Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition

Alien: Rogue Incursion is a compelling first crack at bringing Alien to VR with lots of room to grow.

Survios' Alien VR game loses some of its luster on the Quest platform and struggles to make its starring monster interesting regardless of the specific headset in use.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is a solid first attempt from Survios to capture the iconic sci-fi franchise. If you're a fan of the series like we are, then you'll be giddy as you first get to hold your own pulse rifle; you'll shiver as your motion tracker's pulsating tone gets higher; and you'll revel in the disgusting details of the H.R Giger-inspired Alien nests. It is let down at points with repetitive and lacklustre combat, trivial performance issues, and its hard cliff-hanger ending does leave you with far more questions than answers. But you'll be hard pressed to find standout VR moments quite like the ones sprinkled throughout this fun campaign.

I had a good time with Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition. It finds a strong balance between the slower, more stealth-oriented gameplay of Isolation and the frantic action seen in Fireteam Elite, blending classic Alien combat with some light puzzle-solving.Visually, it lacks a lot of detail for my liking, but the faithful art design just about holds it together. Its biggest sin, however, is that the impact of the Xenomorphs quickly diminishes thanks to the frequency at which they appear. They also just look kinda goofy, I won't lie. Still, as a fan of the series, the story, atmosphere, and sound design hit the right notes for me.

Games from the Alien movie series tend to be hit and miss, but when they hit, they really hit. Alien: Rogue Incursion improves on the experience from the legendary Alien: Isolation. Rogue Incursion offers more of a traditional survival horror design thanks to its pacing, ammo conservation, puzzle solving and atmosphere. The pacing is what dictates this game, and while there may not be a ton of enemies on screen at once, it's about being enthralled in the position of a facility overtaken by Xenomorphs. Rogue Incursion isn't about mowing down enemies, it's about the unknown and the fact that the controls work flawlessly and minimal damage can be taken on Zula, Alien: Rogue Incursion is the first true survival horror game designed specifically for virtual reality. More importantly, for those Alien fans that have access to VR, this is the game to experience.

Alien: Rogue Incursion's miserable second half ruins what would have otherwise been a solid virtual reality gaming experience.

If you have not played Alien: Rogue Incursion before, I would absolutely suggest experiencing it in VR if that is an option. That is clearly the definitive way to play. However, if you do not own a VR headset and have no plans to pick one up anytime soon, the Switch 2 version is still a reasonably solid way to experience the game, doing a commendable job of faithfully adapting the tone of the films.

Will you manage to escape from the Xenomorphs at Castor's Cradle?

From the first step into its dark corridors, Alien: Rogue Incursion – Part One: Evolved Edition grips you with tension, terror, and a desire to explore the franchise further.

Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition does the best single thing it could for a game set in this franchise: it looks and feels like an Alien game. Where it also feels like a VR port makes sense and meshes well with the tone and arc of the gameplay. This part one doesn't weigh in with the longest playtime and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but based on this first effort the sequel and eventual conclusion of the story seems worth waiting for, and playing through when it does drop. But I would like to see the Aliens get a little deadlier, and the puse rifle get a boost along with it.