Summary
Survios has posted a new look at the upcoming VR titleAlien: Rogue Incursion, offering a better look at its gameplay. In it, players will step into the shoes of Zula Hendricks, an ex-Colonial Marine on a dangerous mission on the uncharted, Xenomorph-infested planet Purdan. From its announcement and first-look trailer depicting the title as a claustrophobic first-person experience in which the player is hunted by Xenomorphs, I was immediately reminiscing about one of my favorite games in the franchise,Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly’s 2014 survival horror.
I’ve long been playingAliengames, fromAlien TrilogyandAliens vs Predatorthrough to the more recentAliens: Fireteam EliteandAliens: Dark Descent. I evenendured the infamousAliens: Colonial Marinesupon its launch after being suckered in by its years of promotional material - I was in my early 20s and should have known better, but I had been following it since I was a teenager, so I felt I had to check it out. But to me,Alien: Isolationstood apart by focusing more on the horror of the firstAlienfilm rather than the action-packed experience of its sequel,Aliens,and was a terrifying stealth experience that made the iconic creature more intimidating than any other game in the franchise before it.
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I’d Love To See A Full Alien: Isolation Sequel Someday
There Was A Mobile Spin-Off, But This Has Been Delisted
Audiences seemed to share the same views as me -Alien: Isolationcurrently holds a “Very Positive” score of 39,914 reviews onSteam- and the game went on to be nominated for several awards at the prestigious BAFTAs where it was up for Best Innovation, Audio Achievement, Best British Game, and Best Game - and won the award for its intense and immersive Audio work - and was also nominated at The Game Awards for Best Score & Music. Unfortunately, despite this praise, a full sequel has yet to be greenlit for PC and modern consoles,despite plenty of rumors.
Instead, there was D3 Go!’s 2019mobile spin-offAlien: Blackout, which has been delisted as of October 2023. While I appreciated the title for bringing the survival-horror gameplay ofIsolationto another kind of platform, I personally didn’t find it as intense, likely due to the mobile gaming experience in general, where playing a game on a tiny screen doesn’t feel as immersive as playing it on a monitor.
As for full immersion in gaming, it doesn’t get more immersive than VR at the moment, with 360 environments and your physical actions as a player directly translating to those of the character in the game. Therefore, it seemed like whileAlien: Rogue Incursionmay not be a direct sequel toAlien: Isolation, it could certainly feel like an even more immersive spiritual successor.
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Alien: Rogue Incursion’s Gameplay Looks To Be A Bit More Action-Heavy Than Alien: Isolation’s
The Latest Trailer Revealed An Array Of Weapons
A new trailer shared to theSurviosYouTube channel showed off the arsenal ofweapons players will wield as Zula Hendricks as she takes on the Xenomorph threat, and therefore, it seems clear thatAlien: Rogue Incursionwill focus more on action thanAlien: Isolation. Sure, there was a point inAlien: Isolationwhere we were able topick up and use a flamethrower, but it didn’t feel like it crossed a line into first-person shooter territory too much.
Instead, the gameplay shown forAlien: Rogue Incursionsees players unloading plenty of lead into Xenomorphs with revolvers, shotguns, and pulse rifles, which, to be fair, does seem fitting as the protagonist is a former marine, rather thanAlien Isolation’s Amanda Ripley, who was an engineer for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. The Xenomorphs don’t seem that easy to kill in the footage shown, however, so it’s still possible that stealth may be the best way to navigate some areas, asAlien: Rogue Incursioncertainly seems to have captured the extra-terrestrial creatures' speed and agility as they weave between obstacles and quickly get the jump on the player.
Amanda Ripley is the daughter of theAlienmovies' protagonist, Ellen Ripley, and her mother’s disappearance looms over her throughoutAlien: Isolation’s story.
I Have A Feeling The Motion Tracker Is Going To Make For The Most Intense Sequences In Alien: Rogue Incursion
The Iconic Alien-Tracking Tool Is Presence In The Gameplay Footage
One particular tool that players will have in their inventory inAlien: Rogue Incursionis the Motion Tracker, and I already can’t wait to experience just how intense these moments will be in VR. While it certainly would have felt fitting in the originalAliendue to its horror vibes, the gadget first appeared in theAliensmovie instead. Its simple radar-type screen and memorable sound design made for one of the most intense moments in that film where the characters realize they are surrounded by Xenomorphs, and it was used to great effect to plan a way around the creature inAlien: Isolation. It was also extremely prominent in theAlien: Rogue Incursion’s first-look trailer, which definitely amplified the horror vibes.
WhileAlien: Rogue Incursionseems to be letting players fight back more regularly, the fact that this scene inAliensinvolved heavily armed Colonial Marines and was still terrifying means that the tool will likely have just as much of an impact in Survios' upcoming game, regardless of how many weapons may be acquired. The best VR experiences, for me, are all about immersion, so having that feeling whereI will have to keep an eye on the tracker and look over my shoulder often out of fear of a Xenomorph attack from anywhere in a 360-degree environment- which already seems more impressive than a lot of past VR titles I have played with its constant use of steam and smoke effects - is something that I am looking forward to, and I can’t wait to see how these sequences play out firsthand.
Alien: Rogue Incursionlaunches August 02, 2025, on Meta Quest 3, PCVR (via Steam), and PlayStation VR2, and is available to pre-order now.
Alien: Rogue Incursion
InAlien: Rogue Incursion, players assume the role of ex-Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks on a perilous mission to expose Gemini Exoplanet Solutions' clandestine experiments on the remote planet Purdan. Equipped with classic weaponry and a motion tracker, players must navigate a facility overrun by Xenomorphs, balancing combat and stealth in a VR-exclusive survival horror experience.
