Aliens: Fireteam Elite (PS5)

When it acts as a stealthy predator, a xenomorph can be a terrifying killer, its spear of a tail, acid blood, and hard carapace making it fearsome if faced alone. Grab some guns and allies though, and a xenomorph will learn very few living things in the universe can stand against the power of ballistics. The third-person cooperative shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite definitely leans towards the more action-oriented entries in the Alien franchise and maybe even makes the xenomorphs weaker than usual with a pistol able to claim hundreds of kills over the campaign without much work, but when the colonial marines know what they’re up against, they make sure even their weakest firepower packs a punch, because as you’ll eventually learn, the aliens can turn the tables when they’ve got the number advantage and their own heavy hitters.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite feels like a relatively small story in the Alien franchise, not trying to present some giant brand new threat or complicated narrative. You and up to two other players are marines serving aboard the UAS Endeavor in the 22nd century, xenomorphs already a known threat thanks to the meddling of the galactic Weyland-Yutani Corporation. You’ve been called in due to a distress call from the colonized planet LV-895, specifically the orbital refinery where you quickly find a horrible infestation of xenomorphs has spread throughout it and on the planet below. It’s up to you to rescue any survivors, clear out the alien threat, and eventually even uncover some secrets about the planet that led to the true nature of the threat you face being covered up before you arrive. However, while the game does try to build up some intrigue, it does have issues in conveying information. A lot of important details are relayed to you by chatter over communications, specifically by Sergeant Herrera talking with people you find on-site, but her casual jokes can become a bit grating through overexposure. When you do want deeper details, you’ll often get it from talking to people back on the UAS Endeavor, this lobby area between missions including characters whose mouths won’t move when talking and who dump great amounts of detailed lore onto you to the point the basics of the plot are buried beneath specifics that won’t matter too much. It seems Aliens: Fireteam Elite tries to be very accurate to other parts of the franchise almost to a fault, and while digging deep with references might please fans or fill out a wiki, it makes it hard to care much about what’s going beyond the fact that it all serves as an excuse to blast some aliens to smithereens.

When undertaking a mission in Aliens: Fireteam Elite’s campaign, you set out with three marines, although the team composition can change based on how many human players are on board. Any spots not filled by a person will be filled by a Synth instead, these robotic characters meant to add a bit of firepower to your team but they lack impressive weaponry, approach battle rather simply, and do sometimes have little issues like getting stuck or not prioritizing foes well. At the same time, they can heal themselves without wasting team resources, are good at clearing out stragglers so you don’t need to stop every time a few aliens pop up, and they’re on the ball when you’re downed and in need of a revive. Whatever your team composition might be, the human players will be able to customize their marine in a few ways. Seven classes exist and can be swapped between back at the Endeavor, all of them technically competent from the get-go but as you play them you may get new weapons and perks to make them better in combat. The main thing that will define them are the weapons they can use and what special abilities they bring to the table. The Doc for example can produce a healing station to passively patch up injured teammates near to it, although its healing capacity is a bit limited. The Technician can deploy a sentry gun, but sentries can be found in crates for one time use as well. Health kits are often found near ammo crates at regular intervals in levels too, making these two classes feel like they got the short end of the stick, especially since they’re given weaker weapons like handguns as their backup to their rifle and shotgun respectively.

The other classes though feel like they pack a lot more firepower, mainly because Gunner and Demolisher can bring two heavy weapons, Phalanx at least packs a unique shield ability, and the Lancer’s piercing shot is a good crowd clearer. None of them are awful, but it’s hard to argue with the efficacy of the Demolisher’s Smartgun that is essentially a minigun that locks onto targets and will only fire if it will hit the target, preventing too much ammo drain. There is still room for other weapons to be necessary beyond the Smartgun, that tool great for clearing fodder but tougher aliens might be better handled with a strong flamethrower or shotgun, and it might be that the power is a bit skewed because the game knows it has packed its missions with hundreds of enemies. You need something effective to chew through over 500 foes, and as mentioned earlier, despite the ease of killing common threats, there are some real powerhouses you’ll face as you explore cramped spaceship halls, strange stone ruins, and the alien hive. Later perks and weapon modifications will help some of the weaker classes carry their weight a bit more too, able to increase the efficacy of some tools or give them extra features like the chance to slow a foe.

The xenomorphs are the primary threat in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and beyond the basic runners who will attack in waves and can often be dispatched with a few bullets each, there are many variants that add teeth to the game’s missions. Prowlers will try to ambush players, pinning them down to slash them up for heavy damage if you aren’t keeping watch. Spitters are able to blast you with acid from afar and they do make use of cover, running in to take them out not always an option when the room is otherwise filled with the common xenomorphs.  Bursters also make good use of their acid, instead expecting you to slip-up and shoot them when they’re nearby so you get coated in that dissolving blood. Regular aliens will have acid puddles form where they die for a bit, also making you at least a bit cautious even when taking out huge swarms, but beyond variants like the rare Warriors and Praetorians that are huge xenos with large health bars and strong attacks, this comprises most of what you’ll encounter on the game’s missions. The mix of what special aliens appear with the distracting hordes of regular cannon fodder do make for some effective battles, the player sometimes needing to place deployable mines and sentries or activate special fire or electric ammo to gain edges when the enemy’s really come in force. Many times you are asked to make a stand in a small area that does have a crate with infinite ammo refills, but it takes time to grab it and the aliens can be relentless, applying heavy pressure on your trio of marines. Between these sections you’ll also feel the ammo squeeze at times, making most every time you reach an ammo crate a relief despite knowing it likely comes with one of the harder battle sections to match that sudden generosity.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite does have foes that aren’t xenomorphs. While it makes relatively little use of the famous facehuggers, it does bring in Synths on the enemy side as well, robotic soldiers able to use weapons similar to your own to fight you in some cover shooting sections. Aliens can intrude on these battles as well and make them three-way conflicts, but what can make Synths fearsome is their durability despite packing firearms. They won’t pop after a few pistol shots in the way common aliens do, and they have their own powerful variants as well like flamethrower wielding robots. Synths add a more intelligent foe to break up the alien slaughter that can at times be mindless, especially since sometimes the aliens line up in nice rows that are easy to exploit even if you aren’t a Lancer. Another enemy type appears late in the game as well that provides a new mix of foes, so while there are definitely a few missions that blend together as they don’t deviate from alien onslaughts much, Aliens: Fireteam Elite saves it from being too repetitive by sprinkling in alternate enemies or increasing the focus they receive.

