Fan Reviews

[Voodoo Magic]

Yeah, I was relieved to find my first medkit in a hallway somewhere. I wasn't certain if it was going to be just the one per mission.

Also I was rather surprised I wasn't hit with a tutorial. I was thinking - they are just going to throw you into the mission without some sort of shooting range / holodeck / quick instruction? But I found the hud pretty intuitive and quickly picked things up.

[newbeing]

I've only played the first mission, but my general impressions are pretty good.

I ended up buying just the hardened veteran pack or whatever the ten dollar one is, and I'm kind of glad I did because the default helmets just look goofy to me, as do much of the default armor.

It feels like what I expected it to be, an arcade shooter. I've seen someone liken it to EDF, which isn't too far off.

Anybody going into this expecting a highly authentic experience is probably going to not enjoy it as much.

[StanSwitek]

I've played the first two campaigns (on PS4 Pro) and I'm enjoying it so far. Once again this is not a full budget title so we forgo certain niceties like lips moving when characters talk. For me its a minor quibble. But what I find myself being reminded of a lot while playing, blasting away the hordes of runners in corridors,  is Alien 3: The Gun.

[newbeing]

I've played the first two campaigns (on PS4 Pro) and I'm enjoying it so far. Once again this is not a full budget title so we forgo certain niceties like lips moving when characters talk. For me its a minor quibble. But what I find myself being reminded of a lot while playing, blasting away the hordes of runners in corridors,  is Alien 3: The Gun.

Alien 3: The Gun also popped into my head when playing earlier. Probably due to a lot of the enemies being runners,  but also because the action is so arcade like.

[razeak]

Mission 3 upped the difficulty in the last phase on standard. So.....looking better for sure. The flamethrower is pretty epic.

[Kimarhi]

Kind of what I expected.  I've only played through the first campaign so far and got wiped at the end of the first level of the second campaign, so my opinion could sway up or down in the future.

I've played so far with only the AI bots, as I always solo these third person online shooters first to catch the stories and then replay missions with people.

I wasn't initially impressed with the first level, but found myself enjoying it more and more as the game progressed.  It still isn't better than any modern third person online shooters that I have played like Division or Ghost Recon, but it isn't godawful in my estimation like I was worried it would be.

An oddity:

No lip sync.  What the hell dudes.  It's just odd as hell.  Especially when you can walk by background models that you can't speak to and they are moving their mouths to talk to each other.  So when you get dialogue with NPCs it just feels weird that there is no lip movement.  If the game sells well enough I expect this kind of thing will be fixed in a new update but still.........just weird.  Same with the background animations of certain characters.  Characters should move around and do different task between missions.  The powerloader has to be pretty freaking clean now. 

Weird thing I liked:


AI teammates being androids.  I mean, it makes sense.  Especially since I played as technician.  Reminded me of whats her name from defiance. 


The story so far: There actually is some and it kind of makes sense.  It's not as good as isolation because isolation felt personal to Amanda's character. 

In third person online you are kind of just a spectator to bigger events happening around you.  You influence things to be sure, but you are just a part of the story, not THE story like you would be in a survival horror or most FPS.  The glory goes to your squad, not just you.  Or at least that's the way it is supposed to go.  If you John Wick your way like me then......So I've not been mad that so far that this hasn't been isolation.  Though I can see how Marines vs Kenner Aliens would upset people.

Marine and universe lore.  Still waiting for gigantic penis Army soldiers to make an appearance in the Alien universe, but this game so far has done a respectable job of building up background and lore for the Marine Corps and its role in future of US/UA history. 

My ideal game now would be to have Marine vs movie Aliens where the Aliens move to outflank and outmaneuver you while you use your superior tech to put them down.  This kind of game was my ideal game when I was 13. 

It's not gorgeous but the aesthetic is very Alien/Aliens inspired.  I can dig it.

Things I don't like so far:

Why in god's name would a pistol be a primary weapon?  It makes no sense.  Running around with a literal close quarters weapon as a primary and not vice versa is silly.  I know you can insta switch so its not really any kind of big deal but it is literally one of those think about it things.  Your primary should offer suppression and range over your CLOSE quarters weapon if it doesn't............then it is the cqw. 

Mass swarms.  The variety of enemy types are the only thing that saves the gameplay here.  But when it is mostly runners or their variants it gets boring quick.  Should've done some different gameplay sections where alien swarm wasn't the primary obstacle.  Maybe it gets better later.  But I'm guessing probably not.

