Alien: Rogue Incursion Creeps Out of VR And Onto Major Platforms
- Alien: Rogue Incursion, once VR-only, is now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC with Unreal Engine 5 upgrades.
- Players control Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks, joined by synth Davis 01, battling xenomorphs in a Weyland-Yutani blacksite.
- A slow-paced survival horror praised for atmosphere, the game’s enemy AI and pacing split reviews.
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In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream
Initially released as a VR title, Alien: Rogue Incursion is out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S. Gamers who caught the recent Alien: Earth TV series and expected more xenomorph action, or those who miss the stressful tension of Alien: Isolation, should get a kick out of Rogue Incursion’s faithfulness to its movie origins.
Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, Alien: Rogue Incursion puts players in the unfortunate boots of a Colonial Marine, Zula Hendricks, as she investigates a Weyland-Yutani blacksite. Why and how the site is overrun by xenomorphs is something players will have to uncover, but the good news is they won’t be completely alone: Hendricks is joined by her synth companion, Davis 01.
“With her Synth companion Davis 01 for guidance, Zula must infiltrate the infested Gemini Exoplanet Solutions research facility and survive the ever-present threat of the most cunning Xenomorphs ever encountered, with both skilled stealth and serious firepower at her disposal,” said developers Survios.
“And when the threat she discovers has extinction-level consequences, Zula suddenly finds herself with humanity’s fate on her shoulders.”
This Time Its War
Survios first released Rogue Incursion on VR in December 2024 to overall positive reviews, with various publications praising the VR experience but also how the game nails the look and feel of the movies. In the non-VR version the core gameplay remains unchanged, although it has been rebuilt in a few areas.
Alien: Rogue Incursion has been tweaked for consoles and PC, on a technical level, in Unreal Engine 5, with enhanced graphics that can run at 60 frames per second, 3D audio, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers. The aliens themselves have also been reworked, as Alissa Smith, Senior Game Designer with Survios, explained in a recent news post.
“The xenomorph encounters needed a lot of love in order to keep their soul from the VR version…so we made the alien smarter,” said Smith. “We made them be able to stalk the player. We made them be the intelligent pack animals you see on film. We made sure that they became more involved, more intelligent, deadlier.”
The Bitch is Back
As players investigate the Gemini Exoplanet Solutions research facility, they’ll encounter a few enemy types that should be familiar to fans of the series. Facehuggers get their moment in the spotlight, as does an alien Queen. Their designs closely mirror the movies, as does the overall design of the facility and the eerie soundtrack.
Something unusual for a video game is that the main character, Hendricks, isn’t unique to Rogue Incursion. Rather, she’s a pre-existing character from the franchise who’s appeared in various Alien comics from Dark Horse. Events in the game reference her past, including that she’s AWOL from the Colonial Marines and still working with Davis 01 after a previous mission together.
Hendricks also knows Amanda Ripley, daughter of the movies’ protagonist Ellen Ripley and the player character in Alien: Isolation. That game received multiple plaudits thanks to feeling like it belonged in the same universe as the films, partly because it was closer to a survival horror than an FPS, as previous Alien games have been.
The Beginning Has Just Started
Alien: Rogue Incursion follows suit, by following familiar survival horror beats such as careful exploration and careful resource management. However, although early reviews are mostly positive, gamers are split between appreciating the atmosphere and being disappointed that the game feels slow.
“The player character is horrific. The movement is slow, the way she shoulders the weapon is incredibly slow and that is by design,” reads one review. “The alien’s AI is partially horrific. They try to play hide and seek with you which is interesting (not rushing to kill you, but rather try to avoid you, sneak away, potentially to ambush you), then there are times they just turn incredibly dumb and directly attack you with laughable speed.”
However, others have commented that the enemy AI vastly improves if the difficulty is set higher. “The AI was sloppy until I turned up difficulty to Expert – and damn, now I am terrified constantly.”
“It’s not a simple shooter, but almost a proper survival horror game – slow, methodical, tons of exploration, some cool puzzles,” the same player added.
Alien: Rogue Incursion is being presented as the Evolved Edition, although like the original VR release it’s also a Part One. Survios confirmed around the time of the initial release that it was already working on Part Two, but a release date is still TBC.
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