Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 Review — A Fun Bug Hunt That Needs a Little More Polish

As someone who has spent an unhealthy amount of time mowing down hordes of Xenomorphs, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 already feels like exactly the kind of sequel I wanted. Bigger battles, more bugs, and plenty of pulse-rifle-fueled chaos make its expanded take on the original’s co-op formula incredibly promising. Thing is, there’s just one thing holding back my excitement right now: it undoubtedly needs another layer of polish before it can become the ultimate bug hunt.

Much like its 2021 predecessor, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is a third-person co-op shooter that puts you in the battle-worn boots of a Colonial Marine and sends you into sci-fi environments absolutely crawling with Xenomorphs. This time, your fireteam is deployed to LV-558 to investigate the Storr Boon Mining Facility, only for the mission to quickly descend into another desperate fight for survival against Xenos and other hostile threats. 

As you venture deeper into the facility, you’ll slowly uncover more about the mysterious experiments taking place there, while the arrival of some particularly nasty pathogen-infected creatures suggests something has gone awry. It’s hardly the most gripping story in the Aliens universe, but it does a decent enough job of teeing up the action and shuffling you from one increasingly dangerous encounter to the next.

Another Glorious Day in the Corps

From a gameplay perspective, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is solid, building on the foundations of the original with tighter gunplay, more intense encounters, and an expanded four-player co-op setup, giving you an extra Marine to watch your back when things inevitably start coming out of the walls. Classes are more fleshed out this time around, too, with the five starting options giving players plenty of flexibility when putting together a fireteam.

Related: Have Xenomorphs Lost Their Scare Factor in Alien: Earth?

The Marauder is perfect for those hankering for some serious firepower, thanks largely to the iconic Smartgun, while the Duelist is better suited to players who prefer sticking with their guns and dealing consistent damage. I also enjoyed the more tactical options offered by the Machinist, whose automated turret and drone can make a noticeable difference when another routine bug hunt inevitably goes to hell. Meanwhile, the Hunter favors accurate shots and exploiting enemy weaknesses, while the Medic provides some much-needed support by keeping the rest of the fireteam alive and in the fight.

Challenge Cards return, and these play a meaningful role in spicing up each run, introducing modifiers that can result in tougher enemy spawns, more challenging behavior, or specific damage requirements, with shiny new weapon attachments up for grabs if you succeed. Some light RPG mechanics persist, too, as you can level up each class independently and unlock new gear for your loadouts. Between missions, you’ll return to the USS Endeavor, which serves as a base camp of sorts where you can equip new gear, tweak your loadout, and prepare for your next deployment.

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While the moment-to-moment gunplay is tight and satisfying, the gameplay loop does fall into a familiar pattern, which can make missions feel repetitive as you push forward, hunker down, survive another Xeno onslaught, return to base for some rather mundane NPC chatter, and repeat the process.

Thankfully, a few new enemies are slowly introduced — from pesky androids to powerful pathogen monstrosities from Ridley Scott’s prequels — but there aren’t quite enough new additions to really make the experience feel particularly fresh, especially for those who’ve played the original. Progression can feel unnecessarily grindy at times, too, as while there’s plenty of satisfaction in unlocking new gear and upgrades, getting your hands on them can be a bit of a slog.

Mostly Come at Night… Mostly

Visually, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 looks impressive and is definitely a step up over its predecessor. From damp, eerie hive environments to vast sci-fi spaceships, the atmosphere is dripping with dread and captures the distinctive look and feel of James Cameron’s sequel remarkably well. The lighting is a real highlight, with flickering corridors, deep shadows, and flashes of emergency lighting ensuring you’re never quite sure what might be lurking just out of sight.

Unfortunately, the sequel does start to falter in a few areas the longer you play. The biggest problem is a general lack of polish, as I encountered quite a few bugs (not those ones!) during my time in its sci-fi horror world. Framerate drops occasionally rear their ugly head when the action gets particularly hectic, while matchmaking problems sometimes forced me to exit and reload entirely. More frustratingly, there were also a few instances where I couldn’t progress because an enemy had spawned in an unreachable location, leaving my team unable to kill it and trigger the door needed to continue.

Related: 6 Things We Mostly Want to See in Alien: Isolation 2

Compounding these polish issues is some pretty middling writing for the NPCs back at base, which had me going to and fro listening to them rabbit on about mad scientists, mysterious experiments, and… bird facts. No, seriously. One character, Wrench, will happily regale you with random bird trivia. There’s some charm to these exchanges, but too often the conversations feel like padding between missions rather than something I genuinely wanted to stop and listen to.

That said, for all its flaws, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is ultimately still an entertaining romp, and I imagine that after a few patches, it’ll be in a much better spot. But because it plays things relatively safe and doesn’t add anything truly meaningful to the formula, this sequel feels more like a fun way to spend a weekend than a truly essential experience. Die-hard Aliens fans will undoubtedly get a kick out of another trip into Xeno-infested territory, but for everyone else, this particular bug hunt is probably best left in hypersleep a little longer.