It is one of those unfinished releases.  Like most 3rd person shooters, there seems to be obvious plans for expansions.  BUT this is a double edged sword if not enough people buy the game to warrant those seasons.  Still probably better for the business, but shitty for the fan. 

Anybody know how well it is doing?

Not scary.  But this is part of the monster being cooked.  We all know what the Alien is now and what it does.  It is never going to be as scary as it once was, but this game doesn't try very hard to offer any fright. 

Early take:  6.5/10.  Not terrible.  Not marque Aliens title either. 

Definitely better than ACM but what is that really saying.

I'd put every other title with Alien in its name ahead at this moment (that I've played, and that is most of them, but not all). 

[StanSwitek]

I was quite annoyed trying to find other players on PS4, for the Gift of Fire mission. I tried over and over again and it wouldn't put players into my party so I had to play with AI. I wonder if this is a bug, or there's just not enough people playing to fill my squad.

[SuperiorIronman]

While I wait on a patch so I can actually finish the thing I'm just going to give my impression of it and not any sort of final grade. I doubt that my opinion will change that much but provided it does I'll follow up with a second score.

As is this the game is broken.
It's hordes from when you start the level to the end. It's not all xenos but all specialty xenos are sponges and so are the guys with guns. Chapter 3 is also nearly unplayable due to framerate or even a mixture of that and the servers shitting themselves. You could go solo, but your backup A.I is a crapshoot whether they fire on enemies or run into the middle of a room to die. And really the A.I is almost a necessity since when they work they'll do wonders taking out the copious amounts of Runners. Alternatively they will eat glue and they'll run into a horde of synthetics or xenos and do nothing but die. I dealt with this immediately making me wonder how this thing got passed QA other than this thing has jumped from company to company to the point they just want the game out. f**k it, it's shipping.

- Matchmaking seems to be broken hardly getting a squad let alone a full one. And I do mean even getting a squad, you do risk the game not even giving you A.I which will cause your game to crash.
- Sound cuts mid sentence or audio cue
- Audio cues for things like roars or warning for a prowler is a crapshoot whether it activates at all
- Sound in Chapter 3 is playing overtop itself in sections like with Cynthia.
-  Framerate tanks considerably but gets bad in Chapter 3 and apparently even worse in 4. Since I cannot complete the game due to framerate I will only be commenting up to Chapter 3.
- Xeno spawns are not just limited to vents or holes but can appear out of thin air in front of the player. This includes specialty xenos like Warriors and Drones.
- Damage is being dealt before xeno attack animation ends
- Maps unload as you enter new areas, in Chapter 3 this removed a portion of the level behind me not obscured by the door. Upon turning around to get ammo I found a void where the hallway used to be.
- Xenos fall through the map. Not sure why but this is something I'm seeing fairly often, great for getting rid of that annoying spitter but bad in that it is a bug.
- Not sure if it's a bug but nobody is lip-synced.
- Not sure if it's a bug but textures are PS3 quality in terms of appearance. Something is off here but I can't tell if that's developer design or if that was something to do with graphics.

I might be missing something but that's what I saw on my playthrough in terms of bugs.

The game otherwise is a horde shooter and it never ceases. You do not get a break in the action because one room to the next it's even more xenos. This might be where the framerate issue is coming into play because for the amount of enemies on screen the game may be lagging. This might explain Chapter 3 where you have the headcrabs (I don't give a shit what the name is, that's what they are) who spawn in massive quantities. The specialty xenos like spitters, prowlers, and drones are good ideas. They break up the action a bit but early game they're as spongey as the drone or warrior. They become less an issue later on but the game wants you to burn ammo and it's not helped by how many enemies will require the better part of your reserves. Having to play solo due to matchmaking issues has made this really noticeable. The leveling system I didn't see too much of, I'm trying to get new weapons, I'm trying to minmax characters. It's fine and pretty straightforward but I don't feel like I can really play with it due to how much it costs to get newer weapons and gear. Though I will concede that I haven't played every class so there's obviously stuff I'm missing.

As is though the game's buggy (no pun intended) and while I forced my way through Hunting Grounds blue screens I could in that at the very least reach level cap whereas here I'm struggling to get through a single level. And really even if I could complete it I want to complete it to give it a fair chance, but I honestly can't imagine myself replaying it otherwise. It's all horde. The first mission is indicative of everything else I've seen barring synthetics and whatever Chapter 4 has but I can't see it since the game is so bugged.

