Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 - Resupply Or Die, Folks (Review)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2
Released: August 25th, 2026
Developer: Cold Iron Studios
Publisher: Daybreak Game Company
Systems: PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series
I couldn’t in good conscience recommend Aliens: Fireteam Elite to anybody when it launched, but it went on to become one of my most avidly played games. It also surprised me by staying popular enough to not only retain a player base for years, but get its own little toy line! Considering I was one of those retained players, I shouldn’t have been so startled to see a sequel. Also, the toys are pretty cool.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 does well out of the gate by actually releasing in a justifiable state, the first of several improvements ushered in by the sequel. It’s less of a dramatic leap forward and more of a widening and deepening of what was there, keeping the core gameplay unchanged while refining what needed refining. While the term “expansion pack” in reference to a sequel is always used pejoratively, I want to risk using it in a positive sense while talking about Fireteam Elite 2 - it genuinely does expand an existing product while offering enough fresh material to be its own thing.
For an aficionado of both Aliens and horde shooters, Fireteam Elite had me with its elevator pitch - it’s literally just those two things, like World War Z with Xenomorphs, and I’m fully on board. You pick a class, shoot loads of Runner Aliens, get jumped on by bigger Aliens, and you do it all in perpetuity. There’s little reason to change how its third-person shooting plays, so it’s left largely unaltered. Guns are enjoyable to use, there are lots of weapons to choose from, the frequent Xeno swarms are entertainingly hectic, and runs are a little more dynamic than they used to be.
Fireteam Elite 2’s biggest changes are found in the systems governing its chaos. Character classes, weapons, and various forms of progression have seen some extensive work, and it’s pretty much all for the better.
Of the class system’s improvements, my most requested one made the cut - the Medic is no longer useless halfway through a run, replacing its finite healing beacon with a rechargeable temporary HP buffer! Pretty much every class is revised, and I’ve enjoyed my time with each one, especially thanks to the dramatic ways their abilities can be modified. One such way involves the Medic again, who unlocks a beacon that discharges poison instead of magic health gas. With the right supporting upgrades, the character least focused on combat easily becomes one of the most effective killers.
The Machinist and its turret is still top tier, especially as it now gets another offensive toy in the form of a robot bodyguard. The Duelist works decently as a straightforward attack dog, while the Marauder works better as a straightforward attack dog. The Hunter is probably the weakest class, mostly because its role as an elite killer is situational and its beam ability requires both a charge time and precise aim, dealing massive damage but only if you can hit something before your teammates kill it. The Specialist class can be customized with upgrades from every other class, which really emphasizes the overall flexibility.
Fireteam Elite 2 is much more of a “builds” game than its predecessor. Select perks accessed by one class can be shared by others, abilities and their modifiers all have a bunch of unique enhancements, and every player has access to a far wider range of weapons. Said weapons are themselves much more customizable via attachments and mods, and the expanding armory offers a wide variety of different offense types. Whereas OG players were locked into a few class-based playstyles, you have a much better stocked toybox this time around.
Naturally, your enemies have added to their shenanigans since last time, gaining new special variants. The Xenomorphs have the Siren, an Alien whose scream summons volatile Burster swarms, and the Guardian, a lethal cross between the existing Pratorean and Crusher - basically it’s a heavily armored, highly aggressive wrecking ball. Fireteam Elite’s other factions, the security Synths and mutated Pathogen, also return with new specials, none of which are mechanically unique but nonetheless serve as adequate spanners in the players’ works.
Fireteam Elite 2 continues a trend of cool visual design with its specials and elites. The elegant looking Siren is one of the nicer variant Xenos in seen in the expanded media (not Killer Crab Alien good, but nothing is), and they’ve made the Bursters look swollen and horrific with their new Volatile versions. Once again, the overall art direction nails Aliens’ signature look, backed by an equally authentic soundtrack.
