Aliens: Fire Elite 2 Impressions

I was a big fan of the original Aliens: Fire Team Elite — it was impressively polished for a budget AA game. 

So when the sequel asked for a higher price, I paid it happily. So far, though, that price hasn’t been earned.

The gameplay itself is a blast, but performance is abysmal. I’m running a GTX 4090, and I still get stutters and choppiness mid-combat. This seems to be an ongoing problem with UE5 titles in general, but in a game built around shooting waves of enemies, smooth performance isn’t optional, it’s necessary.

Narratively, the game is more ambitious than its predecessor, but that momentum keeps getting undercut by an unlikeable cast. The abrasive pilot from the first game returns as your new commanding officer, and she’s just as grating as ever. 

Your actual pilot, going by the callsign Raptor, is no better — oddly, both characters are Asian and saddled with exaggerated, stereotypical accents.

The game also forces you to talk through these NPCs aboard your ship, The Endeavor, just to progress the story and pick your next mission. For an action game, it goes out of its way to slow you down and keep you out of the action.

The dialogue options don’t help — they add some flavor to the characters, but there’s usually only one “correct” path forward, making the wrong choices feel like busywork. You even have to go talk to the characters all over again if you select the wrong choices to progress the story. It’s incredibly annoying.

The one bright spot among the cast is Wrench, a sergeant in the armory. He’s guarded — he’s lost too many friends to want to get close to anyone new — and his odd fascination with birds gives him real texture. Everyone else, though, is exhausting, and stiff facial animations only amplify the frustration.

The UI doesn’t help matters either. Upgrading weapons and attachments is clunky and unintuitive. I appreciate the added depth to weapon and character customization, but the process needs to be far smoother.

Mechanically, the game largely shines. The cover system is a little janky, but the gunplay is excellent, and fighting Aliens and other creatures is where Fire Team Elite 2 is at its best. Which makes it all the more frustrating that so many design choices — cast, mission selection, dialogue gating — pull you away from that core strength.

Locking the horde mode behind the campaign is another misstep. I get the instinct to shield newcomers from a punishing mode, but the smarter move is giving players full access from the start. Gating off the best part of the game is bad design.

I’m enjoying Fire Team Elite 2, but I can’t recommend it to anyone but die-hard fans of the series or the franchise.

It needs more time in the oven. 

Here’s hoping Cold Iron Studios fixes the performance issues fast and reconsiders unlocking horde mode from the start.

First impressions matter in games, and right now, Fire Team Elite 2 is stumbling out of the gate.

Until next time, Stay Frosty.