While I didn’t review the original Aliens: Fireteam Elite game for our site, I did play it a decent amount. As well as helped our reviewer Jason playing co-op so we could get a feel for the team and class building. We did agree on quite a few of the ups and downs of the title, and while the final review reflected its hit or miss features, I think Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will fix (at least my) main issues with the first game.

During Summer Game Fest I got to sit down with Jake Kriegman, the Narrative Designer at Cold Iron Studios, to talk about the upcoming title and play the demo available. I was actually very excited to sit down with him since narrative design was one of the things that felt a bit shallow in the first game. While it was hard to really focus in on the story in this mission due to the nature of the demo and obviously talking with him about the game in general, I loved what I was hearing about how they are moving forward based on feedback.

The updated graphics and lighting make the tight dark corridors even more tense, especially with the Prowlers.

For some context, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 takes place 28 years after Alien, the movie. The demo mission is called Rust in Peace, and it takes place a little less than half way through the game. The Marines have been informed that there is a Weyland-Yutani warship in orbit of a colonized planet. The planet, LV-558, is where mining operations are going on at the colony of Storr’s Boon. During the gameplay you find out things aren’t quite on the up and up at this mining facility. Why is it infested with xenomorphs and what have they been doing here?

First notable thing is Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is now four player co-op which means things need to change with enemies and even some player movement. While we were limited in some customization, we were able to pick between classes. Duelist, single-target DPS and can equip two primary weapons. Hunter, focuses on continuous fire and burst DPS with SMGs and shotguns. Machinist, they can deploy an attack drone, turrets, and plasma weapons. Marauder, AoE class with flamethrowers, rocket launchers, and smartguns. Medic, well, this one is fairly self explanatory. There is one class that wasn’t there and that is the Specialist. This class will be able to mix and match all class unlocks to create their own unique style.

Even the Spitters will leave small pools of acid when killed this time around.

I went with the hunter to focus on the large threats first, and there some nasty new ones. The classics are back of course, but revamped a bit. Spitters and Exploders (previously Bursters) acid will leave larger pools of acid on the ground, and Exploders will also detonate when close to the player. Sirens, these quick moving xenomorphs if not dealt with quickly will continue to call in waves of enemies. Prowlers, are sneaky punks that hunt and flank you from the shadows. Of course the various synthetic enemies are back, but there are new robots. Crawlers, skittering spider-like drones that do large explosive damage when killed. Then the boss of the mission is the Bulwark. This was a large, heavily armored variant of the crawler but with far more firepower, and we had to mostly shoot it in its weak spot for damage.

With added enemies and fiercer revamped classics comes with a need for more firepower. There is now more variety in ammo and grenade type other than fire. Acid and electric are here and these have bonuses against the certain enemy types. Making sure your team is loaded out with a variety of different ammo types will be important for success especially if you want to beef up the difficulty. Challenge cards are back, but this time they are allowing all four players to activate different cards at the same time. This means better rewards, but way more modifiers to make it more difficult on your squad.

Electric ammo and grenades will stun synths and robots.

We had a decent team and made it through without too many of us going down, but there were some dicey moments even with the demo builds they gave us. But I liked what I played with this missions level design. Having multiple areas and verticality spiced it up a bit with the enemy variety. With more focus on story, even giving your player speaking lines and dialogue, as well as beefing up gameplay variety, I think this sequel will provide what was missing from the first game. There is also a dedicated horde mode as well which is always welcome!

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 comes out Summer 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.