Welcome back to another blog, the show where we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing. Hi folks, it’s Zaid.
Remember “Alien: Isolation”? Aside from the obvious reasons that you should remember it, it’s a incredible game, it was total unexpected hit, made by the guys that made “Total War”. Somehow, the “Total War” guys gave us what is a cult classic in “Alien: Isolation”. Anyways, I bring that up, not just because I want you to remember it, but because the game we’re gonna talk about today wants you to remember it. “Alien: Rogue Incursion”. Oh, man, does it want you to remember the 2014 horror classic. It’s got Worker Joes, they name-dropped Amanda Ripley, there’s even a few mentions of Sevastopol Station.
Isolation vs. Colonial Marines
It’s essentially a follow-up to “Isolation” but without a connection to Creative Assembly or the game’s original publisher, Sega. Instead, “Rogue Incursion” was developed and published by Survios, a studio that’s put on a lot of okay VR games in the past, and that’s about it. I’m bringing up “Isolation” because there’s a head scratcher involved with this one. For all the ways it tries to connect itself to “Isolation”, it’s much closer to “Colonial Marines”, which might sound like an insult to this game, but I want to say it only is kind of an insult.
Familiar Setup, Familiar Story
“Rogue Incursion” is a shooter where you’re piling up alien bodies with a few different pretty stock weapons and in yet another “Aliens 2” inspired location where your gruff space marine protagonist uncovers yet another conspiracy involving an unscrupulous company trying to use the Xenomorph as a weapon. So far, so “Colonial Marines”. It’s even got the tenuous attempts to tie itself with a popular and beloved pillar of the franchise. In “Colonial Marines”, it was “Aliens 2”. In “Rogue Incursion”, of course, it’s “Alien: Isolation”.
Story and Characters
The setup is pretty stuck outside the “Isolation” references, which stick out like a sore thumb, mainly because that’s the memorable stuff in the plot of this game. It’s another excuse to get an Alien adventure. The characters in writing give you, they don’t give you a lot to care about, at least outside of your synth companion, who’s actually pretty all right, charming fella.
Surprisingly Fun
And while this might sound like I am being pretty negative about the game, I’m actually not. It’s not breaking any new ground and the story is just sort of there, but guess what? It’s actually pretty good. It’s not amazing, you’re not gonna be like, “Oh, this one’s the game of the year.” No, it’s not gonna happen, but this is a really fun game. Sometimes, certain elements of being okay is more than good enough.
Comfort Food FPS
I know 2025 is a year stacked with great titles, but sometimes, you wanna sit down, blast a few aliens, and have a good time without having to think too hard, and that’s what this is, a comfort food FPS. “Alien: Rogue Incursion” is not gonna blow you away in any particular aspect, but it’s a pretty well-designed game that’s entertaining for its fairly short runtime. And at 29.99, mm, you could do a lot worse.
Evolved Edition and VR Roots
Now I kind of have to imagine that the original VR version was, depending on your taste, a little more exciting or a little less good. I don’t know. The version of “Rogue Incursion” we’re playing today is the updated and enhanced Evolved Edition, which is the non-VR version with some graphical bells and whistles, and a few tweaks to the gameplay that I can’t tell you a lot about because I didn’t play the VR version.
Signs of VR Origins
It does have the telltale signs of being a former VR game. It’s got the constant and kind of unnecessary motion control stuff. It’s been simplified into QTEs. The text is gigantic in a way there’s barely any inertia or camera shake. There’s that kind of stuff. You can really tell it used to be a VR game when you run, and most games, running adds kind of a blur effect and increases head bob, but in this game, you just sort of move faster. Like I have to imagine everything about this thing was a little more impressive in VR.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics are pretty decent, but I mean they aren’t astounding even compared to the 10-year-old “Alien: Isolation”. Again, pretty good though. It’s got that kind of mobile game sort of sheen that VR games kind of have. Even though this one was built on Unreal 5 and it was actually still a bit much for VR headsets, the graphics were apparently a problem. The game was often dinged for poor performance, but this version on a computer, not running VR, ran fine. I didn’t really have any slowdown or stuttering when I was running the game at max settings with the ray tracing enabled and the whole works.
