Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 preview: A flashy and entertaining co-op shooter

Polygon RSS Feed✍ Tomas Franzese📅 June 10, 2026⏱ 4 min read(3 months ago)

Overview & Key Takeaways

Knowing Alien: Isolation 2 is on the way makes it easier to enjoy the vastly improved action of Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 from Cold Iron Studios


Polygon Summer Game Fest 2026	Polygon Summer Game Fest 2026 Live game reveals, world premiere trailers, and what’s next from 40+ developers, publishers, and hardware makers.
Dive in→

All corners of the Alien fandom are pretty well-served right now. Alien: Romulus andAlien: Earthare giving fans some pretty great live-action horror to watch,Alien: Isolation 2 is set to bring that same spooky energy back to the video game medium, and Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is on the way for those of us who like the more action-packed side of the Alien franchise.

If only one of these existed without the others, it might be hard to fully appreciate a single one of them. That’s why the original Fireteam Elite was a bit underrated when it launched in 2021, as fans were yearning for more horror-leaning Aliens content. Now, with a sequel that seems to improve on its co-op shooter formula in pretty much every way, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 has a real opportunity to become one of the next big co-op games — and a more action-heavy prelude to the highly anticipated Alien: Isolation 2.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is a co-op shooter where you control Colonial Marines clearing Xenomorphs and rogue synths out of remote space stations. There will be 15 different levels and a horde mode, with the one I played at Summer Game Fest Play Days being a mid-game stage titled Rust In Peace.

While there are light objectives, like activating certain terminals, the main crux of Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is fighting. This is not a survival horror game, as you can pretty consistently take down the Xenomorphs that come at you as long as you play carefully. Still, it’s mixing all of the right elements to be a co-op shooter I won’t want to put down.

This is a class-driven game, with the Duelist, Machinist, Marauder, Hunter, and Medic jobs giving players a variety of weapons and abilities to use in a firefight. I played as the Machinist class, which meant I could deploy turrets and a drone alongside me at any time. There were actually several Machinists in my squad, so we were absolutely mowing through Xenomorphs once we got a couple of turrets going.

One of the biggest draws of Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is a specialist class that will allow players to mix and match abilities and perks from the other classes to create a custom one, but I wasn’t able to try it during my demo. One new gameplay feature I did get a feel for is the new ammo types. Equipping fire or plasma ammo and letting loose on a horde of Xenomorphs does not get old.

It’s not just regular Xenomorphs this time around, either. Synths will show up as enemies, offering a humanoid enemy type that rewards getting headshots. The addition of bloater-like Xenomorph types also affected the order in which I attempted to solve each combat puzzle the game threw at my squad.

Usually, that meant placing my turret on a table where enemies couldn’t reach it, spawning my drone, and unloading any special ammo I had on the aliens that dared to face my squad. The squads are bigger this time around, featuring four players instead of three. The increase in squad size made me feel very powerful as we were playing on a lower difficulty, and I don’t mind now being able to play this game with more friends.

I also got a look at the hub players visit between missions, where you can visit various vendors and customize your character. There are a lot more options in the sequel, which is a compliment I can extend to the entire game. Fireteam Elite 2 doubles down on its predecessor, leaning into and expanding on what worked while adding more customization options, from cosmetics to gameplay.

A player defends themselves in Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 Image: Daybreak Game Company

Now that we have a lot of movies, TV shows, and games to service the horror side of this franchise, I don’t have to feel bad about Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 fully embracing the series’s action-heavy side. This is a flashy and entertaining co-op shooter to rival the likes of Left 4 Dead. This was one of my favorite titles I played at Summer Game Fest this year, and I can’t wait to check out the rest of the game.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will be released for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X|S later this summer.

September is looking rather busy

✈ Read Original at Polygon RSS Feed ← Back to All News

More in Multi-platform

🎮 Multi-platform

Tech Experts Call Grand Theft Auto 6 The Most Visually Advanced Game To Date, Which Explains Why It’s Stuck At 30FPS

