Alien: Rogue Incursion Review (PSVR2) – Gone Rogue

Over the past decade, the Alien franchise has explored a handful of genres: survival horror, co-op shooters, and even an RTS. Yet, we’ve never had the sheen of a Xenomorph’s cranium and their hunting prowess delivered to us beyond the flat screen. That is until the sadistic team at Survios decided to tamper with the perfect organism and create Alien: Rogue Incursion.

Survios has been making VR titles for over a decade at this point, putting out VR titles from shows like Westworld and The Walking Dead, as well as movies like Creed. With the studio’s back catalogue, it sounds like a match made in heaven to give them the keys to the best sci-fi horror franchise. Rogue Incursion leans into the horror aspect of Alien, much like 2014’s Isolation and this year’s Romulus – my favourite variety to explore.

Since the game’s launch, Rogue Incursion has added Part One to the title. This is a bit of a recent movie trend of casually announcing its own sequel within the product, which makes sense given that the game can be beaten in a handful of hours and doesn’t end satisfyingly. Don’t let that deter you from trying it out though as the game has a lot going for it if you’re an Alien fan.

Ripley Effect

You play as Zula Hendricks, an ex-Colonial Marine who’s now hell-bent on exposing the corporations experimenting on the Xenomorphs. This motive has led her to the mining planet Purdan which hosts a mining facility known for its shady practices. Your mission is to extract your friend and expose the facility for its actions and get out safely once both are done.

After your rough arrival, you learn quickly that it’s all gone awry already. The facility is silent with worker corpses littered across the industrial hallways, with many a vent busted open with blood smeared at its entryway. Zula’s story has previously been extended into comics and her timeline matches alongside Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda (Alien: Isolation), so there is a distinct lack of establishment at the start.

However, being in VR, the first-person experience thrusts you into her shoes and it’s more her language that speaks to her character. Words like FUBAR or military phrasings like ‘extraction’ are spoken to your android companion, Davis One, subtly giving you her background. This also lends itself to the gameplay side of things as you become a one-person army killing Xenomorphs with your weaponry.

Despite having to read two comic book runs and play an exceptional game in Isolation to get the bigger story, there are some of my favourite Alien moments ever in Rogue Incursion. It’s clear that Survios brainstormed what would feel new to fans of the franchise whilst being a great VR experience. It’s got a slower back half, but I imagine if the studio have cut this in two, this is the midway slump of the story that we’re ending on.

Into The Hive

Playing through the game, I was pleasantly surprised by how open the map is. Instead of feeling on-rails like other story-focused games I’ve played, Rogue Incursion lets you roam this desolate mining facility at your own pace. There are different level clearances of keycards and tools that’ll have you rewiring panels or a blowtorch that’ll open the many doors around the area but you’ll find all these as you progress.

It’s a nice way of creating the idea of player freedom but the execution is a little frustrating – more on that later. Being an ex-Colonial Marine you’ll have a decent arsenal at your disposal by the time you reach the halfway mark. You start with a revolver, move onto a pulse rifle, then finally get a shotgun along your journey. All of which have a specific physicality to wield and reload.

Aside from the pulse rifle’s magazine, your weapons need to be reloaded bullet by bullet and then cocked back in one form or another to be ready. I liked this in titles like Metro Awakening or Arizona Sunshine 2, but here in Rogue Incursion, it doesn’t feel as succinct as I’d like; and this goes for most of your inventory that you’ll navigate through.

You’ve got the classic motion tracker on one arm, tools like your tablet (map, objectives, collectibles menu), blowtorch, rewiring doohickey and healing syringes on your opposite wrist. Further up your arm you also have your grenades and on each shoulder is your pulse rifle/shotgun and at your hip your revolver. It’s all intended to feel seamless as an experience to get to all your gear quickly. However, Rogue Incursion has a serious problem with recognising what you’re reaching for and the spatial awareness within it all.

No Marine Of Mine

Given the slow nature of traipsing through the dimly lit hallways with nothing but the fog and hisses of machinery, you’re not always in a rush to equip all your items. But when you’re struggling to grab between a healing syringe or a tool from your wrist, or you’re trying to pick up ammunition from a box that you’re holding, only to grasp it with your other hand and fling the box like a hyperactive baby, it starts to breakdown the immersion Survios have tried to create with its environments and atmosphere.

This then led to my frustration in the later parts of the games. I’ve not even mentioned the Xenomorphs properly yet, but they react to almost any sound you make. It’s befitting for sure but it also dulls down the thrill by each encounter. If I were to do some backtracking, I could hear the thumps of their hands and feet circulating the vents as I’d open a door or drop a piece of the environment like a clipboard or coffee mug. The Xenomorphs are almost a little too overbearing during the moment-to-moment gameplay.

They also can traverse any part of the environment, so there’s no real technique to avoid or kill them efficiently, but rather blasting them away before they leap at you. These moments were quite captivating during my first few hours, bringing that Alien authenticity to life. I would be intensely reloading my weapons, listening out for their movements, my eyes darting to the corners of the rooms above me paranoid another Xenomorph may pop out and then blast them in a panic when they inevitably do come at me.

Checking For Vitals

It was those encounters that had me grinning afterwards as the game does a brilliant job of keeping you on your toes. With that said, the more manufactured story beats that increased the amount you’d have to kill became a hindrance. This is because the game’s hand-tracking accuracy failed to keep up with my actions. The physicality of reloading, grabbing a heal, whilst checking every angle for a Xenomorph suddenly was overwhelming and the game suffers from it.

I was playing on Normal difficulty but even that meant I’d die in two hits, so if I’ve got ten or so aliens coming my way and I can’t put down my gun to heal, or tuck a gun away to use another I was quickly made a host. If the controls were closer to my actions then this challenge would feel fair but for now, it’s just frustrating, much like the checkpoint system in the game.

Dotted around the map are panic rooms for you to save in. More often than not, saving in those panic rooms is your only semblance of a checkpoint, and if they’re not then you don’t really know how far back you’re going in the game. There was one point in particular that meant I couldn’t save but it set me back a good 15-20 minutes. This happens a couple of times and with the controls not feeling as accurate as I needed in times of some Xeno shootouts, I had to concede that despite some really interesting moments and great attention to building an authentic atmosphere, this isn’t the best Alien VR experience it could be.

Game Over, Man

Rogue Incursion looks the part if you’re familiar with the interiors of Weyland-Yutani ships or facilities. The computers and other tech boast that same ’80s retro-sci-fi look, hallways are hexagonal with pipes streaming down them at every side, harsh white glare from work lights create silhouettes that add to your paranoia – it’s all core Alien mise en scene. And this attention to detail proliferates to the weapon design, the xenomorphs themselves etc. transporting you into the world.

It’s not the best in terms of graphical fidelity, but its art direction is spot on so that you overlook the finer details and blemishes. Which kind of speaks to Alien: Rogue Incursion as a whole. Broadly speaking this works as an experience for fans of the franchise – everything is there at a glance. However, as you spend more time with it and discover that the gameplay doesn’t work with you and the story is setting up a sequel, the magic is diluted with what is otherwise a good game.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is available now for PSVR2 (review platform) and PC via Steam and Meta Quest

Developers: Survios

Publisher: Survios

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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