Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a new Left 4 Dead-inspired co-op shooter set in the Alien universe, inspired primarily by James Cameron's 1986 sequel, Aliens. I've played it, and it's fun. The sheer volume of xenomorphs lunging at you from the shadows, climbing on walls and dropping from above, makes the action enjoyably relentless and chaotic. But while I liked the alpha a lot more than I thought I would, the experience was still tinged with disappointment. Because after Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly's low-key horror masterpiece from 2014, Fireteam Elite feels like a big step back for Alien games in general.

The biggest mistake most Alien games make—even the good ones—is treating the xenomorph like disposable cannon fodder. When you're playing something like Gearbox's terrible Colonial Marines, blowing endless waves of them away with a shotgun, they lose all their power. In the first Alien movie, creepy android Ash describes the creature as a "perfect organism"—and indeed, it only takes one to wipe out the entire crew of the Nostromo. So when this pristine killing machine is just another generic FPS grunt lining up to get shot, it betrays the existential terror the creature is meant to represent. It numbs you to it.

Related: Alien Isolation Is Still One Of The Best Survival Horror Games Ever

That's why Alien: Isolation is the best Alien game. Its single Xenomorph is a force of nature, able to kill you in one brutal flash of violence, altering its behaviour based on how you play. If you try to run at it with a gun, you're just gonna end up skewered on its tail like a nightmarish kebab. Isolation treats Giger's monster with the fearful reverence it deserves. It feels scary in a way no other game has managed, before or since. Okay, it's not quite a perfect organism. There are a few foolproof tricks to outsmart it. But it's the closest you can probably get in a video game without it just being annoying and unfair to play.

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I get why game developers love Cameron's film. It's much easier to adapt into a video game, and the whole space marine thing is something most players are already familiar with. That's why it was brave of Creative Assembly to focus on Ridley Scott's 1979 original instead—and why Fireteam Elite feels like it's retreading old ground. Isolation was proof that Alien games didn't need pulse rifles, wisecracking marines, and hordes of xenomorphs filling the screen to be good. They could be dark, weird, scary, intelligent, and slow-paced: just like that classic first movie. Which makes Fireteam Elite's return to large-scale xenomorph slaughter, as entertaining as it is, ultimately quite disappointing.

Alien: Isolation is a real one-off. Even if Sega ever greenlights a sequel, most of the core development team has since left Creative Assembly and gone to work elsewhere. So I don't expect every Alien game to be lightning in a bottle. I just wish Sega would do something a bit more interesting with my favourite sci-fi universe. There's a rich, fascinating mythology to tap into here, and endless potential for all kinds of games. I've been a space marine before, so many times, and not just in Alien games. And I've already fired a pulse rifle at waves of screeching xenomorphs. It's time for something different.

Next: The Perfect Organism: 7 Terrifyingly Amazing Facts About Alien Isolation's AI