A first look at Aliens: Fireteam gameplay has debuted, giving players a chance to see what this upcoming shooter looks like in advance of its release this summer. Thus far, it looks pretty promising.
Aliens: Fireteam is a three-person co-op shooter from Cold Iron Studios. A new game in the franchise was announced by Cold Iron Studios in early 2018; that developer was then acquired by Daybreak. The game subsequently got its official announcement earlier this month, and now we have our first look at Aliens: Fireteam gameplay from IGN!
Can the Aliens: Fireteam Gameplay Avoid the Mistakes of Colonial Marines?
The Aliens: Fireteam gameplay shows IGN's Ryan McCaffrey playing with some of the developers in an early Alpha build. It looks like this game might avoid the mistakes of past shooters in the franchise (such as the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines) at first glance, but I'm cautiously optimistic.
This new Aliens game is locked to a three-person experience; if you can't muster up two other friends to play with, those spaces will be filled with A.I. Each class has its own unique weaponry and abilities. The Technician, for example, gives you the ability to deploy Sentry Turrets. The video showed us a look at four of the game's five classes in light detail; the "Recon" class has yet to be publicly revealed.
It certainly looks good, but fans of the Aliens franchise are likely to be cautious: they've been burned before. While Alien: Isolation was pretty great, 2010's Aliens vs. Predator was so-so and 2013's Aliens: Colonial Marines was an outright disaster.
It's that latter game — Colonial Marines — that is surely sitting at the back of our minds. The demos of the games looked good when they debuted at E3, but it soon came to light that these demos weren't representative of the actual game at all.
The actual Aliens: Colonial Marines game was a bug-ridden mess at launch filled with braindead A.I. and tons of glitches. Some of these issues were resolved in post-launch patches — some of them weeks or months after launch — but the damage was done. Cold Iron Studios is surely aware of this legacy, and that means that they ahve to get this game right on day one.
I'm not saying that's what's happening here, mind. I believe that Cold Iron Studios is showing off genuine gameplay here — and it does look pretty fantastic — but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking at this and wondering if Cold Iron Studios' next game can truly live up to the alpha gameplay we've seen today.
When is the Aliens: Fireteam Release Date?
The Aliens: Fireteam release date will be sometime in the Summer of 2021; no specific release date has been announced just yet.
Judging by what we've seen today, it looks like Cold Iron Studios might be able to avoid the mistakes of its predecessors and make an Aliens shooter that's actually pretty darn good. I'm excited to try it out, although odds are good that I'm going to wait until after launch before buying it.
For now, you can add Aliens: Fireteam to your wishlist on Steam. You'll be able to get this game for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
What do you think of the Aliens: Fireteam gameplay? Do you think the actual game will live up to the alpha gameplay we saw today? Let us know in the comments below!
