Is that you Sigourney? Grab your pulse rifle Marine; we've got Xenomorphs to fry.
Pros
Very satisfying gunplay and weapon feel - WHO DOESNT LIKE A PULSE RIFLE?!?
An actually challenging AI who are a joy to play against.
Class and loadout options are great and differentiate well.
Nailed the Alien aesthetic.
Cons
Severe lack of content.
No real replay value.
Some minor bugs and crashes.
Value for Money: if on sale - 100% pick this up (we paid £9.99 on PS5) 5/5
Value for Time: 3/5
Alien: the co-parent of all modern sci fi.
It's the quintessential sci-fi horror franchise that has spawned countless movie and video game spin offs. Unfortunately, usually these games tend to have fairly niche markets and are often overshadowed by AAA titles that fill the same gaming genre as them.
Now I love Alien, the movie and franchise - the aesthetic and setting, the xenomorph antagonists and the influence it's had on sci fi as a whole. All fantastic achievements from this fourty-something year old franchise; and it's especially impressive that it's still relevant today.
WARRRIOORR!
The game is your classic mission based over the shoulder shooter, offering the player the ability to team up with one or two friends in order to slay some Xenomorphs. There is a plot, which diehard alien fans will appreciate as there are some cool backstory elements, however this is fairly limited and would likely fail to hook the causal player in.
The real meat of the game is the gameplay itself - fireteam elite excels at making you feel like you are a colonial marine fending off the Xenomorphs in the ultimate last stand time and time again. Every encounter has that perfect mix of utter chaos, with you screaming sweet nothings at your friends down mic when a warrior appears, and you having just enough of the right tools to stand a reasonable chance of making it out alive (if you don't screw up).
Weapon load outs and classes are all good, with the clear favourites being those that can use the smart gun. This essentially puts the game on easy mode as all you have to do is aim in the general direction of the enemey and hold the trigger down to obliterate hordes of enemies. While incredibly satisfying, it could be said that this gun was a tough overkill , and was so good it made all other weapons feel like Nerf guns in comparison.
Mission selection was fairly good with some variety in objectives and enemy types, however the overarching issue was that there arnt that many missions to the campaign. This means that you'll essentially be replaying the same missions upon completion , just on harder difficulties - which can feel a bit boring after a while. There is a DLC but this only adds 3 new missions and some cosmetics - so don't get your hopes up.
For those of you who have played Darktide recently, it feels very similar to that, just with significantly less content - and this is the issue with Fireteam Elite; a lack of content. You accumulate a fair amount of in game currency but find yourself with little to spend it on, making the grinding out of the same missions on harder difficulties a masochistic experience for anyone willing to do it.
Our thoughts
In our week or so of playing this game, it was a lot of fun. Once you've finished the campaign the willingness to go back and do it all again on a higher difficulty just isn't there. There's no drive to do it, despite unlocking a new class upon completion of the story. If this came out in the mid 2000s then sure - this would be great (like replaying Halo 3 on legendary) but these days it feels outdated and like a cheap cop-out of actual content.
Overall, you'll love this game if you like the Aliens franchise or just want a solid co-op shoote before Space Marine 2 comes out. Fireteam Elite feels like it had the makings of an solid spin off game, however due to the lack of content it doesn't offer any real replay value.
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