ALIENTIDE

ALIENS: FIRETEAM ELITE isn’t the perfect organism, but it’s decent co-op fun.

- Robert Zak

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is dumb explosive fun – a swarm-based action game that’s derivative of both Left 4 Dead and Gears of War, but with a few nice touches of its own. It has that competent mid-budget feel that’s becoming identifiable as publisher Focus Home’s house style, with the sparse story and cheesy dialogue and NPCs who talk without opening their mouths.

It’s also very co-op-dependent, and how good a time you have will be dictated by whether you play alongside real people or the voiceless bots that stand in for them.

Set across four chapters of three missions each, the Fireteam campaign is a slideshow of distinctly ‘Alien’ environments. There’s the occasional pretty vista, but your traversal of these spaces is mostly flat and non-interactive. That’s not too much of a problem because you’ll probably be preoccupied with blasting away the hundreds of aliens streaming out of every environmental orifice.

These claustrophobic levels are functional, heightening the balls-to the-wall intensity as the walls and ceiling turn black with Xenos. Your fusillade of gunfire will cause aliens to stumble and roll, but even so they continue to charge you with hive-minded ferocity.