Our review of Alien: Rogue Incursion, developed by Survios. Available now for PlayStation VR 2.
WHAT IS IT?
An action-packed virtual reality xeno-extravaganza.
IS IT GOOD?
In spurts.
WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?
Aliens diehards.
CREW: EXPENDABLE
The title Alien: Rogue Incursion is a bit of a misnomer: this is not so much an Alien game as it is an Aliens game. As in, an action-packed, pulse-blasting, action thrill-ride inspired by (and borrowing from) James Cameron’s legendary 1986 sequel Aliens, with an “s”.
This distinction matters a lot. As I have written (probably too many times) before, the xenomorph fandom can easily be divided into two camps. In one, there’s the Alien fanatics, like me, who prefer the slow-burn, oppressive terror of the original 1979 film. In the other camp, there’s my buddy Matt and others like him, who prefer the roller-coaster adrenaline rush of its immediate sequel, Aliens. (There have been seven more Alien films since then, but anyone who says Alien: Resurrection or Prometheus is their favourite has clearly been infected by a parasitic organism and can safely be ignored.)
Whether a video game is inspired by the first or the second film can, in other words, tell you a lot about what to expect. Alien: Isolation (2014), which happens to be one of the scariest video games ever made, belongs in the former camp. The long-running Aliens vs. Predator series, which is far better than that title might suggest, falls in the latter. To be clear, both options are valid: sometimes, it’s fun to experience an unstoppable killer organism bearing down on you; other times, you just want to unload a film-accurate pulse rifle on a horde of xenomorphs.
Alien: Rogue Incursion, which really should be called AlienS: Rogue Incursion, falls so firmly in the latter category it may as well come with a cute kid sidekick named after a reptile. Loud, dumb, and only intermittently scary, it’s a VR game for action junkies who don’t mind more than a few technical hiccups.
MU/TH/UR!
Alien: Rogue Incursion begins confidently, with a thrilling opening spaceship crash sequence which quickly introduces central character Zula Hendricks (Andia Winslow) and her “Working Joe” robotic companion Davis 01 (Robbie Daymond). Hendricks and Davis are, I am told, characters from the old Dark Horse comic book line, though I’m far more intrigued by the fact they name drop Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda, suggesting this is a kind of sequel to seminal horror title Alien: Isolation. Of course, Alien: Isolation had exactly one xenomorph to fend off; Alien: Rogue Incursion has approximately a bagazillion.
And that’s where Incursion’s problems really begin. In this game, it seems like you can’t take five steps without a xenomorph peeling itself off a wall and making a beeline for you. Firing your weapon – there’s a pulse rifle, shotgun, revolver, and eventually proximity grenades – will typically make quick work of it, though it’s easy to get overwhelmed when too many xenomorphs (or facehuggers) are on-screen.
This is fun and even scary the first few times it happens. It becomes mind-bogglingly dull and rote long before the game ends. It doesn’t help that xeno-attacks are heavily telegraphed: activate or unlock something, you better believe a xenomorph is going to drop in to say hi; enter a new area, you may as well have your pulse rifle armed and ready.
It really doesn’t help that checkpoints are few and far between, forcing you to replay sections ad nauseam when you keep dying at the claws or acidic jaws of the umpteenth xenomorph horde. At least the death animations are awesome (and the closest this game comes to giving you a heart attack).
EVERY BULKHEAD AND EVERY VENT
It also doesn’t help that Rogue Incursion is plagued by technical failures.
VR controls are notoriously fiddly at the best of times, but Incursion does you no favours with a confusing array of motion-controlled actions which never seem to quite work. It takes like six steps to reload your pulse rifle; you’ll often be dead by the third step because your arm started flailing about while a xenomorph bore down on you.
Shades of Alien: Isolation, most of the game’s retro-tech is tactile, with levers to pull and buttons to mash; this too becomes a problem when the motion controls are unresponsive and you can’t get the in-game computer terminals to work properly. Heck, even the act of holstering your pulse rifle is frustrating; you might think you’ve safely stowed it over your shoulder, only for it to fall clattering to the floor at your feet. Sometimes, the game just crashes.
In any other game, those failings would be fatal. In Alien: Rogue Incursion, the excitement of exploring this otherwise well-realized fictional world is enough to keep you going, despite the glitches.
It is, after all, very cool to be exploring this world, with its absurd number of vents just begging for a creepy-crawly to leap out of. Every once in a while, Incursion even has a hint of that Alien: Isolation magic which made that (slower, more thoughtful) game one of my all-time favourites. So even though Incursion is clumsy and broken and, worst sin of all, renders the xenomorphs boring, I still can’t resist recommending it to fans of the series or, for that matter, those looking for a slightly different VR horror experience.
Look out behind you.
***
Final score: 7/10 Bill Paxtons.
Visit the official website for Alien: Rogue Incursion here.
