Alien Rogue Incursion is the latest release from Survios, the creators behind the Creed: Rise To Glory VR titles and the Walking Dead: Onslaught titles. It was released on December 19th of this year and it’s clear the amount of love Survios has put in to make sure the elements of Alien franchise are not lost in translation to a VR experience however there are some things that need to be addressed.
A Valiant VR Experience
Talking about effort, Survios has put in a lot of effort in creating the environments and detailing them to match the settings from the movies. From the snow covered areas to the metal hallways in our spaceship, the amount of detail is amazing and it’s such that it could never be mistaken for anything but from the iconic franchise.
In this title we play as the titular Zula Hendricks, those who follow the Alien Comics are well aware of Zula’s outstanding achievements and heroics but the game does an excellent job of introducing players who aren’t in the know. Zula, along with her synthetic companion Davis gets sent to a deserted planet that is overrun by the Xenomorphs.
Without going into spoilers, the story that unfolds rings all the bells that one would expect from playing or watching anything related to this iconic franchise. While some might argue that familiarity isn’t a good sign in storytelling, what matters the most is the dialogue, amazing characters and a runtime that doesn’t overstay its welcome, all of which the game has in droves.
Brilliant Sound Design And Feedback
While a VR title’s most important focus is in rendering out the environments as perfectly as possible to maximize immersion, another thing of importance is the sound design and quality. As much as the detailing of the environments deserve our praise, so does the sound design.
With eerie ambient sounds that play during intense moments or when we are exploring corridors expecting a xenomorph to come out, it really adds to the immersion and thus enhances the experience by a whole lot.
Most of the time, we have to move about slowly so as to not attract xenomorphs to our location thus the soft bootsteps and Zula’s muffled breath sound just add to the experience. Another worthwhile point is the satisfying sounds that each of our guns make, which really give the itch to ditch the silent playstyle and go full commando.
There Are Some Lingering Issues
While the story and setting are amazing and speak to the experience and effort that Survios put in there are some issues to talk about such as the repetitive combat. It never goes beyond the standard shoot-to-kill, Survios could have added segments or moments where we would have to fight an Alien one-on-one or have a mini Dead By Daylight moment where we have to run away or escape from one.
Another point of contention is the fact that the encounters with the xenomorphs start feeling less and less significant due to the sheer volume of it. As we complete our objectives, there will be times where we will encounter more than 1 or 2 xenomorphs together but killing them isn’t all that difficult due how effective our guns are.
Other than the simplistic gunplay, another issue is the Alien AI feels underbaked, multiple times they would have pathing where they walk past flammable barrels thus shooting at them just ends the encounter right there, much like the disappointing AI from Ubisoft’s Stars Wars: Outlaws.
Alien Has A Bright Future In VR Too
The game has spectacular pace and some brilliant puzzles to solve that lead to some exciting moments but the volume of xenomorph encounters takes away from the significance of facing one. The AI of the xenomorphs need to be addressed in a patch of some sort to align their behavior to the source material.
No game is perfect and VR titles have a long way to go for people to adopt the experience en masse but Alien: Rogue Incursion is a strong contender due to how good its narrative is that will surely leave the player wanting more. Its spectacular story does an amazing job of keeping us focused on the objective while delivering us a brilliant and immersive VR experience in the Alien franchise.
