Alien: Rogue Incursion review: superb survival horror with monsters I wish were more terrifying
Alien: Rogue Invasion is a prime example of excellence in horror films VR games. It doesn’t just trap you in a pitch-black space and throw you jump scare after jump scare, no, the entire game exudes an inescapable tension that’s a mixture of its setting, sound design, and gameplay mechanics body.
The chaotic, maze-like solution to the Gemini exoplanet that your team of two (Zula Hendricks and her synth partner Davis) are trapped in isn’t too important, but its design and décor do Very important.
It has a cluttered network of crawl spaces perfect for aliens sneaking up on you, and even with motion detectors, tracking them before they break cover and attack you is a challenge – the sound of them climbing is a constant reminder that monsters are just around the corner. Be nearby, even if you can’t see them.
Comment information
Platform review: PSVR 2
Available for: PSVR 2, PC and later Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S
release date: December 19, 2024 (February 13, 2025 for Quest)
It’s recommended to sneak around the facility on your own to avoid unnecessary fights, but what makes this a challenge are the common workplace debris. On other days, a few boxes, a squeaky locker door, or a trash can are mundane items you barely think about, but they turn into your enemies thieves invasion Because any noise has a chance to summon your alien enemies.
This pairs perfectly with the inherent risk-reward structure that should be at the heart of a survival horror campaign like this. Yes, you can explore some extra rooms to try and replenish your dwindling supplies, but the noise you make may mean you’ll spend more resources than you regain if you’re not careful.
I also appreciate that, as a relative stranger alien Universe – I know what xenomorphs are, how their parasitic nature relies on facehuggers and boobs to reproduce violently, I could pick one from a range of sci-fi heels but I’ve never seen one alien movie, it’s also the movie that I’m closest to acting in alien The previous game was to destroy the Xenomoprophs and Ripley fortnite – I never felt left out of the story.
This was aided by a decidedly trope plot, and while there were clear characters and events that didn’t mean much to me, the well-crafted dialogue contained enough context clues that I could follow without feeling lost. So if you’re new to this, don’t feel like this isn’t for you alien Franchise like me.
The cry is worse than the bite
Ironically, however, the least scary aspect of the entire scene is the eponymous alien. Since you’re well stocked with military-grade rifles, shotguns, and revolvers, Zula and Davis can dispatch the aliens with enough chest or head shots.
Mechanically speaking, there are no variants that will keep you on your toes. Once you fight one alien, you’ve fought them all, making the otherwise tense combat feel a bit repetitive.
the best bit
The whistle-like alarm that sounds whenever an alien approaches your motion detector always makes me nervous. The ending is also strong, but I can’t talk about it in this spoiler-free medium.
As such, the fear of combat comes not from its challenge, but from resource management and unforgiving save points.
Of course, you can kill any alien as long as you have ammo – and the supply of ammo is far from inexhaustible. If a group of aliens does catch you off guard and you’re low on healing items, you’ll be sent back to the last time you were saved in the panic room – speaking from experience, I can say it’s no different than writing your college thesis Reset due to computer crash after not saving for many hours.
Well, xenomorphs are scary in a way, but that’s a bit of an immersion-breaker because the monsters in the universe aren’t scary, rather what’s scary is the meta-context of the monsters as video game enemies.
At the same time, although I feel thieves invasion If you start with a weaker base, allow you to really experience the threat posed by the xenomorphs, or throw in some variants (the facility’s xenomorph experiments would come into play from a story perspective), I’ve never been on that front Feel relieved. world.
At the end of the day, this is the survival horror ride you really want. In this sense, this title reminds me of Resident Evil 7, which also features a variety of enemies in addition to boss battles, but that doesn’t mean you want to encounter Molded Man or Feel safe at Baker Manor. So if you love this game as much as I do, I can see that you’ll find a lot to like too thieves invasion.
Alien’s Own Kobayashi Maru
From a story perspective, thieves invasion It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but its plot provides an excellent drive for your adventure, with the ideal balance of hope and despair to keep you going without feeling too happy about your situation.
Additionally, I appreciate the nuggets of world-building you can glean from the email logs and recordings that not only bring additional context to the chaos of the facility for lore fans to chew on, but tie directly into the ending, This makes me very excited to dive into the sequel.
I’m going to keep this review spoiler-free as usual, but I want to quickly express my dissatisfaction with the only frustrating moment I faced: the no-win situation mid-story.
It’s certainly a fun way to play into the general feeling of hopelessness in the world as you’re at a disadvantage in an epic battle against waves of aliens, but not knowing that I couldn’t win, I actually had to manually re- After setting it up a few times, it would have been better for me to think of a different strategy – the first-person death animation was a bit too much for me, so I preferred using the pause menu to return to the save point rather than letting the death continue.
Eventually, after a few failed attempts, I quickly let go of the headphones and checked the reviewer’s guide on my phone to see if there was a walkthrough that could tell me what I was missing, and while there wasn’t a walkthrough, it did mean that I Finally having no manual resets and no returning to panic room save points, I found I was making story progress as I was always doomed to fail.
Then it gets to the game’s pivotal “oh shit” moment, which I wasn’t expecting at all, but unfortunately its impact was kind of lost in my anger.
Should you play Aliens: Invasion of Rogue?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility
Alien: Rogue InvasionLike other VR games, a full range of upper body movement is required to play, as you need to be able to interact with door handles, wire puzzles, and weapon controls.
It also uses fluid motion, which can be a challenge for VR newbies, however, its robust vignette options meant I could play for hours at a time without feeling like I was about to lose my lunch.
How I tested Alien: Roguelike
I played the whole process Alien: Rogue Invasion standard activities PSVR 2 Use general settings PS5. I tried a few different difficulty settings to get a feel for the level of challenge they offered, and tried playing from both standing and seated positions to see if there were any major benefits to challenging one style over the other – there weren’t, so take your pick Like it.
