User:Freighttrain/Aliens: Fireteam LITE

( Updated as of 05/09/2022 )

Contact e-mail : freighttrain@email.com

I originally made a blog article on what ideas would have been good for this game, though this was back when they said that Aliens: Fireteam Elite was going to be more in-depth like Destiny, anyway I am not impressed with what they've turned out, I would recommend instead playing the Payback Time mod for Aliens Versus Predator 2 (2001) with your friends, rather than paying $55 for this piece of half-finished eye candy. I'd also like to draw attention to how I focus on the aspect of realism in several areas of my review, this is because I believe that the Alien franchise is one of hard science fiction, that is if you can accept how FTL and artificial gravity are necessary for the story to even take place.

=Good features=
 * All the new little tidbits of Alien franchise lore are nice, with the exception of:
 * Anything from Prometheus (fai)lore.
 * The 'Iapetus Protocols of 2163'.
 * The inane new retcon known as the 'Colonial Protection Act of 2187', and anything related to it.
 * Including the subsequent renaming of the USCM to the 'UACM'.
 * And creation of the 'CMISRS'.
 * Anything to do with the poorly-conceived Seneca working class coup.
 * And the equipment fabricators mentioned by Staff Sergeant Park, which at best look like an attempt to piggyback on the expired hype of the short-lived 3D printer craze, and at worst seem like something misappropriated from Star Trek.
 * The new weapons are a welcome addition to the arsenal, depending on how many of those are service weapons employed by the USCM before 2187, i.e. which weapons I can include in my classification system as being in service with the USCM, not just the 'UACM'.
 * The graphical quality and effects are good and the aesthetics are nice.
 * The sounds and voice acting are nice.
 * The firing-from-cover system is good, though only really useful against enemy combat synthetics.
 * Accuracy when firing from the hip without a reticle is easy to develop intuitive skill with.
 * The Xenomorphs look right and move about closely enough to how they should.
 * Except that the Runners are too slinky and mammalian when moving, it doesn't look right, they should have made their movements less soft and more insectoid.
 * Warriors also run too slowly and seem very clumsy and sentimental in close combat.

=Problems=

Fundamental franchise elements

 * The new 'pulse rifle' (M41A2) has no 4-shot grenade launcher !?
 * The new 'pulse rifle' (M41A2) only has a 60 not 95-round magazine capacity !?
 * There was plenty of cutting through door security bolts with the hand welder, but no sealing of doors with it, this would be because you only ever need hold an objective or move toward another one, rather than trying to escape something.
 * No drivable APC or even Powered Work Loader really limits the potential gameplay experience.

General

 * The fireteams should be four person teams, and the integer series combat synthetics should have customisable loadouts when hosting private matchmaking.
 * The motion tracker should be a feature exclusive to the Gunner class, which is help up to look at with a key press rather than as a passive minimap, and with opportunities to make proper use of it when it would give an actual advantage.
 * I never felt the need to look at the motion tracker, it might have something to do with the display being to small.
 * There should be a limit of one mini sentry gun consumable per fireteam member (the Technician class may not use that consumable as they already carry a mini sentry gun with their 'Sentry Turret' ability).
 * The Technician and Doc classes having both a slot for a handgun weapon while still carrying a sidearm is a bit weird, soldiers usually don't bother to carry a pistol at all.
 * The APEsuit Mk.3 outfit should not be a cosmetic option, but its own class, as the Apesuit protects one from both Xenomorph blood and Facehugger impregnation.
 * The class perks system mostly doesn't make any sense, as with the class abilities and weapon attachments/modifications/rank-up system I mention later, a lot of the stat enhancements and other capabilities just don't make any sense realistically.

Gunner

 * Loadout
 * The Gunner class if they choose should have the option of carrying a handgun instead of a CQW as their backup weapon.
 * Abilities
 * The 'Overclock' ability should not increase fire rate, it should just increase reload speed, stability/handling and movement speed.

