Developer: Cold Iron Studios
Publisher: Daybreak Game Company
Reviewed On: PC
Available On: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: August 25, 2026
Review Copy Provided By: Daybreak Game Company
More often than not, sequels are supposed to be bigger and better than the piece that preceded it. But how do you quantify a sequel that goes for bigger and more action-packed, while messing up everything else? Firstly, that’s called Alien: Resurrection. Secondly, that’s how I feel after more than 50 hours of Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, as much as I hate to admit it. There’s something truly great here, but it doesn’t matter if you are forced to dig through a mound of tedious grinding and technical issues to see it.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is a horde shooter that is a direct sequel to 2021’s unexpectedly well-received game, Aliens: Fireteam Elite. The game is set a few years after the incident at Pala Station. Players take control of a newly assigned Colonial Marine on the USS Endeavor en route to the remote mining colony of Stores Boon. The game starts with the Marines responding to a distress call originating from the colony. It is feared that they may be caught up in the midst of a Xenomorph outbreak. Squad Banshee has already gone ahead to assess the situation. If you know anything about the Aliens movies, you know that it’s only a matter of time until something goes wrong.
The gameplay loop is the same as it was in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, only on a much larger scale. You’ll be shooting waves of Xenos and robots on your way to objectives, which almost always involve retrieving data for one big fact-finding mission. The biggest difference this time around is the addition of a fourth Marine into the squad. A very welcome one, considering battles in the larger arenas often devolve into chaotic messes rather quickly.
The changes don’t stop with 4-person teams. The game also has a deeper perk pool to min/max, as well as reworked classes and weapon classifications. The classes in Fireteam Elite 2 are a restructuring of the different classes from the first game, with the exception of the Phalanx class. He appears to be removed from the game entirely. Pour one out for your boy. They did my favorite class dirty by not bringing him back in some form. I main the Marauder class right now for the crowd control potential. I also play a bit of Hunter to mix things up now and then. If I decide to stick around longer, it’d be to progress the other classes. The game really opens up when you have levels on the other classes and have unlocked more perks. One could say that it’s a prerequisite to having truly broken classes.
The biggest change to weapons is the removal of the Handgun slot and reclassifying it into an interchangeable Sidearm option. The primary weapon slot is no longer tied to one weapon type. You have more options now for varied builds for each class. Signature weapons are more tied to class identity and are unique to that class until they hit max level. At which point, it becomes available to all classes.
Progression seems like a straightforward affair starting out. But don’t be fooled by all the numbers going up and stuff unlocking. Once you hit the Credits roadblock, you will quickly realize that you’re not doing nearly enough to afford a partially kitted-out class.
By far, my biggest complaint lies with the game’s progression system. I’m not referring to the classes themselves; they level up at a nice pace. Generating Credits is my single greatest source of frustration right now. Everything, from weapons to attachments to cosmetics, costs a lot of money. And I haven’t even touched on Augments yet. That’s another can of expensive worms.
“Why not use challenge cards to increase your income potential?” you may ask. Well, that’s the thing. Challenge cards are no longer acquired in random packs. You buy them from the store. I’m actually quite torn, as despite having unlimited uses, the only cards I’ve seen getting used are ones with high multipliers. It often feels like the only way to earn good Credits is to have 4 separate negative challenge cards active on an Extreme Horde mission. It is extremely risky, but there’s no alternative right now. The game doesn’t even have daily and weekly challenges to keep us engaged over time. Without the grind artificially extending play time, what’s left to do? Nothing really.
But despite all that, as a Destiny 2 player, I find the grind to be tolerable. I’m the kind of Guardian who replays the same activity over and over again if it means acquiring a 10/10 god roll weapon. I’ll find a way to get the loadout I’m aiming for, even if I end up looking worse for wear. I know most people are not willing to go as far, and that’s a huge problem for a game that’s meant to be played with other players.
The game’s barely out a month, and I’m already having a hard time matching up with other players to form a proper fireteam. I would wait close to 10 minutes, no matter the region I currently have selected. And when I do find a team, it’s usually guys who apply purple challenge cards. I’m not blaming them; it just gets so tiring to stay focused so we don’t get wiped within the first 5 minutes. I don’t know exactly what’s going on. But I can imagine that there’s not enough to keep players invested for long.
The second game is said to have a greater emphasis on the story. From where I’m standing, it’s like saying that Alien: Resurrection had the better story because it had a bigger budget than Aliens. Unfortunately for us, the presentation is pretty bad. The game’s cutscenes ran at 30 frames or less, and it somehow made me care less about the story. I’m sorry, but I vastly prefer to “endanger species” over understanding the motives of those behind the evil corporation and its minions.
The only positive thing I can say is that the characters’ lips actually move in sync with the voice acting. Never mind that most of the lines are one-liners and products of cringey writing, though I am partial to Wrench’s bird facts. I mostly blame Piper and her wide-eyed enthusiasm for the disconnect. Raptor gets some of that blame too for being annoying. Beyond that, the way the characters talk is so uncanny. It’s so weird that out of everyone you talk to, Esther is the most human-like, and she’s supposed to be the battalion synthetic.
There’s no denying that the second outing is a visual glow-up compared to the first game. The environments alone are appealing, aided by better lighting and thick clouds of steam that add to the tension and uncertainty. Bigger maps also make encounters feel scrappier and more exciting. Just don’t expect too much from the game’s soundtrack. I’m actually disappointed that the base pulse rifle doesn’t sound like the ones from the movies. Even the “classic” you unlock later on doesn’t have the exact sound effect.
When it comes to performance, Fireteam Elite 2 is all over the place. Sometimes the frames drop to a crawl when loading the next event sequence. I’ve noticed pickups like the precious medpacks outright disappear when playing with other people. Particle effects such as the ones created by rocket launcher explosions cause the game to stutter wildly. On more than a few occasions, enemies would get stuck on the edges of encounters, causing a soft lock. There are also a bunch of smaller bugs, like certain decals not mirroring properly on weapons and stat tracking still being broken since launch.
The cherry on top is that the game has crashed on me multiple times during the peak of combat. The only silver lining is that the game allows me to reconnect, sometimes. That’s right. The connection is so iffy at times that the game flat-out gets stuck trying to load me back in. And that’s the only chance I get to reconnect. If I close that window, that’s it. I’m no longer allowed to rejoin the mission. That absolutely sucks.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is, by every measurable metric, a bigger and more comprehensive version of the first game. And yet, it is found wanting on multiple levels. The funny thing is, I’m not entirely angry. The good moments shine through when everything works. It’s just that every so often I am reminded that this game is woefully unoptimized. I’d like to think that the game will get a second wind sometime down the line. In the meantime, I don’t quite recommend it in its current state. If you like the first game or enjoy horde shooters with friends, you might want to check it out after most of the issues have been patched, of course.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 Review (PC)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is, by every measurable metric, a bigger and more comprehensive version of the first game. And yet, it is found wanting on multiple levels.
The Good
- Reworked, deeper class system
- Noticeable visual glow-up
- Larger spaces, longer levels, bigger fights
- A good variety of enemies to fight
The Bad
- A real grindfest
- Takes forever to gather a full team
- Riddled with tiny, annoying bugs
- Story and presentation are far from compelling
