Greetings Gamers! The winds of fate have brought forth another digital story of scary darkness on worlds far from our home in Aliens: Fire Team Elite 2, allowing every Gamer to feel the joy of a bug hunt and the hatred of Way-Yu as dictated by the Star Gods. Giving the fans that much needed scratch for the content itch they have been longing for since the release of the first game.
The game itself expands upon the story line of the first game, taking place 5 years after the events of the first story line and bring back a few familiar faces as a few new ones are introduced, the overall story of the game itself is engaging and full of that campiness and mood of the film Aliens from the 80’s from which the game draws inspiration. Cold Iron did an amazing job with making the Xenomorphs of the game actually feel like an actual life form through its movements and overall attitude they present, which is a massive step up from the previous games and the Xenomorphs feeling as if they are on a track like a bad amusement park ride. Level designs are much more engaging and give the player that much needed feeling that something could be around every corner as it should be with a title game of this nature.
Weapons, Loadouts, and Armory of the game have also improved greatly from the first incarnation of the game, introducing the more practical changes to challenge card uses, and have given the game a much more players choice, rather than establishing meta builds. The classic weapons we have come to know and love have been given a loving brush over, giving the player a feeling that despite the odds, victory is still there. Focusing more on the replay aspect of the game and the experience that brings, rather than a first time ride you want to skip or rush through to reach a certain point of game content. Where the Specialist class is not as limitless of a class as advertised, it does give the player the ability to build a unique custom class with a strong foundation of another class. So, to make an example rather than making a custom character with various abilities from the game, you are picking a core class you enjoy customizing with small perk combos of other classes. Letting players have medics with different ability grenades or having an assault style build with a Marauders rocket pod, so there is room to improve in the future.
The Horde mode has had improvements to make it meet the demanding challenge a gamer wishes to face, while also considering that players may need to extract due to poor builds of the character type they are playing. Which any gamer will tell you is a win, as all or none approach is not often a gamble Gamer wish to run when more than just their fun is on the line. Giving the player more and more reasons to engage with the game and the different character builds it offers.
Now just like any other game, there are some downsides, which are not earth shattering or capable of as with some games of the past. Aliens: Fire Team Elite 2 has a few issues with matchmaking regarding the amount of time it can take to connect a full lobby of four players, with the wait sometimes taking around five minutes or more depending on the time of day the player decides to log in, so keep in mind that lower game activity may affect your wait time for a match. The game at times will also struggle with it ability to maintain a connection to the match host due to the quality of the host internet, so if the party host has crap internet the game may struggle to load properly and can disconnect the host if the internet connection is lacking. This results in the level having to be reset to the most recent check point or restart the level all together, so frustration can quick manifest in these moments.
Overall, Aliens: Fire Team Elite 2 is a much-desired improvement and a welcome installment in the franchise for Alien fans, despite the game’s minor issues, there is possibility in droves for more in game content or DLC that will be coming down the line with this game. Cold Iron cemented this game in this year’s top 10 games of the year and scored it an 8 of 10, making it a strong runner for this year’s game of the year.