Demolisher

 * Loadout
 * Due to wielding a heavy weapon, the Demolisher class should have a handgun slot instead of a rifle one.
 * Abilities
 * The 'Micro Rockets' ability which launches mini rockets from a retractable shoulder-mounted launcher is interesting, but seems much more like something that one would find on an Exosuit or Berserker cyborg, also it is too similar to a Yautja Plasmacaster.
 * The 'Blastwave' ability where a special grenade is thrown at your feet, which knocks back enemies surrounding you in a circular wavefront, doesn't really make any sense, it seems like it should trip up the player as well, since it detonates from a point and not at the outer edges of the players feet.

Doc

 * Loadout
 * The Doc class if they choose should have the option of carrying a CQW instead of a rifle as their backup weapon.
 * Abilities
 * The 'Trauma Station' makes no sense, with that level of technology, how could there be a device that somehow rapidly heals people within a radius using some kind of energy field, this should instead have been a cooldown ability to heal oneself or team members, like a medpack but only half the healing effect.
 * The Combat Stims are a good idea, but for realism obviously should have no effect on combat synthetic fireteam members.

Technician

 * Abilities
 * The passive ability 'Cross Platform-Synergy' doesn't make any sense, as it somehow allows the Technician to passively repair damage to his mini sentry gun, just by being near it.

Recon

 * Loadout
 * The Recon class should have a handgun slot instead of a CQW one.
 * Abilities
 * There is no reason for the drone from the PUPS ability to be able to lower the damage done by enemies.
 * The Support Drone ability should not be able to restore ammunition and hitpoints.

Phalanx

 * Abilities
 * The 'Bulwark' passive ability doesn't make any sense, how is blocking damage with the shield supposed to increase your damage output.

Lancer

 * Loadout
 * Due to wielding a heavy weapon, the Lancer class should have a handgun slot instead of a CQW one.
 * Abilities
 * The 'Particle Lance' ability firing from the shoulders is not practical for aiming, if they were to fire from anywhere it should be from the helmet.
 * And like with the 'Micro Rockets' ability of the Demolisher class, the Phalanx class's 'Particle Lance' which fires twin particle beams from each shoulder seems cool, but is really something that should be equipped on an Exosuit or Berserker cyborg, and again it is too similar to a Yautja Plasmacaster.
 * The 'Onslaught' ability doesn't make any sense, realistically how could something possibly instantly reload your equipped weapon, lower its fire rate and increase its damage per shot.
 * The 'Overwatch' passive ability is ok with increasing accuracy and stability, but there's no reason it should increase damage output.

Weapons

 * The new 'pulse rifle' (M41A2) has no 4-shot grenade launcher !?
 * The new 'pulse rifle' (M41A2) only has a 60 not 95-round magazine capacity !?
 * As far as I can tell the difference between the weapon stats of stability and handling is not explained.
 * A weapon's stats should show the rate of fire in rounds-per-minute.
 * Reloading a weapon that has at least one round remaining should not top up the magazine, it should just switch through the magazines available with their current ammunition levels as they are, with reload selection priority to magazines with more rounds remaining.
 * Weapons should be able to fire through wire mesh screens.
 * Too many burst-fire weapons, they are redundant and the automatic weapons should just be select-fire.
 * Weapon projectiles travel too slowly, including bullets, rockets and grenades, flamethrower streams should also project more forcefully and with greater range.
 * Shotguns pellets should not be able to penetrate Xenomorph carapace, it was only effective in the Aliens movie because it was fired directly in the mouth of a Xenomorph, buckshot should only be effective against unarmoured targets.
 * Shotguns should be able to switch to slug ammunition in order to penetrate Xenomorph carapace.
 * Since they've added so many armature grenade and rocket launcher heavy weapons, maybe they should make a large automatic shotgun armature heavy weapon, though obviously that is a nonsense weapon.
 * The damage balancing is almost all wrong, the grenade launcher should kill or maim any Xenomorph (with the exception of Crushers, Praetorians and Queens) in one hit, even if it just lands near them, though technically this probably has more to do with Xenomorph toughness than weapon damage.
 * The mêlée attack where you strike an enemy with the but of your gun, should be a bit quicker and more forceful, it should also not damage Xenomorphs or combat synthetics, only stagger them.

