There’s no denying that I loved Aliens: Fireteam Elite. I reviewed it before launch and gave it an 8/10. While the game definitely needs a lot of content to keep it alive, the co-op experience is decent. Cold Iron Studios just released the first season of content for the game and heaven only knows what the developers are thinking.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite now has a new class added to the game. The Phalanx class is all about defence as the character wields a shield that can be deployed in front of them to deflect attacks and ranged shots. This character is completely free for all players. However, if you’re looking to purchase new content, the first Endeavour Pass pack contains a range of cosmetic items and is available at an additional cost. If you own the Deluxe Edition of the game, you will get this free.
READ MORE Unlike Activision and Sony, Ubisoft Wants You To Have Free Upgrades
Unfortunately, that is about it. While the new class is a welcome addition to the game, there’s nothing new to see or do. The biggest letdown isn’t even the lack of new content in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. It is actually the latest patch that has crippled the progression grind for current players.
Before this season of content arrived, there was a bug in the game that prevented players from levelling up their weapons correctly. Players would earn weapon XP but weapons levelled up at a much slower rate than the developers intended. No one really complained about this as we all thought it was part of the end-game grind to max out your gear. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and according to Cold Iron Studios, these guns should have levelled up faster.
Now, instead of simply fixing the XP gain, the developers decided to max everyone’s unlocked weapons out to level 4 (the max level). So if you had every weapon unlocked as I did, you now have nothing to upgrade. I logged into the game last night and every weapon was completely maxed out. In addition, I only have the Phalanx class and his weapons to upgrade because he is new.
Our patch notes go into further detail, but for full context, this bug meant all players prior to this patch had all of their weapons at 4 stars level in terms of performance, it just didn’t display that. This fix will let you keep your weapons as they are.
— Aliens: Fireteam Elite (@AliensFireteamE) September 8, 2021
Other players are also not happy with the change. Many of them complaining that the only reason to play the game was to level up the weapons. Now that everyone has maxed out gear, it diminishes the playtime.
It is quite sad to see the game in this state. I kind of had a feeling it would happen. There’s no new horde maps to play, no new story missions and now the gear is also pointless. Instead of focusing on new content, we got paid cosmetic packs and an upgrade the takes time away from the game. I can only see players jumping ship very fast.
Not to mention that this first seasonal content can’t even be classed as “seasonal content”. It is one new class and a few weapons. There’s no new content to play in the game itself. Players have to go and do the same thing over and over again using weapons that are now maxed out. This is definitely not a good sign of things to come.
