Aliens: Fireteam Elite (PS4)

The developers have got a lot right with this game from the graphics and sound to the intense gameplay. The story of Aliens needs no introduction and the familiar Colonial Marines Vs Xenos plays out fairly well in this game. The focus is on 100% shooter action rather than stealth, as the 'Fireteam' title suggests.Players can choose from the usual staple variants of gunner, support and heavy play styles and weapons are upgradeable through progress. There are no micro transactions, which is the way it should be. The sound of the weapons has been captured accurately from the movies and is glorious to hear with the volume turned up.Character and weapon styles are true to the Alien franchise and background radio chat from the fireteam leader, who speaks to you from the safety of the main base, does a reasonable job of keeping you informed of what needs to be done and why.Online co-op play is delivered as the main agenda but thankfully for those who like playing offline, the same campaign can be played solo with two AI bots to assist you. The game can be challenging even on casual/easy difficulty setting until you acquire a few upgrades, but even then, you need to keep your eyes peeled and your corners checked.The game offers 4 main missions on day one release. Each mission is split into 3 chapters, hence you get 12 levels. A horde mode is also offered. Notwithstanding some variations in setting and different enemy types, the rinse and repeat nature of the game could get old quickly for those who are not fans of the Alien franchise but it's a fun, manic, team-based shooter which captures a good deal of the chaos that reigned in Aliens (the second movie). It might be argued that the tough difficulty levels is a deliberate design choice- if the narrative is to be reflected accurately, the marines are supposed to lose!