Attachments

 * Muzzle brakes should not be shared between rifles and shotguns.
 * Like various class perks and abilities, weapon attachments/modifications often do things that they realistically wouldn't be able to, or which just don't make any sense, such as a muzzle customisation increasing the rate of fire, a magazine somehow refilling itself by %10 on a kill, or a class perk increasing magazine capacity.
 * The weapon rank-up system also doesn't make any sense for the same reasons, how could using a gun more often increase its functional characteristics that are independent of the wielder's skill.
 * All of the scope-type optics attachments should look through the scope when aiming.
 * All of the reflex sight-type optics attachments should increase the ADS (aiming down sights) speed, not just one or two of them.

General

 * Gameplay quicky becomes routine and always involves your fireteam moving toward an objective location, marked on both the motion tracker and in front of you:
 * Along the way to the objective you may encounter Xenomorphs.
 * Sometimes you will need to stay and fight off all of the Xenomorphs before the waypoint marker reappears.
 * Then upon reaching the objective location you will need to either press a button (often with supplies conveniently located next to it), or scan objects in the area before you can press it.
 * Pressing the button will cause a Xenomorph swarm to attack.
 * Then once the Xenomorphs swarm is defeated and if you remain in that area, then about every fifteen seconds three or so Runners will spawn, to keep you on your toes or something.
 * Often the Xenomorph attack will conveniently cease once the person over the radio has hacked the doors or system or whatever, and has a new objective for you to move to, this is unrealistic and really messes with the immersion.
 * This forumula is repeated maybe four or more times per mission.
 * When you enter an area through an automatic door, often that door will not reopen if you want to have more of a look in the previous area, this may be due to some in-game thing where the person over the radio may have said they are locking the doors behind you so that Xenomorphs can't enter through them, however if not then it doesn't really make any sense.
 * It feels more like a game developed for mobile platforms.
 * Should have the option for first-person perspective, third-person perspective in shooters is only necessary when mêlée combat plays a significant role, only being able to hit an enemy with the butt of your gun does not qualify for forced third-person perspective, and even in shooters where mêlée combat plays a significant role, there should still be an option for first-person perspective, where the perspective is instantaneously switched to third-person when the mêlée attack button is pressed.
 * Needs a pause function for both the public and private matchmaking when the other two fireteam members are AI teammates.
 * So many enemies is an unrealistic portrayal when put against a team of three.
 * Needs an option to turn friendly fire on for a more realistic experience, this would be a separate option from the friendly fire damage scaling from Standard to Insane difficulty.
 * Aliens: Fireteam Elite need an actual easy difficulty setting, as the lowest current difficulty setting (Casual) really just feels like Standard difficulty with assists, and later missions can still be quite difficult at points, at least when playing with two combat synthetic fireteam members.
 * Overuse of synthetic enemies, there should also be Weyland-Yutani mercenaries to fight against.
 * Gameplay really only has two modes, 'sit and shit' and 'run and gun'.
 * Needs a multiplayer mode with map/game type selection and maps with much larger open areas, these larger areas should also feature drivable APCs as they are something that has waited too long to be included in an Aliens game.

Mobility

 * Needs a sprint function that uses stamina like the rolls do.
 * Needs a crouch function that allows for greater accuracy and recoil stability, this would be in addition to the fire-from-cover function.
 * There are many obstacles blocking hallways etc., as well as and ledges that should easily be able to be climbed over or used as steps but which are not, this limits mobility and can make a marine an easy target for agile Xenomorphs.
 * Often times the cover-movement system is not intuitive enough for quick movement over obstacles, this can leave a marine helpless when trying to avade larger Xenomorphs.

Superficial

 * When crouching behind cover, moving to face different directions will change the player's marine's grip from right-handed to left-handed when holding their weapon.
 * Consumables should be shown carried on the person of the fireteam member.
 * Heavy weapons should show the selected armature on the loudout screen model.

