Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2

I put 460 hours into the first game—which I found repetitive and riddled with flaws, yet simultaneously full of merit, very fun, and promising for a young studio. I don't know what kind of dark magic was at work, but after seeing the trailers for the sequel and reflecting on my time with the original, I genuinely expected a banger. Specifically, I expected the first game's major strengths to carry over: impeccable art direction, stylish levels featuring memorable large chambers, simple yet effective gameplay, and a high-level tactical element. Naturally, I also expected this second installment to serve as a vehicle for welcome new features and evolutions—such as an organic horde and enemy system (moving away from the first game's rigidly scripted encounters) to drastically boost replayability. This is exactly what titles like Vermintide and Darktide have been doing for years. It is, of course, a disappointment on almost every level. If I had to summarize the game's strengths: the first three levels. Thanks to their extraordinary "Hadley's Hope" art direction, they are an absolute feast for the eyes and the imagination—and, honestly, that’s about it. Coincidentally, these were the levels most heavily featured in trailers and gameplay videos, as if the developers had poured 90% of their total effort into them. Also worth mentioning is the card and consumable system, which represents a genuine upgrade over the first game. The list of weaknesses, on the other hand, is incredibly long: every weapon seems to have suffered a downgrade in terms of feel and impact. The smartgun, pulse rifle, and heavy flamer all feel terrible; there’s no sense of recoil or kick upon firing, and the sound effects are weak and lackluster. The game casts you as futuristic soldiers with futuristic guns, unleashing heavy fire on hordes of monsters—and even that gets boring fast. None of the levels after the first four left a lasting impression or made me want to go back. The game set itself misguided goals—like introducing a ton of new enemy types. Ultimately, these new enemies just distance us from the Xenomorph, diluting the Alien experience into a generic sci-fi hodgepodge; it feels like an attempt to cram in every element of the franchise just to please everyone. To me, that’s a terrible artistic choice. Aliens should have made up 70–80% of the bestiary throughout the campaign. And frankly, everything related to the Ridley Scott-esque mess of Prometheus and its successors could have stayed on the cutting room floor. On top of that, the level design and combat layout feel like a chaotic disaster, seemingly calibrated to prevent tactical play. Let me explain: unlike the first game, I noticed countless rooms where the devs placed vents ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE—sometimes every 3 or 4 meters. It feels like they wanted to eliminate any "safe spots," forcing players to keep moving and engage in melee combat while constantly dealing with a chaotic mess of enemies—either right in their faces or at ridiculous distances. It’s a design choice that clashes badly with the game's core mechanics, in my opinion. That’s already a pretty grim verdict, but if I had to nitpick further, I’d say the music is rubbish compared to the first game, and the plot is mind-bogglingly stupid—as are the characters involved. It’s all been done to death—rehashed and microwaved fourteen times over—and it’s tainted by some frankly heavy-handed DEI undertones. As far as I know, there’s still no in-game text chat—seriously, guys... I get the feeling that, just like in the first game, some perks are buggy and don't work as intended. Drones, Warriors, and Praetorians teleport around. The vents are basically absolutely hideous black squares. And I’m probably forgetting a few other things. In some levels, you get wave after wave of enemies arriving in perfectly uniform squads—in a specific order, single file—giving the whole thing a really archaic, brain-dead arcade shooter vibe. This ties back to what I said earlier about the need to randomize at least some of the spawns... Anyway. Selling this for 50 bucks is a total slap in the face. I used to like this franchise and this studio, but that was back then.

Bringing Colonialism to the Aliens. Wait for like 50% discount first though.

Is this game fun? Yes. Do I like this game? Yes. Do I recommend it? No. At 50 dubloons this is a really steep ask for a game that isn't remotely as polished or refined as you would expect from that pricetag. I think it's an improvement over what I remember from AFE1, but it has a lot of issues that absolutely demand patches and fixes before I consider it worth the asking price. The problem is that if it was 30 or 40 I would be able to easily recommend it even with the caveats of "the writing sucks horribly" and "animations are kind of janky." The overemphasized girlboss archetype in the main character cast is a bit on the nose, but the fact that they pretty much suck at their jobs and that the general is a borderline nonexistent bureaucrat trying too had to be tough made me laugh at it more than it made me feel repulsed. Wrench is fine, Raptor's dialogue badly needs to be cut even though the VA sounds very much like he is trying his absolute damndest to make gold out of copper. Animations need to be fixed. Dodging doesn't dodge nearly enough of what it should. I've gotten teleported into the grabs of multiple xenomorphs before my very eyes. A text chat needs to be added, it's absence is hilariously inexcusable. Filtering positive and negative challenge cards needs to be added as well since it is beyond ridiculous that you can have your 4.0x multiplier suddenly jammed down because some braindead random decided that it's time for ammo hoarder on a horde mode. Wait for a deep sale and some patches. The future of this game will really just strongly depend on how much they actually bother supporting it and handling criticism.

I couldn't wait to play this after loving the first one, but the first two hours left a sour taste in my mouth. How are most of the same bugs and lack of finish from the first game still there?! I'm talking stutter when loading zones, bugs causing all sound to be 5 seconds delayed, game not starting after everyone is ready, ennemies frozen in place or skating everywhere. Also wtf is up with the writing. I'm pretty used to all Alien games having abysmal writing (except Isolation) from the fisrt Fireteam to Dark Descent but this is on another level. Unfunny millenial quips, constant npc yapping and obnoxious butch girlbosses. I wanted to like it and support the studio by buying it full price but I'm gonna have to vote with my wallet and say: Do Better!

I bought this on the day of release, played it for about an hour and requested a refund. I wont say exactly why because I am in the UK and I could end up in prison if some snowflake gets offended. Thing is, when I got up the following morning I found that Steam hadn't processed my refund request, so I cancelled it. I decided to give it another chance, and I'm glad I did. I'm 80 hours in and I've had some great battles, both solo & PVE. I've played it every day since purchase. I will say it's not easy, even on casual difficulty. It was also a bit pricey, especially after getting overly enthusiastic and buying the DLCs. I usually only buy games when they're on sale but I'm a sucker for the alien saga. If I had the option of refunding this game now, I wouldn't. The first game is bloody great, so is this IMO.

One of the few games I've played where framerate has been an issue! Haven't played the first Aliens Fireteam game, but if it played anything like this then idk how it managed to get a sequel. It feels and plays like a Temu Helldivers with a lot less flair. Nothing in this game feels like it belongs within the "ALIEN" Franchise. Everything I saw within the first mission (online) was beyond cheap and cheesy. Combat feels like it was ripped straight outta 2015 with how awkward the movement and gunplay is. Very disappointed since I have been waiting for this game to release. Maybe I came in with the wrong expectations, but I was expecting a heavy Horror-Aliens-Coop-Shooter but walked away with Sardines

我真服了，昨天晚上刚买的311.71元，今天打开一看，170元，我日你妈哦艹，还好昨晚退得快，这质量4个人玩得上千还不如出去洗个jio