Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Pathogen DLC Review

In my review for the base game of Aliens: Fireteam Elite just over a year ago, I mentioned that we were teased with the promise of new content on top of the four campaigns that came with the game’s launch. These promises have come to fruition with the first major expansion having come to the three-player cooperative shooter in the form of Pathogen. Whilst we have received a steady stream of content in the form of new weapons/cosmetics and a new game mode, Pathogen is a separate DLC that contains an entirely new campaign mode, sporting new objectives, locales, and enemies to blast your way through.

As the DLC’s title may imply, Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Pathogen follows a lead on the mysterious pathogen virus that was introduced along the course of the base game. This new campaign requires the completion of the base game, and features three brand new levels to experience.

The new campaign, titled Promise of a Flower, offers three brand new levels in all new locations, which includes investigating more of the planet LV-895 after a rise in activity on the planet has the Colonial Marines spooked. Inspiration is taken from across the whole game to make a campaign with the most varied levels we’ve seen from a single campaign so far. Pathogen gives us wide open jungle flora which makes way to ancient ruins and cramped caves, adding a real sense of individuality and progression for the levels. I often find myself struggling to pull previous missions out at just a glance, but the levels present in Pathogen all have such a distinct look and feel that each of them are a memorable romp.

During Fireteam Elite’s standard campaign, friendly fire would often be an issue, especially in earlier levels where a third player can not even safely open fire down a corridor or actively engage in the fight unless something comes up behind the team. This created a dissonance between level design and gameplay, wherein the two did not seem to complement each other at all. Thankfully, this is not the case in Pathogen, and in fact even the more enclosed spaces are more accommodating and feel much more engaging to play in without feeling like you’re fighting against the game itself.

Pathogen’s missions also offered a new style of objective that lead to interesting decisions — multiple waymarkers. At several points during Promise of a Flower, you are given multiple areas you need to search, often spread across a wide area, whilst the alien horde continues to descend upon you. Grouping up guaranteed safety in numbers, but increased our search time tenfold and made us more likely to be eventually overwhelmed. Splitting up let us cover more ground, would split the horde, and could potentially get us to safety quicker, but was a significantly more risky option that could snowball us to a defeat. This sort of objective switched up the gameplay from the simple corridor navigation style of level progression that we were used to in a fun and dynamic way.

New locations and gameplay isn’t the only new things found in Pathogen. As the name might suggest, we also get a slew of new enemies that have been mutated by the Pathogen strain; both indigenous wildlife local to LV-895 and the Xenomorphs themselves. To say these are properly new, however, would feel disingenuous, as despite having different names and designs, they are functionally identical to the Xenomorphs — Spitters are now ‘Blights’, Warriors are now ‘Brutes’, etc. The only new enemy introduced is in the form of a boss fight (with its own health bar and all!) at the end of the campaign, and while that boss fight absolutely slaps, it was pretty disappointing to see the Pathogen mutation being the equivalent of dropping a tin of paint on the Xenomorphs.

Beyond new levels and enemies, we also have a myriad of cosmetic paints/decals, skins and weapons. Some of these can be purchased straight from the Requisitions Officer, but others require completion of the new missions. The new paints and decals are nice but nothing that stands out too hard, although some of the new weapons, namely the SMG (which fires four bullets per shot and absolutely melts at short range) quickly became one of my new favourites. It’s a small addition but keeping the weapon roster fresh and updated with new kit is a simple and surefire way to keep gameplay entertaining — trying new weapon load-outs can lead to drastically different playstyles in the same level. 

Whilst not technically included in Pathogen and instead being made available in the base game to coincide with Pathogen’s launch, it would feel remiss to not mention the brand new Hardcore Mode that can be unlocked upon the completion of Fireteam Elite’s main campaign. Hardcore offers a true challenge to those who feel the base game is too easy, by granting them a brand new slate. A separate character slot is created, this time with no unlocks or weapons that the player may have, and they are given the option to replay the game from scratch. The caveat? If you die, your character is deleted. Any credits or scrips you may have are carried over, but other than that, players will have to complete a full tour of LV-895 without dying if they wish to come out victorious in this new game mode.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Pathogen is DLC that delivers on the promise of new content in a satisfying way. It has a rather high price tag that does not combine well with its rather short length, although the levels themselves address issues with design that were present in the base game. This at least shows the developers are listening and leaves a part of me excited about what to expect from the future. If you enjoyed Fireteam Elite, there’s no reason you won’t enjoy Pathogen, but if you were hoping the DLC would offer something more to make it stand out, you will likely be left disappointed.