General

 * Long loading times.
 * The 'exit game' button should just be in the menu tabs (after selecting 'continue game' from the bootup main menu), instead of under the settings tab.
 * Needs a database on encountered Xenomorph varieties with descriptions, capabilities and weaknesses.
 * Aliens: Fireteam Elite is not a F2P game, the campaign should not need to be completed in order to unlock horde mode.
 * That they would censor printed words such as 'shit' with 'mierda' or 'bosta' is just weak, though in-game the player will sometimes say 'fuck', so maybe they just don't want to show swear words in print.

Story

 * There are over 700 marines on-board the UAS Endeavour yet only a team of three marines is ever sent out, this is ridiculous as in Aliens they sent many times that amount in when they didn't even know if there was a threat or not.
 * The sheer amount of Xenomorph enemies makes no sense, the only Queen is on the Katanga orbital refinery, so there should not be such a huge amount of Xenomorphs on the surface of LV-895, and even though the Queen in the orbital refinery can lay Ovomorphs to impregnate hosts with more Xenomorphs, only very few are human-spawned Xenomorphs (Drones and Warriors), with the vast majority of them being Runners, which are spawned from quadrupeds, so they would have had to have transferred hundreds or even thousands of animals from LV-895 to the orbital refinery to be impregnated (which doesn't really make any sense), as I don't think rats are large enough to be facehugged and impregnated, or that there were even any rats on the Katanga orbital refinery at all.
 * Also the Katanga hive was quite extensive, with so much hive webbing present there would need to be a proportionately large amount of Drones to construct it, yet relatively few are encountered.
 * Aliens: Fireteam Elite Should have just ignored Prometheus (fai)lore altogether, also the story feels like a rehash of Aliens vs. Predator (2010) with the focus on ancient alien ruins, as well as Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) with the missions in the deeper alien installation and spacecraft, they should have just made it about corporate intrigue and Xenomorph experiments, without trying to mess with stuff that really belongs in the background.
 * The fourth and final campaign section is basically a combination of the endings of both Alien and its first sequel Aliens, though the problem is that it doesn't make any sense, since if the Condor dropship allegedly has enough firepower to waste a town, then the Tientsin-class Endeavor which is three times as large as a Conestoga-class, should have had more than enough firepower to destroy the orbital refinery, without having to send a team of three (...) marines to board it and set the reactor to detonate.

Characters

 * They should have just used a Bishop model as the battalion synthetic instead of Esther.
 * It seems that the developers were pandering to contemporary North American 'social sensitivities' when they made Aliens: Fireteam Elite, there is literally only one white male NPC that can be interacted with inside the UAS Endeavor; the scientist guy who needed to be rescued like a damsel in distress (and who spends the rest of the game literally breathless, gasping and gushing over the radio at how big, dark and deep the strange alien junk is, then really piped up when they found the alien ship, requesting they do not destroy it, for 'science' (read 'experimentation')...); all the other NPCs are either women, non-white ethnicities or cripples (or all three), the Colonel is a woman, the 1st Lieutenant is an African American, the 2nd Lieutenant dropship pilot is a woman and a crazy Asian (probably Chinese) whose manner makes Vasquez sound like Hyacinth Bouquet (oh and she also has a prosthetic limb for extra social sympathy points), the Staff Sergeant who talks to you in-mission over the radio is a woman, the other Staff Sergeant quartermaster guy is Korean, the nosy CMISRS Corporal guy is a negro and the android (gynoid) is a woman.

