For a while I've been thinking about doing little write ups on games I've played. Not necessarily reviews or criticisms, more of a "oh I tried this for a few days, it was one of the games ever made" type of casual posting. Two things have gotten in my way: the first is that I haven't properly finished a game in a long, long while, and while that's hardly a requirement, it still makes me feel a bit awkward. The second is that Aliens: Fireteam Elite has been devouring my free time ever since it was added to PS+ last month, to the point of making it to second place of my most played games of the year. So that got me thinking: why? Is it that good? Its not a genre I'm in love with, and not a setting I'm in love with, so what is it doing that's gripping me so badly? That's what I'm going to talk about instead, not just to share with others but to organize these thoughts in my mind.
Let's start with the basics: What the heck is Aliens Fireteam Elite? A third-person shooter game that follows the mold of Left4Dead, or in this case Left3Dead since you play in squads of 3 marines. You have 4 'campaigns' each with 3 missions, a DLC (which I have not purchased), plus Endless Modes (unlocked after you finish the story for the first time) where you defend points against increasing waves of xenos. The structure of the campaigns is simple enough: You and your squad are sent to places with suspected xeno activity and shoot your way from point A to point B. There's some quite interesting justifications for all this, unironically, and while there's some good character interactions, that's more of a seasoning than the full meal.
One of the things that I've been thinking about is why this game got me so badly, since I generally find this type playstyle of doing the same mission again and again terribly boring. L4D, Vermintide, even Deep Rock Galactic never sucked me in - though I still keep trying my hand at DRG just for the sheer uniqueness of it. And the reason for that comes mostly from the fact that, while you're going through the same places, you're constantly shifting your playstyle due to the fact that the game offers you 7 different classes, and also multiple types of weapons (those are, by default, classified as "Heavy", "Rifle", "Handgun" and "Close Quarters", which are deliberately vague).
In L4D, every time you try a mission again, even if you pick different characters, they're all mechanically the same. You get different voice lines, but all weapons, all items, all actions are static. In Vermintide you have the option of classes but that game suffers from horrible RNG and lootbox-y rewards. DRG has some fun with it, making the dwarves diverse enough, but I felt the progression a tad too slow.
When you start Fireteam Elite, you have the option of 6 classes, the basic "Gunner" being the default, and IMO quite boring, option. Its a Rifle/CQW marine, with the abilities of boosting firerate or throwing grenades - an "ability" that always disappoints me in any game. That didn't sell me too hard on the gameplay, and even when I tried a few of the others I felt a bit underwhelmed. Doc is interesting - I love being support - but field healing wasn't that interesting compated to the default medkits. Technician is your classic sentry deployer, but plinking xenos from a distance automatically also didn't make much of a difference - especially since one-use sentries are items you'll find during any mission. I felt superfluous.
What changed things to me were the level up mechanics. You see, your classes go from I to VIII, and the moment you level up for the first time you unlock skill modifiers and augments. Your chosen class will have a Resident Evil-like puzzle space where you can slot in those modifiers, amplifying your base abilities, your weapons, or even changing skills entirely. The default turret wasn't that interesting, but a close-range flamethrower one? That was a game changer. The satisfaction of not only getting exp, but also slowly unlocking skills and skill spaces hypercharged my brain.
Worse - or better - yet: You also earn new weapons and attachments with missions. They are all unique, meaning you don't get random stat rolls or anything of the like (Its absurd I have to state that but 2023 gaming let's gooooo!) and surprise: Your weapons also level up. Like I mentioned before, their categories are intentionally vague as well, which makes the type variety quite engrossing.
One example from two similar weapons, and how I felt very differently about them: The Demolisher and the Lancer both wield "Heavy" type weapons. By default, that's a smartgun, a huge rotating cylinder of doom that automatically targets any xeno in your FOV, something great for newcomers. However there's others "Heavy" guns, like RPGs, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers. The last one made me ecstatic: I knew they'd be low range since that's Videogame Balancing, but couldn't resist the allure of the flames. Putting it in practice was disappointing, however: Getting too close to xenos is not a smart decision, the large flames make visualizing incoming enemies hard, and its an unwieldy weapon, plus the damage was not that intense. At first I wrote off flamethrowers entirely as a waste.
Then I found another one, this time a one-handed CQW. And it just happens that there's another class that was a good fit for that: The Phalanx, who can use a reinforced shield and slowly walk forward, withstanding any plain attacks - acid and lunges/grabs still break through. And that clicked with me. In a moment I turned into a slow walking fortress of destruction, any corridors or cramped spaces turning into a playground of flames as I moved forward, uncaring, spraying flames at everything that dared to get too close. It was an amazing experience, and got me gripped in that single type of playthrough for a few days.
Like I mentioned before, weapons also level up, up to 4 levels. They don't unlock new attachments slots or firing modes, but they get static bonuses, which can be quite satisfying. Grenade launchers and RPGs can get bigger splash damage, rifles can get faster reload or faster firing speed, pistols can be more accurate, and so on. Those are also static rewards, and you can see what you'll get as soon as you earn the weapon. Talking about attachments, each weapon can have 3 different ones: a variation of barrel, magazine and scopes. This adds yet another layer of customization. Maybe a weapon reloads too slow, or is too unwieldy. After a good fumbling around and adjusting, you can change those stats around, or even go into a different direction altogether: Maybe you want it to have larger magazines instead, or a longer range.
Like weapons, attachments can be bought with credits you get from missions, but are also mostly earned as rewards themselves. That can be a little bit of a damper, relying on finishing certain missions to earn a weapon or attachment that can make you enjoy the game more, but for me that's another layer of brain stimulation: What new toy am I going to get??? Only one way to find out.
That takes me to the last aspect that got me still stuck in this xenohole. There's different levels of difficulty in this game, and at first I had no plans of playing anything above default. The basic settings highlight enemies as you take aim, as well as disable friendly fire, two things that I found crucial, at least as a beginner. But after finishing the campaign and playing repeating missions for a while, I craved a little more challenge. Upping the difficulty once threw a few surprises along my way - more enemies, less ammo, more damage - but also another layer of addiction: There's new weapon rewards you earn from playing on harder modes. And that was a good enough reason for me to double down on improving myself, and feeding that starving loot goblin I have instead of a brain.
This is all to mention only the larger aspects, but there's also other little things. You have mission modifiers you can take with to earn more credits/exp. Do you want to always have a Xeno Drone hunting after you? Have random mobs be replaced by elite enemies? Have slower movement or worse aim? Pick your poison and turn a familiar mission into a different trial. There's weapon skins, as well as player skins, and after you rank up enough you get into a 0 - 100 Elite category in which you earn cosmetics, as well as Bronze/Silver/Gold badges and titles. There's Daily and Weekly tasks, giving you even more reason to revisit certain campaigns. And you can find Intel during missions, little things that add to the lore and characterization when you chat about them with characters back in the main hub.
At this point I'm starting to feel a little bit of that grip loosening. A few of my classes are already at the max level, as well as plenty of weapons. The next level of difficulty feels a bit too daunting to me, and without the dangling carrot of rewards in front of me, I don't feel as motivated to keep playing (play games for fun??? what's wrong with you!? /s ). But I still have to sit back and reflect on just how badly this title surprised me, coming out of nowhere to sweep me off my feet.