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a third-person horde-shooter set 23 years after James Cameron's Aliens movie. You play a Colonial Marine attached to the USS Endeavor and dispatched to the planet LV895 which has gone dark after a suspected Xenomorph presence. The game facilitates upto three player online cooperative play, although it can also be played solo.Prior to starting you get to create your marine. Customisation options include gender, hair colour and style, eye colour, voice, and face. The number of options is hardly expansive, but there's just about enough here to create a marine that feels somewhat distinctive.Once your character has been created, you find yourself with the freedom to run around the Endeavor itself (or a limited section of it). Here you can do several things such as practice-fire your weapons (by just unloading them around the ship), purchase weapons, weapon componants, and cosmetics from the quartermaster, and speak to the Sergeant to obtain a mission.In the mission select screen you first of all get to choose your character class. There are four classes to beging with, with a fifth class becoming availible upon completing the game. They are as follows:- Gunner: An all-round, balanced class who comes armed with a pulse rifle and close-quarters weapon (shotgun initially) who has special abilities that allow him to increase his fire rate or throw a grenade- Demolisher: A heavy weapons expert who gets to tote the ubiquitous M56 Smart gun and other heavy weapons, and is armed with a shoulder mounted micro rocket launcher and a concussive strike to clear enemies.- Technician: Armed with a pistol and close quarters weapon (CQW), the Technician doesn't bring as much firepower to the team as the other classes, but he compensates for this with his deployable automatic sentry gun and electrical traps that stun and slow enemies.Doc: Does exactly what you would expect him to. Moderately well armed, but his ability to set up a mobile aid station that with automatically heal yourself and any allies within it's proximity, and ability to use combat stims to increase characters speed make him an important member of the squad.Once you have chosen your class you then get to go to the loadout screen where you can choose your weapons, perks, equipment, and make cosmetic changes to your characters appearance.Initially you're not going to have many options here because new weapons, componants, and cosmetics can only be gained either by completing missions, finding hidden caches within missions, or purchasing them from the quartermaster using Marine script (money) earned from missions. Once you've played a few missions though the options availible to you start to rapidly expand.So far there are 26 weapons announced for the game. These include a range of pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, and rifles, to more specialist equipment such as sniper rifles, flamers, grenade launchers and rocket launchers. Each weapon has different characteristics for things such as ammo, fire rate, damage, effective range, and handling, so there's something here for every playing style.Each weapon can also be upgraded with three weapon mods - barrell, magazine, and optics. These do not change the basic way in which the weapon handles (with the exception of telescopic sights), but provide bonuses to the weapons core attributes, such as causing more damage, increasing range, increasing magazine size, or providing improved handling and stability. You will also gain options to change the colour of your weapon as well as add decals to it.Once you're armed up, it's game time!There are a total of four locations, each split into three missions, with the first location seing your squad inserted into an orbital mining platform above LV895. Each mission lasts approximately 30 minutes, so there's not a great deal of play time in the campaign, although new missions are expected to be added in future. Most of your time initially is going to be spent replaying missions over and over again in order to earn enough script to buy better equipment, so if you don't like the grind this probably isn't going to be the game for you.Missions are fairly routine and of the go there/hit that switch/defend that area variety. It's really quite formulaic and every level essentially involves you running down a series of identical looking corridors, fighting off a few aliens, getting to a larger room where you have to activate something whilst defending it from a larger alien attack, running down more corridors, then fighting a big end of level battle whilst you wait to make your escape. It's very much in the style of 2019's World War Z for those of you who have played that game. There's a hidden cache of goodies and three intel entries to be found on each mission, so check those corners!The World War Z comparisons continue a little with the variety of aliens you face. There's the runner (basic cannon fodder), the spitter (who globs acid at you from distance), the Prowler (who waits in dark corners to leap on you), the Popper (who explodes all over you), and the Warrior (a big, tough brute that will grab you and kill you if your squad mates don't fight it off). A little more variety is added by the Drone (who conducts hit and run attacks from the vents) the fearsome Praetorian, and synthetic enemies who are armed similar to yourself and able to take cover and act tactically. Later in the game you'll meet enemies inspired by Promethius and Covenant.On balance Aliens: Fireteam is a good game, but not a great one.Gameplay is undoubtedly fun and action filled, but extremely formulaic and not especially tense or scary for an Aliens game. Weapon variety and customisation is fantastic, although the games sound is a little lacklustre and means that a lot of these weapons feel a little "flat" and lacking in oomph. The story is pedestrian, the voice acting terrible, and character creation is entry-level at best, and whilst there are lots of weapons most of them aren't as good as the ones you start with. There's plenty of replayability here, although whether you see the "grind" as a good thing is going to be down to what type of gamer you are. It's undoubtedly a game best played with others and takes on an extra level of fun when you do - IF matchmaking is working, which has been problematic during these early days.Comparisons with World War Z are impossible to ignore as the games are so similar in style, but WWZ was distinguished by it's "mega-horde" feature which made it's big set-piece battles look and feel like they had an extra level of significance to them, where as Fireteams end of level battles are just the same as every other battle, but longer.Like WWZ though - which had issues of it's own when released - I expect this game to get better over time as the producers release new weapons, new missions, and new classes, so it's probably worth staying on board for the long haul.7/10

This is just awful. From the rubbish user interface, pointless character creation and buggy gameplay….there’s nothing good about this game

Game loads then it enters you into a space station and here, you interact with some other characters and unfortunately when you interact with these characters you just hear their dialogue and they and your are static and (make no motions and there is no movement of any lips). I turned the game off after 10 minutes of this and tried to start.Recommendation, don't buy it, save your money.Game now on its way back to Amazon for a refund.

This really takes you back to watching the films for the first time. The music. The motion sensor blips.Unfortunately the graphics aren’t brilliant and it goes wrong quite a bit.But more importantly mine (which has since been returned to Amazon) couldn’t be paused. No one else has mentioned that so far. I pressed the usual pause button and the stats screen comes up but the game carry’s on in the background so after 10 seconds I’m dead.It’s not possible to play a game that you can’t pause.

I really liked this good fun. Great replay value. Keeps you on the edge of your seat.Loads of weapons and upgrades.One or two bugs sure they will iron them out. Over all im happy with this one. hope you will be to.

Game is a decent shooter. Very Gears of War. If you are a fan of Aliens you will probably like it if a bit samey. The big issue is matchmaking is broken so you have to manually go hunting for people to play with. Do not recommend to buy until fixed.

The alien series has had some ups and downs when it comes to games, this is definitely an up. I've really enjoyed it so far and theres a few little links to alien isolation, another great game. Demolishing hordes of bugs with a smart gun and mopping up with the pulse rifle is great. Loved it.