Xenomorphs

 * A Xenomorph swarm at button-press locations is just a teeming mass of Runners, appearing in semi-continuous streams or groups of about five from two or three different directions, this is usually punctuated by four to six Bursters and four Spitters, with a Drone or Warrior (or two, one after the other), they usually also give plenty of distance to begin shooting at them, with their only evasive qualities being moving to and from the walls/ceiling, without intelligent use of cover while moving, no sneaking and no pouncing.
 * With the gameplay as bland as it is, they could have at least made Xenomorphs a playable faction.
 * The use of close-range weapons such as pistols, submachine guns and shotguns, doesn't make a lot of sense for use against Xenomorphs, due to the necessity to keep them at range because of their acidic blood and efficiency in close combat, and also because those calibres would usually fail to penetrate Xenomorph carapace.
 * When a Xenomorph has a marine pinned to the ground it should be impossible to push it off, close combat is where they excel and at that range it should be near instant death for the marine, and when a teammate shoots the Xenomorph to get them off of the other guy, the Xenomorph blood spray should just kill them anyway.
 * Xenomorphs should be able to pounce.
 * Xenomorphs will sometimes enter an area through doors that automatically open to them but do not open for the player, this makes no sense and the Xenomorphs should instead just use other access points.
 * Xenomorph caste toughness scaling is one of the biggest problems with gameplay and difficulty settings, all they did was make Runners cannon fodder and buffed everything else far more than necessary, this is just lazy oversimplification and is not how Xenomorphs work, to begin with they should just increase the number of the advanced castes spawned while making them less resilient.
 * Bursters are too tough.
 * Spitters are too tough.
 * Drones are much too tough.
 * Warriors are far too tough, they should have just made them less resilient but greater in number by at factor of at least three, as they are about as tough as a Praetorian should be.
 * Prowlers should be as large as a Warrior and tougher, between a Warrior and Praetorian in terms of resilience.
 * Crushers should be much tougher than Warriors, about the same toughness as a Praetorian or even more so, and they should also be a bit larger than they are in-game.
 * Spitters should fire a hitscan spray of acid at short-range to short-medium range, rather than a gob at medium ranges.
 * Spitters should also just have a standard banana-shaped cranium, rather than the pointy Deacon-like one.
 * The Bursters and Spitters should not have luminescent features, as this is counterintuitive to stealth.
 * Crushers and Praetorians have white stuff on their face, no judgement lol but it looks dumb and weirdly suggestive, just like on the T. rex from Dinosaur Revolution.
 * Xenomorph blood puddles are too green almost like Yautja blood, instead of the dirty yellow colour they should be.
 * Ovomorphs and Facehuggers are not encountered until part way through the first mission of the fourth and final part of the campaign (Katanga orbital refinery), this is strange as the first part of the campaign also takes place on Katanga station.
 * Ovomorphs are not very responsive, unless you are right next to one they need to be shot at before they open.

Pathogen mutants (Prometheus bullshit)

 * Hoppers are swarms of mutant kamikaze-crickets that do not make any sense, I don't see where in nature a creature will charge at you and self-detonate like that.
 * The human mutants are just hordes of cliché zombie-type enemies.

=Terminology revision=
 * When changing appearance, 'Archetype' and 'Feminine'/'Masculine' should instead be 'Gender' and 'Male'/'Female', again this just reeks of contemporary North American 'social sensitivities' toward combo-genders.
 * 'Horde mode' sounds too much like barbarians or orcs, it should instead be called 'swarm mode'.
 * The mini sentry gun consumable and the one used by the Technician class with their 'Sentry Turret' ability, should be distinguisehd from full-sized sentry guns by naming them 'mini sentry guns'.
 * Class names:
 * Gunner → Rifleman
 * Demolisher → Automatic rifleman/Grenadier
 * Doc → Combat medic
 * Technician → Combat engineer
 * Recon → Designated marksman

=Miscellaneous observations=
 * Copying off of other franchises
 * Halo:
 * The dropship in the hangar bay looks a lot like the Pelican from Halo, and the nose and canopy also look quite similar to that of the Tiger from Star Conflict.
 * The Weyland-Yutani and Weyland-Yutani SpecOps outfits look like the Spartan armour.
 * Esther is a gynoid and looks like Cortana the AI hologram from Halo.
 * Stranger Things:
 * The Pathogen Blight enemy look a lot like the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.
 * Male face option 3 looks like Harrison Ford.
 * The battalion synthetic Esther looks like that Elizabeth woman from the BioShock franchise.
 * Colonel Shipp looks almost exactly like Miley Cyrus.