Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2

What a solid continuation. Aliens have significantly more variety, Story is better than I was expecting (I dont even remember the 'story' of the first game) Gunplay feels solid, Build and Weapon customization options arent just 3-5% more X, its stacking buffs and timing benefits and skill specialization. There are 15 missions (1 being prologue but its a full length mission - they should release this as a demo imo!) each takes 20-30min on the "standard" difficulty, Ive not done the final one yet but even on Standard there were some harrowing moments first go through! Completely viable and enjoyable solo experience, about 80% of my missions have been solo'd once and then Ive done them also Coop w/ a friend. We have done random full groups and had zero issues. Challenge cards add some variety to stuff, they dont get consumed (I think they used to?) so you can get goofy and make special setups to maximize them as part of the build, it doesnt pick one from the pool submitted anymore, a full group will run 4 challenge cards!

30 hrs in. 400 of AFTE1. - campaign is a pos. they couldve done SO much more even with the same engine and weapons and effects. just calling classes differently and some weapons does scrap overall. we have 150 decals and colors but no real content. AFTE1 was 9/10 campaign mode even if short. this one is a 3/10 with generosity, and they made it last longer but its the same levels chewed and spit back out the other way around. ♥♥♥♥ level design. -UI/UX is atrocious, you have do exit a buying window with 3 click just to get to your own inventory then go back and check what you wanted to buy when you couldve easily done that from the same screen. No skip cutscene option, no flashlight option which sucks because their dark corners are poorly thought out. -horde IS better but lacks finesse and flexibility after round 15. and exactly how some other people mentioned, the specialist class is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, its meant for end game but that ♥♥♥♥♥ on all the other classes. -im not even mad about small bugs and ♥♥♥♥ that doesnt work yet or glitches out, its the begining, but the main problems are with clear design choices, template level design, filler ♥♥♥♥♥♥ content instead of relevant fight dependent mechanics and items and just crap missions. I actually returned to play AFTE1 campaign to enjoy the scenery and how the levels are built. this is just so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. -worth 15e as a DLC , 100% not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 50 as a standalone. And they'll probably make it better in the coming months, and then add another DLC 6-12 months in for another 15e or something. Not worth it.

TL;DR: It's fun, and has enough content at launch to warrant the price (unless you are a victim of lack of regional pricing). As of right now (no patches yet) the game has performance issues when transitioning between zones in a mission- probably because it doesn't load the assets until you get to the checkpoints. The cinematics are CRINGE and the voice acting is corny (it grew on me). The movement is floaty as if you were playing a first person game in a 3rd person perspective. However, it is REALLY fun. Ridiculously so. What the game does bad is glaring, but what it does right is just as obvious if you play past the first mission. The enemy variety is impressive, especially for launch. Three different factions (technically four, but robots and synths work together) that each have their own specialized units. Their AI is fun to engage with and you'll be shooting at the walls, floors, and ceilings. The weapon customization is above solid. You have a large variety of weapons, some class-restricted (at first) and some not. Each weapon has 3 attachment slots with a ton of options. When you max out a weapon you can augment it, which drastically changes how the weapon works and there are dozens of really powerful choices for that too. A really fun mechanic that makes missions repayable are the Combat Cards. They are similar to boosters in Helldivers 2 in the sense that each player can select one to bring. However, rather than small helpful bonuses (some can be that), they are instead game-changing modifiers that make the game harder, easier, or both. For example, rank 4 High Threat Environment increases how much damage players AND enemies deal by 100% for a 1.5 reward multiplier. Some add restrictions, give massive buffs/de-buffs, or even give you extra items on mission completion. But the most impressive thing is the build crafting. Holy... It is extensive to say the least. I am a little more than halfway through unlocking all the medic's perks (just finished the campaign) and the amount of builds I have tried and succeeded with is astounding. It's hard to tell just what a class is capable of doing, because each class can build to do SO many things effectively. The game has its faults, (performance will likely be addressed- movement, cinematics, and voice acting not so much), but the progression and teamplay really carry this game. It's been awhile since a game has launched and I genuinely felt like it has enough content to sink 100+ hours in without running out of things to do. And the flamethrower you get towards the end of the game... FINALLY, someone has done a flamethrower right. The movement might be floaty, but I swear I can feel the weight behind that thing when I am purging xenos.

3 days after releas 7 pm on a friday, crossplay enabled and any region selected and can't get a full team on standard to do the campaign for the first time. This game feels worse then the first game in every way that matters. I bought and played every alien game, so it pains me to say this but don't buy this game.

convinced a few friends to be interested enough that one guy bought it for all of us... this game is a game you can choose to buy, but why would you? the combat is serviceable. the music is horrendous. the story is written, but not very well. (in part, thanks to a diversity consultant group) there's a dodge roll, but it's not a useful roll. Frame drops in a horde shooter when there's a horde on screen. pre established concepts and lore (including how to write strong female characters, a thing that was in the first movie) are missing. half the dev team left between this and the first game, and you can tell. for those looking for a fun, challenging alien game, wait for Alien Isolation 2, hopefully that game won't be a miscarriage of this really cool IP. 5/10, and that's honestly generous considering the 60$ cost

What the actual ♥♥♥♥. How can you make the Aliens franchise boring? It's a cookie cutter, badly implemented, characterless and grating experience. I can only imagine the management saw a cash cow and milked it. Unfortunately, they've left a shell of a game behind.

Its fun but not worth $50. If you like the aliens universe wait until its on sale for about $20. Its really no different from the last one except you have one more person in the fireteam.