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FINALLY...a video game that nails the "tone" of Aliens in the same way that Alien: Isolation nailed Alien. I mean: Fireteam Elite, in particular, is bloody good, but it's still just a balls-to-the-wall shoot-a-thon with a tiny hint of atmosphere...
And whoa! I definitely wasn't expecting that bit of suspenseful stealth-y gameplay at the beginning! Looks like we're on the right track already!!
The tutorials for this very real-time strategy game are similarly excellent: thorough, but not so belaboured that you're bored crapless - or excessively confused - by the end of it all. Make no mistake, though, marine: you'll be learning as you go...and get thrown in the deep end pretty darned quickly...
A lot of people are comparing this to the XCOM games, which I'm yet to try. But the one word I'd use to describe what we have here is..."tense". In a very good way! And if, like me, you haven't played an awful lot of games like this - I have played a few Space Hulk games, which are somewhat similar - know that there WILL be a bit of a learning curve. It took me some time to finish the first mission, but by the end of the first five hours I'd gone from having my squad frequently wiped by a few garden-variety Xenomorphs...to successfully surviving a boss fight with no casualties!
My best advice? Don't get spotted any more than is necessary. Stealth is extremely important, and means you have to bring your map up frequently to "motion detect" any aliens in your vicinity...then carefully work your way around them, the long way if necessary, as once you open fire on one you'll attract plenty more, believe-you-me. And whatever you do, don't push your luck too much: if you have to extract your team...EXTRACT! It has its own consequences, but it's a darn sight better than getting perfectly good marines KILLED (especially if you've taken the time to upgrade them over multiple missions)!!
One game I have played extensively that this bears some similarity to, in some ways, is Darkest Dungeon. It's nowhere near as severe here, but if you really hated the psychological/stress effects in DD...you may not love them here either. There's also a "home base" area between missions where you can make decisions regarding who gets healing or recovery from fatigue the quickest, what resources you'll commit to developing new technologies, that kind of thing...and, of course, you have a "pool" of marines with different levels of experience - ones that you've "built up", through to complete newbies - that you can choose from to fill out your squad of four (eventually five) marines to deploy on any given mission. So there's definitely campaign-long consequences to some of your earliest decisions, and if you screw up too much...I guess you might be starting from scratch again! (Me: I just go back a save or two, and try not to screw the same thing up again; but that can, of course, mean quite a bit of time spent replaying some of the more challenging "bits"! Oh, and speaking of saves: one of the most novel "manual save" systems I've yet encountered, as you create your own "safe rooms" to temporarily rest in...by welding shut all entrances to the room you're currently in!!)
One of the most impressive features is the fact that almost every mission has a slightly different "flavour", gameplay/strategy-wise. For example, there's some that are all about surviving a long time on foot, isolated from all aid, possibly carrying your comotase teammates in the hopes of eventually getting them to safety; while others require you to frequently use APC/ARC vehicles to progress, which - as long as you stay close enough to them! - can prove invaluable to the "pacification" of enemies via their reliably fearsome gun turrets (and give you the option of a hasty extraction at any moment, should the sheizer start seriously hitting the fan)! The difference, in other words, between feeling trapped and claustrophobic, versus another kind of anxiety that can be generated by wide-open spaces...requiring a wholly different "strategic" approach. (And sometimes...you simply CAN'T avoid open combat, plain and simple, so you'll just have to ready yourself for that!) This, in comparison to an otherwise utterly brilliant game like Dead Space, which is repetitive enough to overstay its welcome a tad toward the end...
Which brings us to the subject of length: something a lot of video game reviews - especially on a Store-front like Steam - tend to focus on these days. I personally felt the length of this game hit the sweet spot: it took me a little over fifty hours to play through the entire thing and get a majority of the Achievements - no doubt, numerous others did it much, much quicker! - and that's honestly about my limit. Any longer, and games definitely draaaaaag in my opinion. There's still a tiny bit of "grind" if you feel the need to do so; but hey, this isn't Darkest Dungeon or Days Gone (both of which I'm fond of, but man oh maaaan)! By all means, wait for a sale (which I did anyway!) if you require better value than a buck-something per hour of gameplay; but only the whiniest of whiners is gonna complain about what you're getting here for the money. Given I'm happy to pay similar money for a game that's well under ten hours but is utterly excellent...clearly I'm pretty darned happy with my purchase here!
Some negatives, to be objective. The save system isn't excessively generous, especially as the game progresses - expect to be thrown back a long way sometimes, and yes: there's some unskippable cut scenes and/or dialogue that will drive you freaking batty if you have to listen to them over and over and over again after you die/screw things up. And the MAPS. Don't start me on the MAPS you bring up! Frequently, the game spins the camera around so that your in-game view and the map are not synced...meaning you to have to work out what the correct angle is then rotate the bloody camera around (unless you wanna start walking in completely the wrong direction)! Surely this could be corrected: there's no excuse that, once a cutscene or whatever is done, the gameplay can't resume with the map and the camera in agreeance. The number of times I got needlessly spotted by Xenomorphs, just 'cause I was trying to work out which bloody way to walk...!
Oh: and BUGS. As numerous others have reported, and as of this writing...yes, there's a fair few game-breaking bugs (not just the alien ones)! BUT...since I'm the sort of person who saves a lot - tip: use the elevators for a FREE save, if you're running low on tools to create safe rooms - I rarely got thrown back a huge way (but, sure: once or twice)!! So if you're the type who refuses to save on the regular...honestly, you only have yourself to blame. But yes: the devs still have quite a bit of patching to do, I won't deny, and if such things positively ENRAGE you, you may wanna wait a lil' longer.
A final question you might have: is this a "horror" game (for those of us heavily biased toward such things)? I can confidently answer that: yes, it's definitely a horror game! In terms of "scariness"...if Alien: Isolation is the piss-your-pants-silly stealth-horror nightmare, and Aliens: Fireteam Elite is the no-holds-barred slay-a-thon...then this is the perfect point in between. "Tense" as I say; indeed, downright stressful upon frequent occasion (again, in a good way!)...though you'll probably only find it super-scary if you never play horror games of any description. But I do promise that the "atmosphere" will be palpable as all buggery, no matter WHO you are!!
Verdict: 9.5/10.
(PS If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my two Curator pages: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9284586-ReviewsJustfortheHELLofit/
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/10868048-Truly-Horrible-Horror-Games/?appid=398210
Cheers!)