ALIENS: FIRETEAM

It’s Left 4 Dead but with xenomorphs, basically

- Andy Kelly

NEED TO KNOW

RELEASE Summer

DEVELOPER Cold Iron Studios

PUBLISHER In-house

LINK aliensfireteam.com

In this new co-op survival shooter, you create your own Colonial Marine, team up with three friends online (or bots), and battle xenomorphs, rogue androids, and other alien-themed enemies across four campaigns. Set 23 years after the movies, you’ve been sent to protect colonies from xenomorph attacks, which have become a regular occurrence.

Developer Cold Iron makes it clear that the inspiration here is Aliens, not Alien. And I can’t help but think, “Haven’t we done this already?”. So many shooters have riffed on James Cameron’s 1986 sequel that it’s become a cliche. And after Alien: Isolation, Fireteam feels like a step backwards.

From how the developer describes Fireteam’s campaigns, Left 4 Dead seems to be a big inspiration. There are 11 species of xenomorph, each with different abilities and behaviours. Zinkievich talks about “an algorithm running behind the scenes” changing things on the fly as you play, which recalls Left 4 Dead’s AI director. And the story-driven campaigns are being designed to be dynamic and unpredictable, encouraging repeat plays.