Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review (Phileosophos)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite (AFE) is a game that far too many people wrote off and ditched too soon, not realizing what they were missing. It's easy to understand now too in hindsight after 31+ hours of play. So I thought I'd write a review in the hope that it helps bring some more fan(s) of the franchise to a game I think most will enjoy.
It's easy to understand why so many people ditched the game and were disappointed because honestly I was too at launch. The aliens seemed like pushovers. The maps were very linear and very formulaic, moving from one big fight to another with some of the encounters feeling more like they were designed solely to tick boxes in a design document or just irritate players by forcing them to burn through ammunition (in particular the downright boring marching hordes of "poppers" in the third mission of the third campaign section).
The amount of content seemed pretty weak too. Yes, there were four classes to play initially ("Demolisher", "Doc", "Gunner", and "Technician" if I remember correctly), but the loadout limitations were confusing, the firearm mechanics and stats were not intuitive (making it surprisingly hard to compare gear and know which was better), and frankly I owned virtually all the weapons, attachments, and perks I could buy within my first five or six hours of play. I felt like I'd paid *far* too much money for the relatively small amount of available kit.
But here's the thing: I'd now venture a guess that what I had at the time was one quarter of the total content, maybe even less! I didn't realize there was a *fifth* class until I finished the campaign for the first time and gained access to the "Recon" class, which might actually be my favorite. There's something about the combination of his loadout choices along with the PUPS sensor and health/ammunition drone that really suits my play style. He's got a lot of fun options for perks too.
And that's not even counting all the stuff that's been added post launch. We've had multiple new classes added (e.g., phalanx and lancer), new game modes, new weapons, new attachments, new perks, new challenge cards, and a whole bunch of new cosmetics. The developers have not been idle in the slightest, having added quite a bit along the way.
But honestly, I'm not sure all of that stacks up to the hidden stuff that was apparently already there. It was only when I started playing the game on the "Intense" difficulty with a couple of friends that I began to realize just how much is hidden under the surface. I started getting weapons I'd never seen before, perks I couldn't buy, and all kinds of other stuff. Then seemingly out of the blue, the requisition store opened up with *dozens* of new weapons I'd never seen before either.
I'm still not sure why that happened, but I'm guessing it had something to do with completing missions on the "Intense" difficulty level. I say that because a friend and I were working through the campaign together a second time on "Intense" and we both suddenly noticed what seemed like an almost completely new weapon inventory.
We haven't even tried the other game modes yet, as we're too busy having fun on "Intense". I imagine we'll finish that soon enough and move on to "Extreme" to see what lurks behind that gate. If what we've seen so far is any guide, then I expect we'll be finding some truly interesting goodies.
To be fair, the game is not without its faults. I can't believe the bloody developers still haven't fixed the audio-stops-working problem that happens to me all the time with the pulse (and a few other) rifles. And the campaign is indeed extremely linear and repetitive. But the AI and overall feel of the game is almost entirely different on "Intense" compared to standard. I can't help but think this is the difficulty the developers expected us to play. I can say this much: the aliens are no longer pushovers, that's for sure!
In short, if you're a fan of the franchise and have a couple friends to play with, then I think the game is well worth the asking price. You just have to understand going in that it's not going to open up and show you everything right at the outset. But there's a lot more there than meets the eye as you progress.