While undoubtedly a triumph, Alien: Isolation never felt like a true Alien experience to me. Yes. Amanda Ripley is a badass and wholly worthy to carry her similarly badassed mother’s name, but creeping around to avoid a single – and singularly terrifying – Alien, I never felt like a real Ripley. Tip-toeing from room to room, cramming myself into lockers to hyperventilate quietly until the monstrosity retreats again just makes me feel cowardly. It makes me feel too much like me.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite? With its gloriously gooey entrails, chunky gunplay, and plentiful frenzied fights, Aliens: Fireteam Elite does let me live out my power fantasies as Ripley – even if we technically have nothing to do with Ripley this time around.
Aliens Fireteam Elite review
- Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
- Developer: Cold Iron
- Platform: Played on PS5
- Availability: Out August 24th on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X
Between us, I didn’t expect that going in. The trailers and screenshots looked cool, if a touch generic, sure, but… well, we’ve been burnt by the Alien franchise before, right? And while Aliens: Fireteam Elite might lack longevity – I can’t see many of us sticking around for long after the four-six-ish hours of the main campaign are done, no matter how many different Challenge Cards we apply to spice things up a bit – there’s no denying that those four hours are bloody good fun. Literally.
Going in, however, I did wonder if it was going to be Alien Isolation all over again. You’ll enter the refinery to see the faint flicker of the emergency lighting, a long maroon streak of something bloody on the floor, and catch the corner-of-the-eye clatter of a vent cover falling from the ceiling. Nothing happens until everything happens – it’s a fabulous bait and switch – and then things unfold precisely as I’d hoped; piles and piles of dead Xenos.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite dares to pick up the story 23 years after the trilogy left off. I’m not going to give away too much about what happens here, I promise, although if I told you it kicks off with a rescue mission, you can no doubt guess what happens next. Your adventure will take you through a deserted refinery and the cavernous LV-895 and more, and while, in theory, there’s just enough diversity in the backdrops to keep boredom at bay, don’t expect much fluctuation from those green/black/blue palettes we know all too well from the franchise.