Aliens: Fireteam Elite

Another game that came to me via the Playstation Plus system that I chose to play purely because it was the next game alphabetically that I hadn't tried. My expectations weren't high, given how poor I found "Colonial Marines" to be, and I was right to be wary as, whilst this was better, it still couldn't sustain more than a couple of hours interest.

A co-operative shoot 'em up, "Fireteam Elite" sees you and two companions, either human or AI, responding to a distress call from a space station and finding it overrun by Xenomorphs. There are variations in the aliens, including spitting or exploding mutations, as well as queens and bigger 'hero' sized creatures. There are classes of characters to play as, with differing weapon loadouts and specialisms.

Nobody I know was playing the game so I progressed, for as much as I could be bothered, with two synthetic A. I. companions who, as much as anything else, conspired to drag any interest I had out of the game. They were simultaneously useless and far too effective. Killing aliens before I'd even seen them sometimes and at other points running away when we should be protecting a location or making a stand. They conspired to make a game, that might be fun with two other humans, who could talk to each other, incredibly boring. It also doesn't help that the visuals, on the space station at least, are very boring and repetitive, with endless corridors to nowhere and only one way to proceed despite the illusion of options. This might improve once you get to the planet, but I didn't stick with the game that long.

The aliens themselves do attack from all potential sides, which is interesting, but generally they follow prescribed routes and are no challenge at all. It's only in the artificial hoard mode sections that the game sets up where you can really die and it was one of those that proved to be my last interaction with the game.

As I say, it might be a better experience with other humans and you can talk about strategy but as a single player experience, it's very dull.