Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 (AFE 2) is a bigger sequel to its 2021 original. That may go without saying in the video game world: “More” is often the TLDR version of any sequel’s intended scope. But AFE 2 is doing more in a way we don’t often see, by revising its three-player co-op structure to suit teams of four.
Lately, I’ve been wondering what benefits and limitations factor into designing a co-op game for three versus four players, so when I sat down with the AFE 2 team earlier this summer, it was a fun surprise to learn this is one of the very few series that has lived on both sides of the divide.
When deciding what this sequel could and should be, “the big thing was all about what players wanted from AFE that they didn’t get,” narrative director Jake Kriegman told me during a hands-on demo, “and then doing what we could to give them it. That fourth [co-op] player was one of those things.”
“I’m old school,” creative director Chris Cross added. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years. Three is an awkward number for a fireteam; two and two makes four, so you can do two splits, strategically. The other thing is, coming from an older era, you’re used to four-player split-screen, so the even-number balancing, it just works out.”
