Perhaps no movie was primed to be a video game more than Aliens. A bunch of marines with guns up against hordes of monstrous beasties? That\u2019s a video game, baby. That was true for the first Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a game I enjoyed but didn\u2019t stick with for too long, and it\u2019s also true of its sequel, which freshens that returning structure up with things like an additional player and a new class. I\u2019m not done with Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 yet (the joys of international travel to Gamescom, I reckon), but I\u2019ve played enough to start laying down thoughts like one of my squadmates is spiriting for an objective and my words are covering fire. The short version is this: I\u2019m having a good time with my friends, but I am curious how long we\u2019ll want to play after the credits roll.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to be familiar with the original to understand what\u2019s up here: the USS Endeavor received a transmission from a very sick-looking woman named Dr. Pearce based on LV-558, a Weyland-Yutani mining colony overrun by Xenomorphs. The marines sent in Fireteam Banshee, an elite squad, to contain the situation. They\u2019ve all gone missing. Your Marine has been transferred to the Endeavor to bring them home and figure out what the hell is going on. <\/p>\n The first game wasn\u2019t huge on story, and it doesn\u2019t bog down Fireteam Elite 2 either. Between missions, you\u2019ll hang out on the Endeavor and chat with your squad. There\u2019s Shipp, the Endeavor\u2019s CO; Ko, your tough-as-nails, no-nonsense squad leader; Piper, an analyst who is new to boots-on-the-ground work and a little nervous as a result; Esther, the ship\u2019s android; Raptor, your dropship pilot with terrible (and I do mean terrible<\/em>) jokes; and Wrench, your mechanic\/weapons specialist\/shopkeeper who dispenses rad bird facts. <\/p>\n I enjoy the crew, even if you only really interact with them from the waist up in very \u201clook at their face while they talk to you\u201d scenes. My only qualm is that, because they\u2019re mostly just the voice in your ear on missions, there\u2019s not much room for camaraderie \u2013 and when there is, everyone\u2019s\u2026 too nice? One of the best parts of Aliens is that the characters don\u2019t always get along, and while I think it\u2019s great that Ko roasts Raptor (and you), I wish these characters razzed each other a bit more. It adds flavor, you know?<\/p>\n Like its predecessor, Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 is a class-based, co-op-focused shooter. (You can play it solo, but you\u2019ll be teamed up with The Alphabet Boys: CPU-controlled androids named Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.) You\u2019ve got six classes to choose from, many of which have their own Aliens analogue. Duelist is Hicks; Marauder is Vasquez; Medic is Dietrich (there\u2019s a deep cut for you); and so on. My favorite was the all-new Specialist, which allows you to combine the features of multiple classes. Say, for instance, you want the special abilities of the Machinist (their turret and floating bodyguard drone) but also like the Marauder\u2019s smartgun, which is one of my early favorites. Well, the Specialist will let you do that. It\u2019s rad. That\u2019s not to say there\u2019s no benefit to sticking with the traditional classes; they have modifiers and special abilities that you\u2019ll only get by leveling that class. But if you want to do some tweaking, Specialist is your guy (or gal).<\/p>\n The missions themselves are pretty standard fare for the genre, but they are fun. Drop into a Weyland-Yutani nightmare, hunt for intel\/break stuff\/complete other objectives, kill some monstrosities, hold out until you can get out, and then get out. It\u2019s a fun loop, especially with friends, and is set apart from other games like it by how many different kinds of Xenomorphs there are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nAliens: Fireteam Elite 2 \u2013 Meet (Some of) the Enemies<\/h3>\n