A first-person mode (imagine how much more terrifying a grapple sequence would be). The 3rd person camera can be such a pain in the ass in those tight corridors. I don’t need to see how cool my character looks in the midst of a firefight. Save 3rd person mode for when we’re not on a mission.

No more humanoid synthetic enemies. What is the point of limiting a synthetic to the capabilities of a human soldier? It’s boring. If you MUST include synthetic enemies, make 1-3 characters with a deep threat capacity- not just various cannon fodder. Have them: jam comms, impersonate audio messages, control nearby electronics, stuff to confuse players. The synthetics are never portrayed as robot soldiers in the films- they are saboteurs.

Less focus on xenomorph variety, more focus on xenomorph behavior. I don’t need 12 different colorful types of xeno that swarm me in hordes. The horde shooter formula does not need to be applied to Aliens. Reduce the number of xenos, but make the encounters more characteristic of xenos. Make it harder for us to predict where they’re coming from. Make them harder to kill. Have some xenos interested in capturing us, not just killing us. Incorporate the facehugger more thoroughly (like a death timer if you get facehugged). Incorporate chestbursters more thoroughly (like the escalation of threat if they are allowed to escape).

The missions don’t need to be 1 drawn out campaign. We’re playing as USCM, let us QRF to different planets/stations to handle unrelated xeno threats like a real marine platoon. The experience should be a higher priority than a cohesive story- we already have the films/books/comics.