Alien: Rogue Incursion VR review — In VR, everyone can hear you scream

I’m starting to think this Weyland Yutani group doesn’t have humanity’s best interests in mind. Call me crazy, but they also don’t seem to be very good engineers. Their ships seem to fall out of the skies, crash landing onto remote stations where they’re doing the most heinous experiments. Well, that’s the setup for Alien: Rogue Incursion. Zula Hendricks, an ex-Colonial Marine and her robot…er…I mean “artificial person” David 01 have landed on the uncharted planet Purdan. Landing on the planet, their ship is damaged in flight, forcing us to land near the Gemini Exoplanet Solutions Research Facility. Naturally, everything goes well, this ship is repaired, and nothing bad ever happens. Right?

Alien: Rogue Incursion goes precisely how you’d expect. While the original Alien movie reveled in its delayed gratification of being more than half way over before ever revealing the titular perfect killing machine, Alien: Rogue Incursion is more like the James Cameron adrenaline-fueled sequel, putting me face to face with the creature fairly quickly and immediately putting my nerves on edge where they stayed the ENTIRE TIME.

VR has a magical ability to transport you to the worlds developers create, and wow will you wish you weren’t here. From the moment the alien crested the top of a cargo container until the credits rolled, Alien: Rogue Incursion immerses you in a world of terrible monsters who will tear you apart, impregnate you with a horrible parasite, or both. The research facility is home to a host of awful creatures that have escaped the grip of their hosts, roaming the station with murderous intent. Good luck, you soft sack of meat, you’re going to need it.

Heading into the facility, you have a few resources at your disposal – an M41 Pulse Rifle, undoubtedly a remnant of your time as a Colonial Marine, a Spearhead .357 “Heavy Bore” revolver, a handful of injectable meds, and TNR Shoulder Lamp (though this seems to be attached to your helmet). Certainly, that’s enough for a brief visit to a research facility…or it would be if not for the large streaks of blood, missing bodies, and scurrying in the vents.

Virtual Reality works best when it’s seamless, and Rogue Incursion achieves that handily. Reaching over your shoulder you can grab your pulse rifle. Tapping a button on the PSVR2 Sense controllers ejects the magazine, you grab another from your waist, slap it in like you see Hicks, Hudson, Apone, or any other Colonial Marine do, and then release the charging handle to slide the first round into the chamber. Similarly, you reach up to the side of your helmet to turn on your light, you reach to your thigh holster to pull your pistol, and your meds are stored on your wrist. Using the pulse rifle one handed allows it to “walk” out of control quickly, but bracing it with your tracker on top helps control it somewhat. Gripping it with two hands is better, and aiming down sights is best. Similarly, you dump out your spent shell casings from your pistol by opening the cylinder and dumping it backwards, thumbing in fresh rounds one at a time. You can close the cylinder by using your hand, but flicking it into position does the trick. Reaching over with the barrel of the rifle to actuate a lever on a door will close it just as easily as using the flat edge of the motion tracker. Yeah, you could use your hand to slide the lever, but when eight foot tall killing machines are stalking you, taking your hand off your weapon always seems unwise.

One of the best parts of the immersive world is that everything is detachable. What I mean by that is your weapons, gear, and everything else can be set down like you’d expect in the real world. When you need to use a computer, you can set your rifle on the desk nearby. You don’t have to put your motion tracker away, you can point it where you expect enemies to appear from (it’s directional and based on movement, so choose wisely) letting you keep it deployed while you work. It keeps you in the moment, and that familiar pulsing chirp of the machine will keep the tiny hairs on your neck standing on edge the entire time. By letting you interact in a natural way, the tension is always kept at maximum. Most of the time you can hear an enemy before you see them, but like Hicks told Ripley – “Short controlled bursts”. If you run out of ammo in your pulse rifle before your enemy is dead, you might find the power of your pistol is insufficient to finish the job. They also tend to have friends, so reload before you holster your weapon.