Visuals and Atmosphere
You wouldn’t be able to tell the graphics are all set to Epic ’cause there is kind of weirdly fuzzy shadows, and the overall visuals of the game aren’t cutting-edge in any real way, but it can look good. I’m not saying it can’t. They do manage to capture the retro future of the Alien franchise pretty well here as well. Some parts of the game can look downright moody, and for a VR game, it looks pretty impressive. But I mean as a non-VR game, it’s all right. I’m not trying to take a big old crap on it or anything. It is what it is.
Gameplay and Exploration
What makes this game pretty good, pretty fun, pretty enjoyable, pretty well-designed, it’s not any of that, it’s the gameplay. It’s a fun combination of survival horror and some good old-fashioned FPS action. You got an interconnected facility full of locked doors, and you progress through the game with key cards and new tools that allow you to access new areas and supply caches.
Not Quite Metroidvania
And what I described sounds like a Metroidvania, but rest assured this is not a non-linear game. There is at least an element of exploration though because you’re scrounging for supplies, keeping yourself topped up, trying to find stuff. Aliens appear periodically. They can be tracked using a handheld scanner. It is an Aliens game after all, and while the aliens themselves do take a lot of punishment before they go down, they’re unfortunately the part of the game that most reminds me of “Colonial Marines”.
Alien Threats and Tension
They just don’t feel that dangerous, at least in this version of the game. They do at least crawl around the ceiling, and it does seem like they try to sneak up on you. And if they do get too close, it is only one or two good hits and you’re dead. They do have an instant kill pounce attack as well. On paper, they’re pretty dangerous, but in practice, I really didn’t have a lot of trouble with them, and I mean that is to say the game is never particularly scary, outside a few notable moments, to be fair.
Resource Management and Saving
The minute to minute gameplay does remain tense, however, because you really can’t carry that much stuff with you, so you are always hunting around more supplies. And the game also doesn’t really have a lot of auto-saving going on. So you’re mostly relying on finding these panic rooms to save your game so you don’t lose progress after getting killed. At least for me, I kind of didn’t die a lot, ’cause as long as you’ve got your tracker out, it’s not difficult to predict when an alien tag’s about to happen. And when they do appear, they’re not hard to dispatch for most of the game.
Late Game Challenge
By the end, things do start getting tougher with larger waves of Xenos and larger, more complex environments, but the biggest concern was having enough ammo rather than the aliens themselves, which is, I mean in certain respects, not the worst thing in the world. But the only thing that makes the Xeno more dangerous is that they’re tanky.
Exploration and Puzzles
The environment is quite fun to explore though, it’s big and open enough. There are optional rooms off the beaten path. They’ve got notes to read, doors to get unstuck, little puzzles to find out. The game has basically one type of puzzle where you need to reroute power to systems, and it could be annoying, but you can get through them pretty fast and the actual controls are pretty responsive. I don’t think they drag the game down too much. They serve their purpose, they mix things up. I kinda like ’em actually.
Satisfying Design
Like onscreen in theory, if you told me about them, I’d be kinda, “Eh.” But for whatever reason, I kinda like doing them. And the exploration element, it’s the most satisfying element to the game. I really like how this environment circles around and connects in on itself. There’s just something that tickles the lizard brain about unlocking a sealed door that leads to a location I’ve already been to. Don’t know why. It’s not exclusive to this game either, but this game does it well.
Backtracking and Base Design
You’re slowly opening this entire base back up again, and the way the game encourages re-exploring every area by having you backtrack after you’ve gotten some new tool or key card, it’s well done and I like doing it. The game does run outta steam a little bit in the back half. It’s not great ’cause it’s not that long of a game. You can finish it in like 6 1/2 hours if you’re quick, maybe eight if you want to carefully explore, and I would say carefully exploring is what makes the game fun.
Abrupt Ending and Story Gaps
It’s a bit weird. It ends on a pretty abrupt cliffhanger with basically nothing about the actual story of the game being revealed. Very few loose ends get tied up or explained. You’re left with what is essentially half of a story because this is a two-part game, or supposedly will be a two-part game. It’s not clear whether it will ever be a two-part game, and that’s no ding on the developers. We just live in a world where who knows? I will say it probably would’ve been nice to wrap things up a little more satisfying or definitively. It just kind of ends. I mean, there is a sort of final boss, but it just kind of ends.
