Subpar on so many levels. Mediocre graphics. Medicore sound design. Janky gameplay and some hideous animations. Grindy progression system. Bad ally AI. But the worst thing about this game is probably the fact, that it doesn’t capture the essence of the franchise in any way. The Aliens are just stupid canon fodder. There is no atmosphere of fear or uncertainty. Just mowing down hordes of aliens and advancing through same-y looking environments. With so many better coop-shooters around these days, it’s hard to recommend this. Even to fans of the franchise.

Played with friends.

It's wild how few of these Left 4 Dead-likes actually work, and Aliens doesn't quite make the cut of those that do.

There's four campaigns (one more if you buy some DLC) that are all pretty dull. They try to mix it up by adding killer synths and mutants from the Prometheus era of the franchise but they just feel underbaked in comparison to the xenomorphs. The missions all have far too similar objectives and they rarely feel different. The part where you shoot cooling rods to stop a ship from leaving was the most interesting the objectives ever got - they're almost all "stand here and fight a hundred waves for X amount of time"

It has the usual unique monster types, mindless guys that run at you, guys that explode, guy that spit acid at you for area denial, guys that jump on you and attack (i swear to fucking god every L4D clone has this guy), guys that...are really strong? The Xenomorph Drone is kind of a brawler with the ability to pin you and he runs away after a bit. The Warrior is...strong? There's a third big guy archetype for xenos but I literally cannot remembe anything about him.

The synths have the usual generic shootmans, guys with shields, guys with gun, guys with sniper rifle, etc. They have armor you have to wear away before you can actually do damage.

Mutants have like..three types. Suicide headcrabs, zombies, and an invisible cat monster that isn't fun to engage at any point.

Some of the cosmetics are rather worthless - a gun decal makes sense in an FPS where the gun is always visible - not so much in a TPS. Most cosmetics are ugly, I think they were going for realistic military guy shit but its boring and unappealing.

There's a mechanic where you slot perks into abilities to change their properties. That's pretty neat - the class I used had rockets as their main ability and using perks to make them into napalm launchers was fun.

The one thing it does to differentiate itself from other L4D types is the challenge card system, which is about the one unique thing about it I genuinely enjoyed. Each player can pick a card which is usually a horrible debuff that will fuck you over but you get increased rewards. The game chooses from the cards selected, and this modifier lasts throuhgougt the mission. Some are cancer (pistol only) some sounded bad but were ultimately nothingburgers (the pursuing synth one sounded scary but he literally stopped spawning after a couple times).

I don't expect much from writing in these but it fails to deliver there too. While L4D and Vermintide know what to do (focus on character banter), this decides to have a really dull story about marines and Weyland-Yutani and the xenomorphs and zzzzzzz......

The marines you play are personalityless ciphers and the dialogue is all over radio. The radio dialogue is written like a copy of a copy of Aliens, all meathead no substance. Cameron's marines were meatheads and not terribly deep but he knows what he's doing and how to play into and out of cliche. This is all cliche, all meathead. There's nothing remotely engaging or surprising there. If you look at the fact Weyland-Yutani is involved in the plot and the X-Files black goo is involved too .... you already know what's happening, what will happen, etc.

Some'a the music wasn't bad, I liked the guy on flute going ham during the jungle mission.

On discount with friends, sure. Otherwise pass, especially if you have L4D or Vermintide unless the Aliens branding makes you go feral

Gameplay was solid and blasting aliens was surprisingly satisfactory. The story was kinda take it or leave it and also pretty confusing for someone who knows nothing about the alien universe. NPCs could use some work, both with actually animating their mouths and also with more interesting dialogue. The UI was a bit confusing as well at the beginning, with time it got better as I learned what everything was.

If this game had a bigger budget to spend on better story, improving the NPCs, and cleaner UI; it would honestly be a really great game. As it is, it's fun to blast aliens with bullets and that's about it.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite didn’t so much focus on the horror of the Alien franchise, but more so the action of it. Set after the beloved trilogy, the story began with responding to a distress call, and it continued from there. It was possible to play it solo, but the game was very much meant to be multiplayer, with swarms of enemies making combat chaotic. The different classes available had their own strengths and weaknesses, and it was satisfying to make a setup that worked well together.

I played it with friends for the entire campaign, and that single playthrough was fine. Getting deeper into it with higher difficulties, bot teammates, etc, there were obvious issues. To put it simply, it was by no means a bad game, but it was nothing special either.

This game is far from perfect.