The only area where presentation feels lacking is audiovisual feedback during combat. By my recollection, the first game was great at communicating damage output, with headshots in particular delivering a satisfying pop and accompanying musical sting. While these elements are still technically present, they’ve been muted and buried in the mix - I’ve had a hard time telling nonlethal hits and assists from proper kills in the hectic heat of battle, to the point that my final kill counts have often reflected the opposite of how I thought I was doing.
Meanwhile, your playable Marine loves giving you abundant, repetitive updates. They yell stock phrases a lot, and all four players can hear each other's Marine. Get used to hearing "Resupply or die, folks," several times whenever the team gathers around an ammo box.
My biggest disappointment is the map design. There’s nothing wrong with it, but levels don’t feel as distinct as their predecessors, with fewer memorable setpieces and less dramatic final battles. They’ve also got cutscenes that can only be skipped by the host, which can make repeat runs increasingly tiresome. In fact, the campaign’s story is uninteresting the first time around - the idea of someone trying to domesticate Xenomorphs is always a fun premise, but this is a tepid, formulaic take on it. Most of the dialogue just reiterates over and over that Weyland Yutabi is bad, which is kind of a known quantity by now.
Jank is still part of the production. While tech issues aren’t anywhere near as bad as the original’s launch state, there are still frequent issues that include getting trapped in geometry, buggy event triggers, and a host of minor deficiencies. Framerates can dip significantly during large fights, which wouldn’t be so awful if the graphics weren’t drenched in compulsory motion blur, turning a climactic fight into a smear of vague shapes. You’ve seen my screenshots, right? Imagine playing that in stop motion.
I have no problem with the hilariously disobedient physics. They can stay. There’s nothing like seeing a Xenomorph slingshot in some bizarre random direction as soon as it dies, and it occurs just enough to be a funny surprise.
Fans of “content” will find a good amount here. Unlocking everything will take a lot of time, though in fairness a massive number of unlockable items are glorified jpegs aka decals. Still, there are a bunch of other cosmetics, gun parts, consumable equipment, and even uniclass abilities to find or buy with Marine Bucks - it’s a decent pile of stuff with some fun visual flare on offer, though I wish we had more exciting outfit colors than a small selection of extremely dull camo. I can have a bright pink gun, why not a bright pink jumpsuit?
Getting anywhere close to acquiring everything requires an immense amount of replaying, and I’m not sure the new campaign levels hold up enough to support it. I’ve enjoyed my time with the game - it’s a good one after all - but my enthusiasm for diving back into it just isn’t there the way it was with Fireteam Elite’s debut release. Horde Mode is unlocked after the campaign’s fully completed, a mode I tried only once after spending ages on a run only to die with zero reward. It just didn’t seem worth doing again after that.
At present, daily and weekly challenges haven’t returned, withholding an added incentive to come back. On the one hand, such challenges are manipulatively designed to keep players hooked. On the other hand, something needs to liven repeat runs up, because only a handful of the many Challenge Cards are popular enough for players to regularly use them.
I don’t want to detract too much from what is a fundamentally enjoyable game. Though I don’t think I’ll get as much mileage out of it as other horde shooters, I certainly feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth from the experience. It’s also worth reiterating that I never expected to get years of play from the last game, so I could well end up doing the same again. If anything keeps me hooked, it’ll be the build-centric class system, because the added flexibility has enhanced the overall package really nicely.
Something I’d like to see? The first game’s campaign adapted to work within the sequel’s framework, Left 4 Dead style. That would absolutely add more longevity for me, but it’s easy to say that when it’s not my time or resources on the line.
As a sequel, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 does a great job of advancing the series in thoughtful rather than dramatic ways, retaining the gameplay of its predecessor and expanding on what players can do within that framework. These positives are tempered somewhat by unremarkable campaign levels that aren’t as repayable as they need to be, but things are exciting while they last, and they last long enough to be worth the entry fee.
Also, Drones are still complete assholes.
7.5/10
