Alien: Rogue Incursion Review

of all the series riped for a virtual reality adaptation few have greater potential than alien I mean who aside from Ellen Ripley herself wouldn't want to experience the thrill of being hunted by the perfect organism without the whole risk of being dismembered thing alien Rogan cursion is an admirable first attempt at delivering just that with a compelling story memorable character terrifying Xenomorphs and a perfectly crafted world that couldn't be mistaken for anything but the iconic alien Universe there's plenty of room to improve and it's already in the work sequel however especially when it comes to

the simplistic combat not so clever xenomorphic foes and occasional jankiness that could use some smoothing over even so Rogan cursion is a strong opening act for a series I'm eager to play more of emergency lockdown Protocols are in effect PDT key card required for entry to main facility if you've read the alien Comics like alien Defiance then you'll already be familiar with the badass protagonist whose boots you'll be filling Zula hendris and if that name doesn't ring a bell Rogan kerian does a great job of introducing you to her in short order so you don't

have to do any homework beforehand an EXC colonial marine with a rough upbringing and chronic back problems it seems like I'll be okay once I get a couple stems in me you're sent to a deserted Planet overrun by the most evil creatures imaginable accompanied by your trusty synthetic companion Davis don't worry he's reformed and not the type to betray you to police's corporate overlords anymore we'll need an estimated weeks worth of repairs before it will fly again whatsoever lovely what follows is an extremely formulaic alien tale that Apes all the same beats for which the

series is known but thanks to interesting dialogue great characters and a runtime that doesn't overstate its welcome that familiarity doesn't end up being such a bad thing zula's relationship with her robot bestie is genuinely touching often times offsetting and otherwise relentlessly Bleak situation and the story has a few twists in store and an ending that sets up a sequel nicely Over The 8 Hour story you'll Tiptoe Through The Dark corridors and Frozen wastes of a forgotten World while looking over your shoulder every few seconds for those ey free freak shows that are never far off

and then painting the walls with their acidic blood whenever one pops out of a vent or sneaks up behind you going through each area slowly and doing your best to keep quiet can keep them off your back for slightly longer but since ammo isn't particularly scarce and Xenomorphs aren't all that hard to kill on anything but the hardest difficulty I found that running through areas and getting things done quickly quickly could work just as well so long as you're up for a slightly more regular fight and of course you'll have to solve complicated engineering problems

in a world where every piece of technology breaks as soon as a xenomorph so much as looks at it and then makes as much noise as possible anytime you try to troubleshoot just in case those aliens in the Next Room over hadn't heard you yet emergency lockdown suspended please wait until motor pool Purge is complete before entering the facility combat is rather simple in that 95% of the time you'll be attacked by Xenomorphs who climb out of vents seemingly installed just to help them get around pull out a weapon to make short work of them

and then move on these encounters are divided nearly equally into either exciting sections that have some kind of unique twist or completely monotonous annoyances for example shooting an explosive Barrel right as a xenomorph leaps over it to kill you narrowly escaping death is extremely memorable similarly setting traps as you hold off an onslaught of double jawed monsters while performing it support for some broken Communications relay is an action-packed good time but then you'll go a long stretch of walking down some of the same hallways you visited already stopping every 30 Seconds To Kill a few

monsters that run straight at you completely devoid of any kind of intelligent attack strategy then carefully reload your weapons before moving on and repeating the process moments later these sections tend to make combat feel pretty mundane and take away a lot of the initial fear when confronting a xenomorph which begin to feel quite commonplace after the first couple hours probably the weakest part of combat is your limited and mostly unremarkable Arsenal which consists of just a pulse rifle a pump action shotgun and a six shooter revolver the pulse rifle is usually the most reliable choice

for a variety of situations and also the only weapon that really feels recognizable in the alien universe as the shotgun and revolver seem oddly generic and low tech for a Sci-Fi setting your only other tools are proximity grenades that can be set to go off when an alien draws near and a motion scanner that you won't need to use very often since Xenomorphs loudly Scurry about and hiss it you to announce their presence most of the time they can still pick up nearsighted sents at least cute these items feel pretty par for the course for

VR Shooters with little to set them apart it's also a bit weird that you don't have a last resort melee weapon to fall back on so if a face hugger does this you'd better hope you can get your pistol pointed at an awkward angle and kill it this is an alien game so perhaps unsurprisingly the enemy variety isn't very strong either you'll go at least several hours before seeing a single enemy that isn't a xenomorph and even when you do it'll be a face hugger or two before going right back to more zenos the good

news is that these aliens can be pretty intimidating foes they kill in just a hit or two and Rush at you by crawling on walls leaping great distances and moving erratically to make them hard to pin down unfortunately despite their best effort their menacing appearance doesn't always translate to them being particularly crafty foes after you've learned their small bag of tricks in the first hour or two they begin to feel downright dim as they mosy on out through a vent before pausing in front of you for a few seconds giving you ample time to score

the kill while they stand in place between the first Alien movies depiction of the xenomorph is an all powerful monstrosity that can scarcely be beaten and the second movie's tendency to blast through dozens of creatures within the span of a few minutes Rogue incursion certainly finds itself in the latter Camp Then There Are The Bugs which are generally minor but still noteworthy enough to be annoying Xenomorphs will move through objects in bizarre ways the controls aren't always as precise as I'd hope while staring down a room full of face huggers and sometimes characters will repeat

the same lines of dialogue multiple times in a row that's everything ready to roll out that's everything ready to roll out that's everything ready to roll out none of these issues are particularly Troublesome but they do add a slight lack of polish that I hope will be worked on for the sequel and while not the fault of Rogue incursion alone one especially annoying psvr2 issue that felt like a particular problem here is that the little PlayStation logo buttons are a tad too easy to hit especially when you're clamoring for your handgun after a xenomorph surprises

you most of the times I hied were due to a menu popping up at exactly the wrong moment sending me scrambling to back out before I was killed that adds an extra level of stress in the wrong kind of way again this is a controller design Problem by Sony at the end of the day but it came up enough here that I was surprised there wasn't some built-in protection against it maybe make me hold the menu button down for a second or two before you cause me to get impaled on an alien's tail alien Rogue

incursion is a faithful and entertaining stab at bringing alien to Virtual Reality the excellent story spot-on Alien environments and creepy Xenomorphs keep the horrifying times going throughout its 8h hour duration even when repetitive combat predictable Ai and the odd bug here and there make it clear this is the first attempt that it is but while there's plenty of room for this budding series to grow I can already happily recog recommend Rogan Kian as a strong proof of concept to alien fans and newcomers alike one that's left me eagerly awaiting part two for more games that

will fill you with movie Nostalgia check out our review of Indiana Jones in the great circle or Marvel Rivals and for everything else stick with IGN