The new science fiction survival co-op shooter, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, s a huge, venerated fictional universe, and as such it fits into the larger Aliens timeline. Before a franchise was even conceived, audiences were introduced to a space-faring civilization threatened by a Xenomorph menace in Ridley Scott's Alien from 1979. Many sequels, prequels, and extended universe texts later, the Alien universe is quite extensive, covering several centuries. Aliens: Fireteam Elite is just the latest addition, trying its best to fit into the canonical timeline while still providing a novel experience.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite takes place near the end of the Alien film timeline - after Alien 3, but long before Alien Resurrection. In Fireteam Elite, the year is 2202, 23 years after the events of Alien 3 in 2179. The series' first entry, Alien, took place in 2122, though Prometheus is the earliest feature-length film in the franchise, depicting events in the year 2093. A few short films depict the rise of Peter Weyland, founder of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, prior to Prometheus, and many novels, comics, and games fill in more of the Aliens timeline in between the movies.
The themes of Aliens: Fireteam Elite look to emulate those of the films, namely a distrust of spacefaring corporate entities (like the Weyland-Yutani Corporation), according to Screen Rant for an interview last month). After ing the Colonial Protection Act in 2187, the United Americas Colonial Marines have begun pacifying the corporate exploitation in the outer rim planets. This inevitably leads to UACM fireteams coming into with Xenomorphs, and that is where the player comes in.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite Is An Independent Narrative
Players in Aliens: Fireteam Elite will play a role in a classic set up, one ripped straight from Alien: answering a distress signal. On the way out to the colonization frontier, the player's ship receives a distress signal from a planet called LV-895. The events leading up to the disaster which the player investigates will be depicted in an official prequel novel titled Aliens: Infiltrator. Experiments with Xenomorph bio-materials and an expected shipment of fresh Xenomorph eggs will more than likely spiral out of control until the distress signal is issued that leads the Colonial Marines to the planet's surface in Fireteam Elite's campaign.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite has crafted its own narrative, but still draw heavily from other works within the Alien universe, especially when it comes to Xenomorph design - even if the developer had to pick and choose exactly which parts to pull from. Zinkievich told IGN that some of the game's AI Xenomorphs were designed based on "extended universe things... the toys, the comics, the novels," and longtime Alien fans will see some new Xenomorph types in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. The fearsome aliens tend to take on attributes of the host organism from which they're birthed, so the developers teased never-before-seen Xenomorphs which came from "lifeforms local to the star-system" where Fireteam Elite takes place. The Alien timeline is long and disted, and Aliens: Fireteam Elite has found a spot physically and narratively removed the rest of the franchise's entries, but is still very much looking to build on established lore.
Source: IGN
