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The first Aliens: Fireteam Elite was among my favorite Alien video games, and there were a lot of reasons to be excited for a sequel.
At Summer Game Fest 2026, we learned of many smart changes and improvements to the formula, and I was eager to go bug-hunting again. A new campaign, fully reworked classes, and four-player co-op. What could go wrong?
Months later, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2’s debut has been difficult, mostly due to glaring tech issues. Despite this, it’s still a welcome jolt of action for a franchise that’s been focusing on making the Xenomorphs scary again in recent years.
Alien: Romulus (2024) and Alien: Earth (2025) have reestablished the acid-blooded Xenomorphs as bona fide horror icons, while games like Aliens: Dark Descent bet on tense real-time tactics and squad management; Rogue Incursion spooked VR and non-VR players alike; and we even have Isolation 2‘s pure survival horror to look forward to.
Rough edges aside, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is a necessary return to mindless shooting and treating the Xenos as a relentless horde, dropping the stalking and slasher-inspired murders in favor of sci-fi shootouts and macho one-liners. It’s far from a novel idea — even the original game is only five years old — but a classic for a reason.
Another glorious day in the Corps
Believe it or not, another colony has fallen prey to the Xenomorphs in Fireteam Elite 2. The familiar setup takes a new team of Colonial Marines to a mining facility on LV-558, where contact has been lost with the first wave of Marines that went in to deal with the threat.
This isn’t first contact; the Marines are more than used to bug hunts by now, which means there’s less exposition to cut through before getting to the Xeno-blasting chaos. The writing certainly won’t stun the Academy (and there’s definitely too much of it in between missions), but the agility here is appreciated. We’ve fought these aliens many, many times before. Fireteam Elite 2 is smart enough to sidestep fake tension and just hit the ground running.
All the design changes and upgrades reinforce the intent to make the ultimate Aliens action game. Classes have more defined roles and access to better, more destructive sci-fi weapons, and the upgrade to four-player fireteams is welcome when aliens and hostile synths won’t stop pouring in. Tired of replaying campaign missions on higher difficulties and with modifiers? Prepare for the worst in this shooter’s version of the classic horde mode.
At its best, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 understands why James Cameron’s masterpiece still holds up. During the biggest Xenomorph onslaughts — when the bullets are flying and acid is spraying — the game’s shortcomings and jankier elements fade away.
Game over, man
There are still some scares hiding in here, though, ready to make complacent players jump out of their seats. Special Xenomorphs have tricks to pounce on distracted players, throwing chaos into the middle of their carefully coordinated rain of fire. Others have the ability to spit from afar, breaking tight defenses that count on the Xenos’ predictable tactics from other games and the movies.
It’s been 40 years since Aliens first graced the big screen, but Fireteam Elite 2 manages to refresh that mix of horror and action well enough, despite sharing much of its bones with the original game. But the disturbing lack of polish threatens to undo Cold Iron Studios’ best ideas.
Those ideas include more varied enemies, which can disrupt almost any tried-and-tested team composition, and even a late-game class that rewards an extensive knowledge of the game by letting veterans pick weapons from all over the roster to create a custom loadout.
These playful creative swings somewhat offset the frustration caused by glitched objectives, enemy AI that often goes off the rails, and performance issues that have often given me flashbacks to its predecessor’s worst moments on PS4. Sometimes, you can just tell when six extra months would’ve done a game a lot of good, and it’s obvious that Fireteam Elite 2 will be in a much better place by spring.
That said, its loose and confident approach to design is rare to see when dealing with games that adapt well-established IPs like Alien.
Recent Star Wars games have achieved just that, and even if Fireteam Elite 2 misses some of its shots and has faced more initial trouble than the USCM’s first incursion on LV-426, it’s safe to say its heart and mind are in the right place. No one can take that away from the devs. Show me another modern Alien video game that allows you to zap Xenomorphs to death with a big cannon or to hold them off with combat drones.
We’ve seen developers win uphill battles before, and we know for a fact the huge Alien fandom is as enduring as the deadly extraterrestrials, so Daybreak and Cold Iron have a chance to turn things around and solidify Fireteam Elite 2 as the iterative but satisfying sequel it actually is.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is available now for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is coming in 2027.