Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 (PS5) Review: Extra Bugs Than Xenomorphs

In 2021, Cold Iron Studios launched Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a price range co-op horde shooter which will have been tough across the edges, however had a stable basis and loads of potential. Five years is a very long time to attend for a sequel, particularly when the primary sport left a lot room for enchancment. Sadly, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 feels nearly unchanged, barely pushing the collection past the place it began. The larger drawback is that it’s affected by bugs and technical points, making it troublesome to advocate in a style that has solely develop into extra aggressive. In 2026, your time is best spent elsewhere.

The marketing campaign options fifteen missions throughout 4 biomes, with every mission clocking in round half-hour. Each biome nails the Alien ambiance effectively. The Planet-Side Surface Colony, for example, options deserted industrial labs the place aliens lurk in low lighting and thick fog. The environments do a fantastic job in constructing stress, although they by no means attain horror ranges because you’re with a squad. The serviceable music just isn’t memorable however helps set the oppressive ambiance.

Fireteam Elite 2 makes an attempt to make its narrative an even bigger deal than the unique did, and I want it hadn’t. The writing and characters are bland sufficient that I by no means discovered myself caring about anybody on display, and the facial animation is so restricted that each character shares the identical handful of stiff expressions. The NPCs are additionally overly chatty through the missions themselves, and the audio combine blasted their voices far above the sounds of the weapons. Worse, the sport hundreds all gamers again to the hub after each mission, and in case you or the host leaves, you need to endure a second loading display.

When taking part in with randoms, I felt unhealthy holding up the group each time I wanted to speak to the story NPCs to unlock the following mission. In many circumstances, they merely moved on with out me, leaving me to take a seat via a loading display again to an empty hub. If I weren’t scripting this evaluation, I’d have skipped each dialogue scene simply to get again to the missions and again to hanging out with pals, since that’s the place the precise enjoyable lives.

The goals are additionally extraordinarily restricted and lack creativeness. They basically boil right down to a handful of repetitive actions: kill a horde to maneuver to the following space, press a terminal and kill one other horde, kill enemies till a timer runs out, or kill enemies whereas holding a spot. The shooter is much better when taking part in with pals than solo. The AI companions and random gamers get the job executed, however with out pals to speak to, there’s nothing padding out how skinny the goals truly are, and the repetition turns into laborious to disregard.

On commonplace issue, there’s not often a motive to speak in any respect because the technique basically boils right down to huddling collectively and killing no matter’s in entrance of you. That adjustments on more durable difficulties the place enemies have extra well being and deal elevated harm. Thankfully, it helps cross-play between PC and consoles, which ought to assist hold matchmaking alive for an extended interval after launch. That’s particularly essential as a result of there isn’t a significant draw to replay missions moreover farming foreign money and exp in your lessons. Frustratingly, there isn’t any possibility to hitch a mission in progress, so that you’ll need to replay missions for any pals that disconnect. As a facet notice, whereas there’s in-game voice chat for coordination, I want there have been additionally gestures or pre-made messages for gamers who’d fairly not discuss.

Regarding the controls, it’s instantly clear that the sport was designed for PC first. The menus rely closely on cursor navigation, with the analog stick basically standing in for a mouse. D-pad navigation is extraordinarily restricted, and other than a number of areas like class choice, the cursor by no means snaps to an possibility. Changing settings or your gear feels needlessly tedious and laggy, which is especially irritating when you could alter your loadout between missions.

The two notable upgrades Fireteam Elite 2 gives are the soar from a three-person squad to 4 and a reworked class system. The addition of a fourth participant makes a tangible distinction when xenomorphs are coming at you from all types of various angles, protecting further blind spots that may’ve gone unnoticed. It does a greater job at promoting the sensation of being a part of a squad whereas opening up extra room for sophistication synergy.

The six lessons are the strongest factor, every providing distinctive skills and weapons that may attraction to completely different playstyles. While most lessons equip one major, signature, and sidearm weapon every, Duelists can equip two major weapons. Machinists again up the squad with turrets and drones, which assist preserve ammo, a genuinely scarce useful resource you could scavenge from crates all through missions. Health packs are additionally rare, so having a Medic within the group is important for staying alive because the missions get more durable. Hunters are nice at buffing the fireteam’s assaults and good at eliminating main threats with long-range weaponry. 

My go-to technique for clearing most encounters was to have a Medic drop a Trauma Station to create a therapeutic radius as a medic whereas the Machinist deploys turrets round it. The complete squad would then huddle within the space round it with supporting fireplace from all 4 gamers. This made fireteams almost unstoppable whereas additionally trivializing most encounters. The greatest class addition is the Specialist, which helps you to combine and match skills from lessons you’ve already leveled. Having a Medic’s Combat Stims and a Machinist’s Sentry Turrets on the identical construct feels rewarding, and I vastly appreciated this addition.

There are quite a few weapons, all tailored straight from the Alien movies. You can additional modify every in the direction of your playstyle by rising the ammo capability, making use of completely different scopes, and augmenting them with buffs. It’s a extremely customizable system that encourages participant selection, providing numerous bonuses for tradeoffs, nevertheless it’s all marred by an overcomplicated UI and the recurring poor cursor navigation. 

While the builds are stable, the gunplay itself is unsatisfying. The distinction between a flamethrower and an assault rifle is clear sufficient, however the assault rifles themselves felt almost equivalent in my fingers. The audio design of each weapon additionally lacks any actual punch and falls flat subsequent to the flicks’ iconic sound design. That carries over to the DualSense too, the place each assault rifle rumbles the identical, and the triggers provide zero resistance. The largest issue going into the unsatisfying gunplay, nevertheless, stems from the enemies themselves, as a few of them really feel like bullet sponges; I don’t really feel any reactive impression when taking pictures, so I’m simply spraying them mindlessly till they’re useless.

Fireteam Elite 2 additionally suffers from efficiency points and bugs. The frames routinely drop when transferring from one space to the following and when too many enemies are on display. On multiple event, an alien received caught in a wall, and the fireteam was unable to progress the mission till I tracked it down and killed it. Other occasions, interacting with a terminal was alleged to advance the mission however didn’t, forcing a restart of an already prolonged degree. When beginning a mission, gamers would additionally T-pose and teleport throughout the room for a couple of minutes. None of those points make the sport remotely unplayable, however they’re value noting.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 Review: Final Verdict

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 solely offers small enhancements over its predecessor. The soar to a four-person squad and the brand new Specialist class are real enhancements, and taking part in with a well-drilled fireteam to clear hordes continues to be satisfying, a minimum of with pals on the mic. Everything else is buried underneath cluttered menus, unsatisfying gunplay, a mediocre story, and a handful of bugs. If you’ve received three pals and low expectations, there’s nonetheless a enjoyable weekend available right here, however solo gamers ought to let this one drift off into area.