In Alien: Rogue Incursion, you play as Zula Hendricks, a Colonial Marine, who is investigating a distress call on the planet Purdan. Naturally, she stumbles upon a secret Weyland-Yutani research base full of deadly Xenomorphs.
There is no confusion that this is inspired by AlienS and not Alien when you pick up your first batch of rifle ammo, and it is a hefty amount. You will be fighting AND KILLING a lot of Xenomorphs and face huggers through the seven to ten hours you’ll spend in this world.
Since this is Aliens-coded, let’s talk about the weapons. You have the standard holy trinity of automatic rifle, shotgun, and revolver. There is also a motion sensor hand grenade that I’m sure was made to accommodate the initial VR version. The shotgun was far and away the standout weapon. Full of piss and vinegar, the shotgun had impact behind every shot and did its job in keeping the xenomorphs at bay. My favorite micromoments were ‘wall to my back and two xenomorphs rushing me, and the only solution is to unload the shotty.’
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The story was passable, leaning towards solid. They did as much as they could with flavor text through the various text messages, audio logs, and monologues, but they were oddly too long. I would have cleared out a room and moved to the next step in the objective, and some audio logs or monologues would STILL be going. Zula had an interesting overarching subplot that I was interested to see how it would play out, and I appreciated how much everything came together in the final ten minutes. Overall, I liked the mystery created, and I am looking forward to the continuation in part two.
At about 90 minutes in, Alien: Rogue Incursion SHINES. The next two hours are exactly what I wanted — narrow, straightforward progression, interesting story beats, and the shotgun on full blast. When the game was focused and claustrophobic, it was fantastic. Slowly, the map begins to reopen, and you are placed back into the larger hub, which killed the momentum, but at least you don’t have to hear ‘invalid credentials’ as much with more progression under your belt.
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The backtracking in the second half was a slog. I couldn’t gain enough familiarity with the layout, and even though I had been to these locations before, I still had to use the map to do the general navigation. I would have preferred more on-rails one-and-done locations (which would have felt closer to the Aliens motif), but that would have taken a lot of resources. I understand from a design perspective, but I could only go into the mess hall so many times before my patience began to wear thin.
Even though this version of the game isn’t in VR, I still appreciated all of the accommodations made for the VR experience. Larger hit markers to make sure the player can see shots land. Your synth, taking on the role of tank, stuck around probably 45 minutes longer than he would in a standard FPS game to ensure the player has had enough time to familiarize themselves with the VR. The clear selling points of VR were transitioned well enough for a standard experience, but every time I got a wheel to crank or a welding path to follow, I could only think, “man, this would be rad in VR.”
Graphics were impressive on medium and above. I played on my PC, with a 3070, and was happy with the performance. The shadows were inky, and there were plenty of moments that allowed the flashlight, no pun intended, to shine. The Xenomorphs moved quickly and purposefully, with only a few silly ragdoll moments that fortunately never took me out of the experience.
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Without VR, some of the moments can start to feel the same-y, but I overall enjoyed my experience with Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition. If you are all hopped up on the Alien mythos after watching the season finale of Alien: Earth and want to stay in the world a little while longer, this game is perfect. A fun game to burn through in a weekend, and enough to get you excited for where they are taking this new sub-story within the Alien franchise.
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