Enemy Variety and Combat Events
Another unfortunate thing about this game is it does have a lack of enemy variety. I know that it’s an Alien game, so of course, you’re mostly fighting Xenomorph, but there’s like one type of Xenomorph in this game. There’s no real variance. There’s no dog Xenos, no bull Xenos, just the Alien. Once in a while, there’s a Facehugger, and they do keep you on your toes ’cause nobody wants one of those things sucking your face off, but that’s it. There’s literally only three enemy types in the entire game, and one of ’em is the last boss.
Missed Opportunities
I have to say this. I’m glad there’s no human mercenaries or dumb crap like that, but they could have at least had some rogue Worker Joes or something to mix things up. The models are already in the game. They do start appearing in certain areas to confuse you when you’re using the tracker, but that’s really all they do. The variety of encounters is low, but the game does mix things up once in a while with these defense segments where you have to hold your ground against an onslaught of aliens while you wait to open a door, power up some kind of array. They are standout combat moments, and like I said, the combat is fun.
Tactical Tools and Arsenal
You get proximity grenades that can be placed around for defense. You can close doors and reroute power to lock down certain vents to prevent aliens from attacking from certain angles, and it’s fun. I do actually wish there was a little more to these events, like maybe an automated gun or you could seal doors or something, but what’s here works. It’s entertaining, it’s enjoyable, I like it.
Weapons and Feedback
Your arsenal of weapons is pretty standard, a revolver, a pulse rifle, and a riot shotgun. That’s your whole arsenal. They work well enough. The shotgun’s satisfying to get a point blank shot, and the revolver, it’s pretty powerful. But I don’t know why there isn’t a Smartgun, other than there is a part two in the plan. The weapons do feel a little underpowered. They don’t have a lot of oomph. I’m guessing that’s a consequence to it being a VR game. They probably could have improved the visuals and effects a bit more, like give ’em a little more pop.
Combat Feel and Alien Reactions
Maybe they’re kind of hoping the game sells a bit, and then they’ll take the money and do that, that’d be nice. But the way like stuff goes down, it does make you think, “Mm, it could be better.” Like the way the bullets hit aliens doesn’t really help. They either ignore getting shot or flop over like a wet noodle. Their acid blood does at least damage you, but it’s so weak, it barely registers. I feel like this game leaning into the survival horror would make this a good opportunity to make the Xenomorph acid a little dangerous, but they didn’t do it.
Final Thoughts
So it’s really important to say the story is pretty bland and unforgettable. The shooting is good, not great. The graphics are not cutting-edge. There’s nothing really innovative about this game, but damn if the core gameplay loop isn’t solid. Yeah, I mean it’s satisfying. You explore the facility, kill a few aliens, read a few notes, get some background on what’s going on, unlock some new tool to help with progression, open up panic rooms where you can save. It’s a classic survival horror formula where a lot of the individual elements don’t stand out, but everything comes together really well.
Survival Horror Done Right
I mean the shooting of Resident Evil games wasn’t like incredible either. It’s kind of the resource management element that keeps things interesting there, and surprise, surprise, it does it here too, like they executed on that well. I think what hurts the game most is that it is only a part one. It feels incomplete and the actual runtime isn’t long. But I also have to say it’s not that bad. It’s again, 29 bucks, six or seven hours of solid survival horror that emphasizes action, that’s pretty decent.
Scares and Standouts
It’s maybe a little unfortunate that it’s not super scary or anything outside of one part where they first introduced the Facehugger, which is pretty intense and actually kind of innovative. Probably pants wetting in VR, but pretty effective, honestly, not at VR. Otherwise, it’s a sort of workmanlike but fun Alien franchise tie-in. The “Isolation” nods stand out the most ’cause it’s not “Isolation”. It’s not even trying to be “Isolation” really, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. It is fun.
Worth the Price
Like if you want a good Alien game that’s gonna be fun, this is 30 bucks well spent. Probably the biggest complaint I have is the cliffhanger ending, it’s lame, and I hope we get part two. I will play part two, like there’s no question. I’m satisfied enough with this that I’m ready for another $30, six or seven-hour part two if it is equal to or better in quality, which hopefully, people buy this in enough numbers that they are able to spend on the sequel and we get the full story.
But what do you think? Leave us a comment, let us know. And as always, a thank you very much for reading this blog. I’m Zaid. We’ll see you next time right here on Aura Riot.