Aliens: Fireteam, the new third-person shooter experience set in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi universe, was announced much to the surprise of many earlier this week.
Prior to then, not a soul had known what the recently formed Cold Iron Studio had been working on, only that its founders are industry veterans with decades of experience between them. Clearly, that collective reputation has paid off, as the developer has managed to snag the Alien IP for its debut project. Interestingly, this is the first game branded as such to be published by 20th Century Games and not Sega. Presumably, until recently, the latter had held the franchise rights, having overseen Gearbox Software’s disastrous Colonial Marines as well as Creative Assembly’s markedly more successful Alien: Isolation.
Unlike either of those, however, this action-packed encounter with the Xenomorphs is a third-person experience that encourages players to team up and survive against a swarm of flesh-hungry biological weapons which, as many had suspected, shares very similar DNA with Valve’s Left 4 Dead series. Nowhere else will you find proof enough of that than by watching 25 minutes of raw gameplay exclusively revealed by IGN up above.
Featuring a class-based system, squads have the option of specializing in all-out offence, defence (think turrets and environmental traps) and support in the form of crowd control. While only a spaceship setting has so far been demoed, Cold Iron says campaigns will take place in several wildly different locations. Progression and customization, meanwhile, come via levelling each individual role as well as choosing between weapon types and abilities, though it’s currently unclear whether these will be subject to one-per-lobby restrictions similar to Marvel’s Avengers.
Impressed with what you see, or does Aliens: Fireteam look worryingly unremarkable? Share your initial reactions in the usual place below!