The Left 4 Dead-inspired shooter Aliens: Fireteam pits a squad of three players against ravenous hordes of xenomorphs, androids, and other enemies from the grim, sticky Alien universe. We said in our recent preview that it “feels like a step backwards” after the brilliance of the first-person horror game Alien: Isolation: Not bad by any stretch, just “the lowest hanging fruit.”
I get the same impression from the 25-minute gameplay video shared today by IGN. It looks good (although I would definitely prefer it in first-person rather than third) and hits all the relevant notes, like poor lighting, leaky pipes, dripping ceilings, and a motion detector that isn’t great with the Z-axis, but the addition of new xeno variants, player perks and upgrades, and level randomization doesn’t change the fact that this is a very familiar formula.
Still, it’s hard to go entirely wrong loading up on state-of-the-badass-art weaponry and blasting the bejeezus out of hordes of charging bugs. Aliens is my favorite film in the series, and I hope that developer Cold Iron Studios is able to effectively recreate that same kind of do-or-die tension in Fireteam. If nothing else, at least it’s bound to be better than Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Aliens: Fireteam is set to come out this summer on Steam. Find out more at aliensfireteam.com.
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