Typical wave shooter, left 4 dead-style, with limited roster of levels, and very little variety.

Then…. Why do I rate it that high?.

Because, as both an Alien fan, and a gamer, this game did to me, what Aliens: Colonial Marines only managed to promise.

If you’re on auto pilot, playing a game just to play it, expecting it to have so much crap to do and unlock, that you can stay busy for the rest of your life, of course you’re gonna hate it.

But if you slow down, put your “Alien fan” hat on, and play it on your own terms, you’ll find the awesome game hidden beneath.

The story is fascinating as an Alien fan, taking place much much farther into the future of the franchise, avoiding to destroy canon in any way, and telling a story new, but familiar.

The environments take you through almost all of the most memorable Alien locations, from mining ships like the Nostromo, to Engineer ruins like Prometheus, and Alien forests like Covenant, always hiding secrets and unlockables that add to the ever expanding lore.

And then, the gameplay.
Fast paced third person shooting, frenzy on your own, tactical as a squad.
Unlocking and customizing your weapons is addictive, as well as playing with each of the classes and maxing out their specs.

And finally, the music.
The soundtrack is downright perfect.
An excellent mix of classic Alien themes, and new music that fits perfectly with the franchise.

It’s more than likely that I’m looking at this game from a place of zero constructive analysis.

But I’m an alien fan, who loves crazy fun shooters, with tons of stuff to unlock and customize.

So it feels like this game was hand made for me.

I get it if you don’t like it, but if any or all of the details I spoke of before apply to you, then perhaps you should consider giving it a try.

It’s a game I never tire of playing.

3.75 Stars
I never compare games in my reviews, but I can’t deny how similar this game is to The Division, mainly it’s expansion, Underground, which focused on PvE. The Division is one of my favorite games ever, so my comment isn't an insult. With the bullet sponge enemies, high difficulty, tactical abilities, stat modifying weapon attachments, and overall feel of the game, the comparison is hard to ignore.

This game is clearly meant to played in a group, even on Standard difficulty. Bots aren’t useless but take a lot of avoidable damage and often stand still. The story is forgettable and the dialog is abysmal. Finding intel unlocks lore but I stopped caring almost immediately.

This game shines with its upgradable classes and pure fun gameplay. You will be repeating missions and mindlessly shooting down hordes of xenomorphs but you're always progressing. The perks and weapons you unlock are worthwhile and accommodate many playstyles. Dozens of relentless enemies fill the screen and come from everywhere. Most encounters are intense, leaving you with a "Who's next?!?!" attitude when its over. The end of the last mission is outstanding, so much so, my friend saved a clip and kept rewatching it lol.

I was looking for a co-op game with the potential to be played indefinitely and despite being a budget game, it has filled that void nicely.

PS: I love that there are 2 modern games that capture the spirit of the first 2 movies in this franchise and are properly named.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for April 2023, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before May 2nd, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

Left 4 Dead with the Aliens franchise.
Aliens is a pretty major movie franchise. Xenomorphs are some of the deadliest and scariest life forms shown on film. H. R. Geiger did an incredible job bringing them to life. But you wouldn’t know that if this was the first game you played. Instead of a scary deadly enemy, you’re mowing down hundreds of xenomorphs per level, and slaughtering them left and right. This isn’t an Alien movie, it’s a Left 4 Dead clone where zombies are replaced by xenomorphs, though they do climb on walls and leap at the player.
The thing is, I played this for Xbox Game Pass for at least three to four hours. I've played another hour here, I even partnered up with someone on stream, thanks Royal, and I still don’t enjoy this. It’s a looter shooter, where your gear's stats will matter. You’ll mow down enemies all the time, except if you are under-leveled and then you’ll get swarmed instead. The levels all feel very similar, with only a couple of set pieces that stand out, and while franchise’s setting can be good, the combat and gameplay aren’t. It also doesn’t help that if you wipe, you’ll go back to the beginning of a level, which is about thirty minutes of effort.
Pick this up if you like the Aliens franchise and can forgive them for being turned into fodder. I killed at least 150 enemies in this level as did both of the other characters. That’s 450 xenomorphs killed in about 30 minutes? That’s kind of an insane number, isn’t it? Truthfully I don’t know, Google Bard and Chat GPT say the most that were killed in a single movie was maybe 150. I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of this franchise, it’s the first one that made me terrified of horror movies, but if you want a looter shooter with a zombie horde of xenomorphs that you can mow down with friends, this is absolutely for you. Everyone else probably can skip it.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NoQjv8lnYiY

Resumo: Um lixo.