Strangely, Aliens: Fireteam Elite seems to want to serve as a live service title despite not really being built like one. There is a very small degree of randomization present in the game’s mission structures, sometimes changing a section to include something new like a large amount of mines to watch out for. Missions in this shooter are fairly long though, and while having these mild shake-ups to make retrying one after you fail is a decent touch, it’s not really an effective draw since it doesn’t alter the level in meaningful ways. Aliens: Fireteam Elite mostly focuses on a set of campaign missions where the rewards you get at the end are also mildly randomized, the player able to get guns and attachments that might not even match their class, and while there’s a shop where you can buy gear and cosmetics, the money earned over the campaign won’t let you afford much before you’ve cleared the available content. You do unlock some more replayable horde battles for clearing the story but they’re not numerous or too diverse either, the game seeming to think its challenge cards will instead be an incentive to replay the game. A plethora of challenge cards are available that can more meaningfully alter a mission, often focused on making it harder by doing things like adding more of the powerful aliens, adding inconveniences like the ability for your guns to jam, or just lessening the efficacy of weapons, health kits, and more. Rewards for clearing the missions with a card active are better for putting up with the new dangers, and there are even cards to make missions easier by increasing your team’s health or firepower. However, it’s clear the designers thought this system had more legs than it did, a system where you could upgrade lower rarity cards to hunt the better ones basically pointless since now after an update the guy at the gun shop will give you tons of cards for free with no strings attached.

Challenge cards aren’t a bad addition technically, they let you customize runs if you do want to return, but they aren’t gamechangers or the kind of shake-up that would incentivize you to play missions again and again, the rewards elsewhere also not impressive enough. At the same time though, none of these extras felt necessary because the main campaign works on a more basic level. You’re here to kill waves of xenos and if you play through just the story and maybe the three-mission expansion you still get a fairly full experience, the tacked on elements that fail to add longevity not harming that core experience much. Taking on the hordes of aliens isn’t overly complicated despite the tacked on attempts to make it something more, so while you won’t have enough time to really explore the depths of customization in the campaign, you still get a good range of level layouts that make fighting the opposition fairly entertaining throughout.

THE VERDICT: A lot of less effective elements surround the gameplay of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, but they don’t end up mattering too much. A plot that gets bogged down giving too much details where they don’t matter and weak attempts at injecting reasons to replay the game are easy to push aside because taking on hordes of xenos works fairly well. The weak enemies are easily mowed down but areas are built well for tense stands as the more imposing xenomorphs make the fights more dangerous, and while the classes don’t feel like they’re created equal, there are still enjoyable weapons with different advantages found across them so you don’t feel like you’re boxed into a Smartgun-bearing squad. The shooting is what you come for and all it needs to do well, and while it can be a bit repetitive still, it can provide an occasionally difficult campaign that makes a single run through a fine time.

And so, I give Aliens: Fireteam Elite for PlayStation 5…

An OKAY rating. There are definitely battles in Aliens: Fireteam Elite that can get your heart beating fast, the more powerful xenomorphs or other tough enemies packing the kind of punch that makes those area defense moments the game’s highlight. The time between the big horde onslaughts still can bring some heat thanks to starving you a bit when it comes to your resources, smaller groups able to tap more into the feeling of being unequipped while the grand stands where Warriors show up instead tap into the feeling of being outnumbered and underpowered. Your trio of marines coming out on top isn’t always exciting, many more standard battles making up your time spent in missions, but they often pay off with at least an effective finale. A better spread of intense showdowns that shook up the formula a bit more would be what could help this horde shooter stave off the repetition, the regular xenomorphs losing their luster fairly quickly, but at least the other enemies like Synths come in to break up the monotony so the game doesn’t need to overplay its heavy hitters. The live service adjacent ideas do feel fairly harmless, often there for people who really want to dive into tougher challenges or maybe have more than one friend group to tackle the game with, but it also feels like development time was perhaps wasted on parts of it. Instead of getting characters who open their mouth to talk or better AI for robot partners and the standard xenos, we get time devoted to the eventually reworked challenge card system, the easily overlooked randomization, and some cosmetics at the store that don’t feel worth it to save up for.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite can get down the simple pleasures of wielding heavy firepower against waves of monstrous foes and can even crank up the difficulty so the easy horde clearing can eventually invert to a desperate bid to survive a swarm of tough foes. It does play fair with that escalation as well, the campaign again a perfectly fine way to spend a few nights with your friends getting just enough pushback in terms of challenge but not so much that it demands you to play expertly to survive. More missions would have likely been the better choice over a lot of small touches that don’t amount to much, but while taking out literally thousands of xenos can get a bit repetitive, it also still provides some simple thrills to make you happy to keep blasting apart waves of aliens until the game’s unceremonious ending.