Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is exactly what I expected: it’s more Aliens. I don’t mean that in a bad way, either. No, while the original was pretty good in 2021, the sequel feels fine, but I’m not sure why it took so long to make a game that feels only okay.
However, there are moments where Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is fun, especially if you can gather a few friends together to blast Xenomorphs. The problem is the rest of the game is undercooked, and the main campaign is underbaked, and some of the characters are grating when you’re talking to them. All these small foibles add up over time, and they make for a lesser experience.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 Is More Of The Same
Attempting to improve upon its predecessor, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 drops up to four players into the third-person view of Colonial Marines deployed to the most hostile corners of the Alien universe. With all the things you asked for, like more synergistic squad mechanics, smarter enemies and fully customizable new classes, including the Specialist, this outing could’ve been the best Aliens experience. Still, it fails to capture the same magic the first Fireteam Elite held.
I had fun with Fireteam Elite, but it didn’t have enough content to keep me and some of the people I played with around long enough. Despite the content the developers added, it was a game lost to the sheer number of games that launched around it and right after. It didn’t feel complete, and that alone is why I found it hard to return.
Picking up five years later, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 continues from where it left off. The problem is, the story and characters are weaker than in the first game, and somehow I can barely stand anyone I’m playing with. There’s just a lot of stilted dialogue to parse through, and it often drags the experience down when I have to talk to characters I’d rather avoid. Across 15 missions, you’ll do a lot of the same things you did before, and it’s disappointing to see how little has changed in five years. Most of these missions, if not all of them, can be finished in a day if you power through, but I’d advise you not to do this.
After things go south during the opening tutorial mission, your team learns that Weyland-Yutani is once again being an evil bag of trash and dabbling in Xenomorph experimentation. It’s a tale as old as time by now if you’ve played or watched the Alien films, but hey, I can accept that a company is stupid because we see it in the news with Meta and Google every day. Your task is to learn what’s happened at a former mining site that’s been abandoned, and as it turns out, Xenomorphs are involved, and you need to engage them.
Classes Get Reworked
From there, you’ll basically do the same things as before, only it looks a lot better. Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 boasts six classes: Marauder, Duelist, Machinist, Hunter, Medic, and Specialist, which is unlocked by experimenting with the other classes.
Each class has a specialty; for example, the Marauder is a tank with heavy weapons and can take on enemies with a Blast Cannon, Titan Rockets, and more. Plus, they have a rocket launcher, a signature weapon. The Duelist is adept with heavy rifles and uses a burst configuration kit with shrapnel grenades. The Machinist is good for offensive players, focusing on plasma weapons, a sentry turret, and a Bodyguard flying drone.
The Hunter uses a railgun and has the Particle Pulse ability and a Stasis Bolt tool, plus abilities to target Xenomorph weak points. The Medic is required by all teams with its medic kits and Advanced Trauma Station, and uses the Bedside Manner perk to revive players faster and the Surgeon’s Hands perk to avoid being knocked back. Lastly, the Specialist is an endgame class which mixes abilities from the five classes into one build. It’s definitely the most fun class if you want to be the person who can adapt on the fly to any of the situations unfolding on the mining planet.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite was fun, but it was repetitive. I mentioned it five years ago, and here I am saying it again for the sequel. It’s still the same gameplay where you’ll explore a bit before facing off against Xenomorphs; only now you’ve got some new weapons and skills to help. Despite the actual gunplay being fun, it isn’t versatile enough to keep you engaged for long periods. Which is a shame because, genuinely, I really like the guns: they feel great to use, have some punch, and pair well with the class system.
Everything else around it falls flat. Characters are a bore, with some talking far more than others and having nothing to say. Honestly, it isn’t a bad game, but it’s rather bland, like you forgot to season the steaks before putting them on the grill and then took them off too soon.
Verdict
It’s hard to recommend Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 as-is. It has a lot of issues, lacks content, and plays almost exactly like its five-year-old predecessor. I’m hard-pressed to find one thing I particularily enjoy more here than I did when I played Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and despite the campaign being a bit more fleshed out, it’s a bore talking to characters, and more so, the lack of endgame content outside of the horde mode really makes it hard to say this is a game you want to play with friends.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