Pontos positivos: A trilha sonora do jogo é interessante, consegue dar emoção aos tiroteios contra aliens e sintéticos. Alguns level designs são satisfatórios, gostei do cenário das missões "A Dádiva do Fogo", de resto é só ok. A vibração do controle é bem colocada. As cartas de desafio são muito interessantes e variadas, causam diversas mudanças na gameplay.

Pontos negativos: A música boa é totalmente mal configurada, em diversas partes ela para e inicia repentinamente, ou fica travando muito, estragando totalmente a experiência. Em partes com muitos inimigos as explosões simplesmente EXPLODEM o jogo, o fps cai absurdamente para algo por volta de 5 a 10 fps. Muitos bugs fatais! Há fases em que você precisa eliminar todos os inimigos, mas mais de 1 vez havia inimigos travados NO MEIO das paredes, me obrigando a desistir da fase, além desse bug, mais de 1 vez o jogo simplesmente não me deixou ir até o próximo local, a porta simplesmente não abria, isso em uma partida ONLINE, fiquei indo e voltando no cenário até que magicamente o jogo desbloqueou a porta do nada.

Com tantos bugs fatais que afetam a gameplay é impossível considerar tal jogo como minimamente bom, nota 4/10.

A borderline iconic example of franchise game malaise, Fireteam Elite make no bold choices and takes no risks, resolving in a game that's fine. You'll be doing the same thing over and over for quite some time to make serious progression, with several run throughs and grinding sessions required for maximum progression and full arsenal. But you won't hate it, you'll just be INCREDIBLY aware of it.

Level design is fairly linear, game is definitely better with human teammates, and the sound design and visuals are great and true to franchise. It's the most game to ever exist. And no that's not a typo.

If you really like horde shooters like Left 4 Dead or Vermintide you'll find the bones of that here, and likely enjoy a new grind. Otherwise it's an okay way to kill a couple hours or a fun title to rent, borrow, play on game pass, etc. Genuine congrats to the team for making an Aliens game that isn't a disaster (because that bar is STILL really high somehow) but I definitely hope the next game aiming at the franchise takes a little more time for narrative and character work over doing high quality shooties...

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a nice, fun, little Aliens game that will keep you and two friends decently engaged for maybe 8 or so hours. You'll probably enjoy your time with most of it. But unfortunately, that's just about all there is.

The main combat is mostly pretty fun, depending on who and what you're fighting. When fighting the Xenomorphs, gameplay will either feel really snappy, almost like a shooting gallery; or, decently engaging when you're dealing with the tougher armored enemies.
And when you're fighting the synthetics...well it mostly just feels like a worse Gears of War game. Which can be fun at times, but the game does very little to improve upon the generic third person combat beyond that.

Literally every encounter is just a survival/wave defense with only a couple small changes here and there. It's fun at first, but grows to be boring and monotonous very quickly by the time you get to the third campaign.

The story is also violently uninteresting. It feels more like a set of excuses for why you have to kill aliens, instead of just throwing us in to kill aliens. Honestly, I think the game would have been better off if there just wasn't a story mode at all and the game was just built around you killing aliens and upgrading your gear. Imagine something like Deep Rock Galactic but with a more intense focus on alien killing.

I think this game's biggest problem is that it can't decide if it wants to be a live service game or not. It toes the line straight down the middle. It has stuff like daily and weekly challenge rotations, a huge focus on online multiplayer, and plenty of rewards and skins to unlock or buy.
But the thing is, it just isn't enough. By the time you finish all four campaigns, there just isn't really a motivator to bother playing the game anymore. Which is weird, since the game seems to pretend that everything is just getting started then. So many modes and difficulties unlock upon completion of the fourth campaign, but it just doesn't feel like something I want to do. Why would I bother sinking more time into this when the entire game is literally just nothing but a less engaging version of horde mode from Gears of War?

I don't know, maybe I'm being to hard on this game. I had plenty of fun with it, but I think most of that came from playing with two of my friends the whole time and joking around that we were actually low-level soldiers in an Alien movie. I couldn't imagine playing this by myself, I think I would have given up before unlocking the third campaign.

Anyway, a nice game that can be fun if you're with friends, but there's not much else too it. It's better than the last Aliens game (Colonial Marines) but nowhere near as good as the most recent Alien game (Isolation).
If you want a fun little game to distract yourself for a bit, this is right on the money. Just don't expect much, or really anything, more than that.