Grand Theft Auto 6(https://www.gamespot.com/games/grand-theft-auto-vi/) has finally had its first big gameplay reveal, giving us our first real look at Rockstar's massive open-world and the amount of detail it holds. It's one that might be the most visually-impressive game we've ever seen, according to the experts at Digital Foundry. Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie and Richard Leadbetter(https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/gta-6-an-extended-look-analysis-perhaps-the-most-impressive-showcase-weve-ever-seen-in-real-time-rendering) have praised GTA 6's visual presentation, with Mackenzie specifically going as far to call it the "most impressive example of real-time game rendering" he's ever seen. The pair praised a slew of details showcased in the gameplay, including standout character rendering, especially the hair physics and skin details across not just the game's protagonist, but many NPCs too. Ray tracing use was also praised, with the pair pointing out how Rockstar has delicately implemented it in the right places for the biggest impact, and is leaning on older conventional methods in the pursuit for a better balance between fidelity and performance. Performance was a big talking point too, especially so given how poorly GTA 5 performed on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 when it initially launched. Rockstar has always seemingly favored the best looking image quality over the smoothest, but that seems to have changed with GTA 6. Digital Foundry noted that while the game was rendering at 30 frames per second, that target seems to be consistently hit, with the team rarely finding dips during its analysis of all 48,242 frames. According to Digital Foundry's calculations(https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/gta-6-with-30fps-seemingly-confirmed-is-60fps-actually-realistic), the gameplay preview of GTA 6 was rendering at a native 1440p and then upscaled to 4K without using a modern upscaling technique, leading to a slightly soft image that can hopefully be improved before launch. The team also reaffirmed its prediction for several months ago, saying that it doesn't expect Rockstar to release a 60fps performance mode for GTA 6 on this generation of consoles, even with significant compromises to the outstanding visual presentation on offer. It expects the PlayStation 5 Pro to offer better examples of ray-traced effects or potentially higher resolution targets, but the CPU remains the biggest bottleneck in a world with so much simulation that would make halving the rendering time nigh impossible without a significantly more capable processor. That's something that a PC release in the future might showcase. There are so many details packed into the Grand Theft Auto 6 showcase that you might have missed, so make sure to check out our biggest takeways from the presentation(https://www.gamespot.com/videos/grand-theft-auto-vi-gta6-29-biggest-takeaways-from-the-reveal/), including the return of a six-star wanted level(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6-returns-to-six-star-wanted-levels/), how you can pet (and scold) dogs around the city(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/you-can-pet-and-scold-you-monster-the-dog-in-gta-6/), some of the references fans are already picking up(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6-looks-like-it-features-this-popular-tv-show-apartment/), and how you won't need to engage with the game's love story if you don't want to(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6s-jason-and-lucia-arent-necessarily-a-couple/).

🎮 Grand Theft Auto🎮 GTA

GameSpotNewsabout 2 hours ago

🟩 Xbox, Multi-platform

Xbox CEO calls Project Helix a ‘family of devices’

According to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Project Helix, which she announced in March as a codename for Microsoft's "next generation console" - phrasing that seemingly implied a singular device - will actually be a "family" of devices." "We've been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, &8230;

TheNewsabout 2 hours ago

🎮 Multi-platform

CD Projekt Red Offers To Help Gamescom Theft Victim As Industry Shows Its Support

The annual Gamescom(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamescom-opening-night-live-2026-all-the-biggest-announcements-games-and-trailers/) event is meant to showcase some of the best upcoming video games, but at least two apparent thefts have thrown a damper on this year's festivities. Indie developer Ryan Laley reported(https://x.com/RyanLaley/status/2093280590996869487) that his equipment was stolen from his Gamescom booth, which he said was "a huge blow financially and mentally." Fortunately, Laley has received an outpouring of support from the industry, including The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. On X, CD Projekt Red responded to Laley's initial message and offered to "see if we can send a few things your way," before adding "No choom should have to start from zero." https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/2093352395044483450 Laley went on to thank CD Projekt Red and others in the industry for their generous offers. He also gave a shoutout to marketing consultant Indie Game Joe for donating the funds to replace his lost equipment. https://twitter.com/RyanLaley/status/2093387270556426431 In turn, Indie Game Joe suggested that players(https://x.com/IndieGameJoe/status/2093428156325584965) should wishlist Laley's upcoming game, Mimic(https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/2606850/). Unfortunately, this isn't the only reported theft at Gamescom this year. Iam8bit has posted that two of its laptops were stolen from its booth overnight despite the presence of security. It also noted that the laptops contained early demos for Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2. https://twitter.com/iam8bit/status/2093398808650719323 Gamespot has reached out to Gamescom for comment about the reported thefts. We'll update this story if and when we receive a response.

GameSpotIndie, Newsabout 3 hours ago

← Back to GameSky Home