Alien: Rogue Incursion Review – A VR Experience That Struggles to Capture True Series Immersion

The VR game, Alien: Rogue Incursion tries to capture this franchise’s biggest strength, but with underwhelming features and a less fearsome monster it fails to make it. Despite bearing resemblances to its predecessor, Alien: Isolation, particularly in its setting and characters, Rogue Incursion lacked consistency and failed to provide the suspenseful horror experience and engaging gameplay.

– Alien: Rogue Incursion, the new VR game based on Ridley Scott’s Alien series, falls short due to insufficiently threatening monsters and a repetition in gameplay that undermines the horror-survival tone of the original series.
Despite the game’s narrative strength, which is owed to Alex White, a well-regarded Alien series novelist, it suffers from comparatively poor visual quality, particularly on the Quest 3 platform, which compromises the atmosphere for wireless freedom.
– Although the VR tools used in the game offer an immersive experience, weak monster encounters and a lack of variety reduce its overall impact, making it only potentially worth playing for dedicated Alien series fans.

Alien: Rogue Incursion, a VR-only addition to the long lineage of Alien-based games, is very different from what many hoped. Many games titled Alien—singular—draw inspiration from the original’s steady pace, while those with the plural, Aliens, opt for a more action-packed approach, closely akin to James Cameron’s sequel. This marks the bizarre aspect of Rogue Incursion. It deviates from the naming norm, with players frequently battling Xenos, making it feel more like an action game than the anticipated survival-horror play.

Despite the developers’ apparent reference to Alien: Isolation—evident from the android’s look to the physical inventory withdrawal of the signature movement scanner—alluding to Isolation’s protagonist Amanda Ripley occasionally, Rogue Incursion departs and fails to fulfill such promise.

In Rogue Incursion, the Xenomorph suddenly becomes an imperfect organism. Despite the initial cues of creeping horror akin to Isolation, the game soon shows its inability to wholly commit to such a style—its enemies lack the hunter instincts featured in previous games. My first encounter with a Xeno was underwhelming despite the protagonist, Zula Hendricks—an AWOL Colonial Marine having previously contended with the Xenomorph threat. There was zero anticipation to our face-off. A Xenomorph appeared, I aimed my gun, killed it before it eliminated me. Hendricks seemed unbothered, but I wish she was.

The supposed terrifying and near-invulnerable enemy felt remarkably easy to defeat, even with its unpredictable wall and ceiling crawling. The scarcity of ammo taught me to standstill, wait for the monster to appear before me, then discharge my full clip into it before it could attack—an approach that defined most of the roughly four-hour game.

Despite the hinderance of Quest 3’s visuals and the combat encounters not being as profound or exciting to remain engaging, the storyline is certainly worth following—though categorized as Part One, with a developing second half, causing an abrupt game end. Without revealing much, there are familiar plot points, but viewed from fresh perspectives. This involves Davis, the android companion, and some other memorable scenes known to movie viewers. The game’s narrative richness is due to Alex White’s craft, the writer of two highly praised Alien novels. At this point, the narrative is interesting enough to overlook the game’s less attractive parts, while the decision to split the game appears somewhat peculiar.

On some VR platforms, Alien: Rogue Incursion may bear resemblance to a good Alien game, however, on Quest 3, that should only hold if that’s your sole option and you yearn to experience it firsthand. Even with superior visual experience on other headsets, Rogue Incursion would still appear skewed due to its disappointing monster encounters. The VR tools are entertaining, albeit not revolutionary, but the game is best appreciated for its story. As the only existing unmodified Alien VR game, Alien: Rogue Incursion leaves much to be desired.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is now available for Meta Quest 3, PC, and PlayStation 5.