D+
Cannot complete the game as it currently stands. The gameplay loop is shallow. The game is full of bugs literally. Wait for it to go on sale and or play with friends. You're likely not getting much of anything from this unless you're on this board or just need something to play.

[Voodoo Magic]

I was quite annoyed trying to find other players on PS4, for the Gift of Fire mission. I tried over and over again and it wouldn't put players into my party so I had to play with AI. I wonder if this is a bug, or there's just not enough people playing to fill my squad.

So this is me.

My second experience last night, my party settings were public, I got into the queue and couldn't find any real players to play with. This is the first week of release and I repeat, I couldn't find anyone to play with.

We know there's no crossplay, but is that even mean between generations? Perhaps it works in Private Matches, but if I'm on PS4-Pro, do I not get in the queue with PS5 players? Is that just another filter that minimizes a player pool, along with I assume the campaign level you're selecting, along with the difficulty level you're selecting that narrows your compatible player search? Perhaps. I dunno. No players to find.

Well either way, I played again with da Bots last night and they seemed to be my undoing. I was playing the last Hoenikker mission where he's armed with a handgun helping, and those final Alpha swarms did me in - twice because both times those Alpha and Beta knuckleheads died on me first, and I couldn't survive the swarms alone last man standing.

Did I say I think the A.I. is smart? Maybe not. If I have to run to an ammo box to reload for a sec, instead of holding the line, they like to stop shooting and run with me. Will those knuckleheads even revive you if you're down I wonder....? Haven't even gotten there yet.

So last night. Second impressions:

My first try with bots.... so much arcade fun!

My second try... err, do I have to spend another half hour redoing the entire thing?

My third try... f*ck no. I'm turning it off.

[StanSwitek]

Yep I'm with you VM. Another annoyance is no checkpoints, which helps to make this a game you really can only play in short (controlled) bursts, an hour or so at a time. Because if you get to the final encounter of a mission and die you're going all the way back to the beginning, so I think the hell with it and do something else. There's no restart mission option even, you have to choose to return to base (if you're in a squad and return to base, this could take a long time loading, and sometimes hangs quite a while, because I think it waits until all 3 players are loaded), and then start the mission again from there.

and as to your question about PS4 being matched with PS5 players, I don't think that happens. No crossplay whatsoever even between generations of the same system. I am pretty sure. So  I think its a matter of just not enough players available. Which is a shame. It also doesn't help that there's no filters, as you said. You can't just say, please put me into ANY game, I don't care the difficulty, if there's cards enabled, I just want to play with PEOPLE!

[426Buddy]

Glad I haven't experienced any of the framerate or sound issues.

Runs great on my xb1x

The matchmaking is broken though.

[Corporal Hicks]

You gotta be partying up to get the most out of this game. Like Hunting Grounds, this kind of game just loses so much if you're not communicating and playing with buddies.

[Voodoo Magic]

You gotta be partying up to get the most out of this game. Like Hunting Grounds, this kind of game just loses so much if you're not communicating and playing with buddies.

Nah, I mean yes, to a degree, both are best when playing with your buddies.....BUT.... I have taken down many o' Predators while pairing with people I don't know playing Predator: Hunting Grounds. So much I can't even count. And it was fun! I even made some Playstation friends in the process. And there's always people to join with in Predator Hunting Grounds within a 20-30 Second wait time, good players or bad. And you can play alone as a Predator too.

But Aliens Fireteam Elite feels like you can't defeat the game without real players, and as of yet (at least for me) there's no available players  to find in the queue.

[judge death]

Dont forget either that once the servers are down you can only play this game with the bots, so beating the game wont be possible then on medium settings or higher.

[Kailem]

Peer to peer matchmaking is a thing, and I'm pretty sure that's what this game is already using anyway.

The first couple of times I tried I didn't get anyone to team up with either, but every time since then it's found random people pretty much immediately. I'm guessing it's just down to release teething troubles, as is the case with a lot of games' matchmaking to start with (unfortunately), and hopefully it'll improve over time.

So far I have encountered a bug where the sound cut out at the end of the first mission of the second campaign and I had to do the last fight in almost total silence (twice) which sucked, but that's about the only major problem I've had so far.

For various reasons I haven't been staying up as late playing games as I often used to these last several months, but I'm hoping to get back to that a bit more with this game and hopefully be able to get into some full teams with people I can actually talk to and coordinate with, because that's definitely going to be key to finishing these missions on the harder difficulties.