REVIEW: ‘Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2’ Feels Like a Chore

In the modern gaming landscape, games like Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 need to make a strong first impression to hook and keep players engaged, a prospect that becomes more difficult when multiplayer gameplay is involved. The title, developed by Cold Iron Studios and published by Daybreak Game Company, introduces a new campaign, a larger party size, and the highly customizable Specialist class. It also wastes little time in throwing new players into the fray against swarms of the iconic Xenomorphs. But monotonous gameplay, inconsistent tone, and a parade of bugs turn Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 into a chore.

After responding to a distress beacon emanating from a colony, the player and up to three others enter the derelict grounds. Quickly discovering that the entire colony has been overtaken by the xenomorphs, players embark on a series of missions, learning about the circumstances that led to the outbreak, as well as information about Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s nefarious plans for the colony.

As far as stories go, it certainly aligns with the kind of narrative found in other Alien franchise entries. In this case the story beats are largely delivered via combat during missions or conversations with a few key characters in your home base. These conversations are occasionally jarring, because some characters seem so jovial you’d forget your mission involves killing wave after wave of murderous alien creatures.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 transforms action-packed missions into a chore. 

After creating a character, players can select a class, allowing them to decide how they want to contribute to a team. Some might choose to support their fireteam as a medic, giving the squad temporary health or lowering the cooldown of their ally’s abilities. In contrast, others excel by hindering hostiles or just inflicting as much damage as possible.

Whatever you pick, you should stick with it, since each class ranks up independently, granting access to alternate or more powerful abilities and passive upgrades. These add to your combat rating, which indicates your readiness for later or higher difficulty missions.

If you’re not enjoying one class, it’s advised to replay earlier missions so you can rank up your second class choice, which can become tedious if you don’t find a class you enjoy in your first few attempts. In addition to abilities, each class also comes with a unique weapon, which is also ranked up separately, unlocking attachments and cosmetics.

Make sure to try and stick with the class that you select from the start.

This can potentially compound the issue of starting a new class because it requires you to start leveling a new weapon, making players feel like they’re truly starting from square one. If you do level two or more classes, however, you’ll unlock the Specialist class, which allows players to mix and match their favorite class abilities to create something unique to their playstyle.

Players seeking to personalize their character or gear are in luck, since there are several options, ranging from hats and clothes for their marine to paint jobs and stickers for weapons. Unfortunately, as a mission reward, these do little to enhance the experience for someone who’s not enjoying the gameplay in the first place.

After the initial mission where your team enters the colony, you’ll retreat to your home base, create a plan to rescue high-value targets, and then start another mission where you’ll enter the colony, find your target, and retreat to home base. This is repeated a few times with the odd extra objective springing up occasionally.

Regardless of the Xenomorphs you face, the game grows repetitive.

Many of the settings are nearly identical, which makes sense given it’s all built by the same company, but in effect it makes the environments feel extremely repetitive. Even the gameplay suffers for it, since you’re killing hordes of Xenomorphs in similar-looking hallways for hours on end. While the setting eventually changes later in the story, it’s understandable if you tap out before then.

By the end of the first full chapter, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 has exhausted its bag of tricks, with the occasional special enemy appearing to menace your fireteam. While conflicts don’t all play out the same way, your team will eventually discover a strategy that works, and you’ll repeat it in every encounter, lest you be overrun by the creatures. The perks or abilities you unlock can change how you engage with the enemies, but once you find your preferred loadout, there’s little reason to change it.

The greatest variety I encountered in my time with Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 was in the bugs that hampered my experience. Every mission I played seemed to suffer from a bug in one way or another. The prologue offered me consumables that would give me a limited supply of incendiary ammo, which is more effective against the Xenomorphs, but despite following the onscreen prompt, I was unable to interact with or pick up the ammo.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 looks good, but the overall effect is diminished. 

In a relatively minor case, a door barred our path due to hostiles in the area, despite the group wiping out every visible enemy. After some exploration, we discovered a trio of enemies that refused to emerge from their spawn point, requiring us to wait until they finally mustered up the courage to face us.

In another, more dire, case one of our fireteam members got stuck in a computer console, leaving them completely unable to roll or clamber out of the situation. The only solution was for the player to abandon the mission, replacing them with a computer-controlled synth.

That player would have to start over, and we were short a player who could work as part of a team. Even the brief respite between missions wasn’t safe from bugs, with one bug making it seem like I was unable to proceed to the next mission.

To its credit, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 looks spectacular. The cosmetics you start with are inspired by the colonial marines from the Aliens film, so you can immediately start cosplaying as some of the ill-fated characters from the movie.

While enjoyable to a degree it’s not enough to keep your focus.

The environments, as repetitive as they are, look like they were taken out of the movies, with the game even starting up with an emulation of MU / TH / UR, the artificial intelligence from the film franchise. While it’s hard to see among the thrashing hordes, the varieties of Xenomorphs are always fun to discover, whether it’s the sickly-green exploders or the massive hulking wardens. If the game shines in any aspect, it’s in the visuals.

Ultimately, any time you might spend on Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is better spent elsewhere. Any momentum built up in enjoying the game is derailed instantly when a bug forces you or a teammate out of the game, and the impressive visuals aren’t enough to make up for it. If you’re playing for the aesthetic, you might as well just watch the movies. 

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S and later this year on Nintendo Switch 2