have fun killing them for those who gravitate towards its schlocky Xeno slaughterhouse.