Exploring the facility is aided by your tablet computer. Hitting a button allows that computer to unfold, showing an enlarged map. Placing it onto a desktop computer will allow that computer to interface, attempting to crack it. Most of the time you can use it to log in, obtaining emails or controls for nearby lockers and doors. Of course, it could also make the computer loudly announce that you don’t have the correct login information, practically ringing a dinner bell for your bitey friends. It’s that unpredictability that keeps you, again, on edge about whether or not to even use a computer. As you run out of ammo, that decision gets harder, making it another source of tension.

As you make your way through the facility you’ll find that the researchers have built up Panic Room facilities throughout. It didn’t save them, but they can help you. Some will require that you solve a quick puzzle to even open them, using an insulated wrench to move wires around to release the latch. Once inside, you’ll find lockers you can usually open for ammunition, meds, and other supplies. You’ll want to close the door, though – the xenos have no problem walking straight in if you don’t. This is also the only place you can save, so you’ll want to probably hit them every single time you find one.

The other time when your entire focus will be taken, leaving you to holster your weapon, is when you eventually pick up a welder. You can unseal doors that the researchers have sealed up in vain, opening new areas to explore. Ammunition, grenades, meds, and intel are often tucked behind a door that is entirely optional, meaning they’re usually worth the risk, but not always.

The thing I appreciated most about Alien: Rogue Incursion is that the run-and-gun playstyle is just as valid as trying to move silently and slowly. Making a bunch of noise is sure to attract unwelcome visitors. Hiding underneath a desk cubicle can be a valid technique as the xeno hunts through adjoining rooms. It’s not quite to the level of Alien: Isolation, but the creatures seem far less omnipotent or scripted than you might expect.

As someone who suffers from motion sickness in VR, I have a great deal of appreciation for how hard veteran VR devs Survios have worked to prevent nausea. There is a seated mode which adjusts where your weapon slots are, not just shrinking you to fit. You can use snap turns or smooth turns, with degrees of movement to fit your preference. Similarly, you can also crouch in the real world, or you can click in the thumbstick to get low for vent crawls. The defaults use a bit of vignetting when you run, snap rotations, and smooth movements combined, and that worked perfectly for me, but you’re welcome to mix and match from these and many other comfort options. Somewhere in here is what you’ll need to be able to play Rogue Incursion comfortably, I’m certain.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is absolutely gorgeous, with some of the most readable text I’ve ever seen in a VR game, and with a framerate that never wavers. No matter how hectic the action, packed the scene, or how many fires roared, the game’s engine easily kept up, and with no sign of dynamic resolutions, reprojection, or other compensation techniques that I could see. Not saying they aren’t there – just that if they are being used, they are imperceptible, and that’s fine by me.

There are two areas where Rogue Incursion falls down a bit. Occasionally you’ll see xenos get stuck on the environment, though this is mercifully infrequent. More likely, the longer you spend in a space, the more you’ll know exactly where the creatures will come from and how they’ll approach, meaning you can easily get the drop on them. Most of the time you’re moving through a space too quickly to see the pattern, but some spaces you’ll likely revisit enough to know the paths. This too is a minor thing, but it’s likely one that’ll rear its head on replay. The creatures don’t always know where to find you, but when you know where to find them it does reduce the terror…at least a little bit.

There is one area where the game’s immersion falls off the rails – voice work. While the voice acting from all involved, deceased, robot, or protagonist, are very good, it’s frustrating when things either repeat in rapid fashion, or are completely disconnected from reality. There was more than one occasion where Davis was saying “All clear” while a xeno was actively trying to chew my face off. Sometimes he’d be standing there staring at me, or even joining the firefight while announcing all clear. Occasionally I’d join in the lunacy and announce all clear while my pulse rifle was splashing alien acid all over the corridor.

I’d rather a game not overstay its welcome, and that goes double for VR. Alien: Rogue Incursion will take around 10 hours to complete. I tend to balance between quiet and kill-em-all so I suspect that time estimate will hold for most folks. The ending sets up a sequel, which is already in production, but for my money, 10 hours feels about right for this type of game.

Ultimately, Alien: Rogue Incursion accomplishes what it sets out to do – make the skin crawl on the back of your neck with some tension-filled moments that’ll have you backed against a virtual wall while you fight for your life. While the bugs tend to break that spell, and you can begin to see the strings by the end, it’s a fun experience that makes the best use of the tactile nature of VR while setting up for whatever comes next.

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