The Alien franchise lends itself perfectly to the survival horror genre of the video game world. Dimly lit areas, creaking hulls setting you on edge, and the Xenomorph, the perfect organism lurking around the. Despite this, truly great Alien games are rarer than escaping a face-hugger's grasp, but that could be all set to change when Alien: Rogue Incursion arrives during the 2024 holiday season. Could it take Alien: Isolation's crown?
Alien: Rogue Incursion marks a first for the Alien video game franchise because it is the first-ever Alien Virtual Reality (VR) title. While playing Alien: Isolation in VR is possible, Rogue Incursion is the first game in the Alien franchise to be purely VR. Survios, an American VR game developer and software publisher, is the team behind the upcoming title, which gives fans of the franchise plenty of hope that Rogue Incursion will be a blockbuster hit.
Who Is Making Alien: Rogue Incursion?
Survios has won more or been nominated than a dozen awards for its VR titles over the past decade. If the California-based outfit gets Rogue Incursion right, the sites at VegasBetting.com will have no choice but to price it as an overwhelming favorite in the race for the coveted Game of the Year award.
Although Alien: Rogue Incursion is penciled in to launch during the 2024 holiday season, Survios is keeping its cards close to its chest regarding what players should expect. The game will launch on PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest 3, and Steam, with Survios stating the game "fully surrounds players within the terrors of the Alien universe" and is a game "designed by Alien fans for Alien fans."
What Does the Alien: Rogue Incursion First Look Trailer Tell Us?
Survios released a first-look trailer on YouTube on May 30, sending Alien fans into a frenzy. The trailer opens with the camera panning the planet Purdan LC-354, a P-Type planet orbiting the star Elgafar in the Phi Virginis System of the Micor Sector. Viewers are then thrust into a first-person view of the game's lead character making their way through a dark, dingey, and eery space station, giving glimpses of Alien-related props fans of the genre love.
We see a pulse rifle that resembles the iconic M41A Pulse Rifle, the famous motion tracker complete with its haunting beeps and bleeps, the slimy opening of Ovomorphs, and, of course, the legendary Xenomorph. The trailer cuts to the title screen, where a Xenomorph is screaming, and the player is firing off rounds from their pulse rifle.
The trailer only shows approximately 30 seconds of action, but that was enough to send Alien fans into a frenzy on social media.
Other Recent Alien Video Games?
As mentioned at the start of this article, the Alien franchise is almost ready-made for the video game world. Survival horror gamers love dark, atmospheric titles where the odds are stacked against them, and what movie franchise does that better than Alien?
Older Alien video games failed to strike the right balance between action and survival, with some seemingly thinking all that was required to enjoy a blockbuster hit was to throw a Xenomorph into the mix. Aliens: Fireteam Elite, released in April 2023, adopted a third-person view and focused more on action than survival. It received generally mixed reviews.
Alien: Dark Descent went in a different direction entirely, adopting a real-time tactical theme. The game received generally favorable reviews, although many reviewers and critics said it was essentially a reskin of the popular XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Alien: Isolation: The Queen of the Franchise
Nobody expected Alien: Isolation to be the hit that it was when Creative Assembly and Sega released it in October 2014. The game is still massively popular almost a decade after its release. Indeed, several video game-related websites consider Alien: Isolation one of the best video games ever made and certainly one of the top five survival horror titles.
The game is set 15 years after the events of the original 1979 film. It follows engineer Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, as she investigates her mother's disappearance aboard the space station Sevastopol. Creative Assembly opted to recreate the setting and feel of the original Alien film rather than a high-tech science fiction look, and they nailed it. Players feel they are in the middle of the 1979 movie, which adds to the immersion.
However, the standout component of Alien: Isolation is the Xenomorph itself. Instead of filling Sevastopol with dozens of aliens, the game features a single Xenomorph that actively stalks the player throughout. The alien cannot be killed; they are only scared off with fire, and any attack from the alien results in instant death. The alien's artificial intelligence is highly complex, with its behavioral designs slowly unlocking throughout the game, giving the impression that the alien is learning from the player's tendencies. The end result is a genuinely terrifying experience where you feel underpowered and at risk from the second the game launches to the moment the end credits roll.
Can Alien: Incursion Toppled Alien: Isolation?
It is difficult to predict whether or not Alien: Incursion can claim Alien: Isolation's crown as the best-ever Alien-related video game, mainly because we are limited to 30-40 seconds of video footage so far. That early footage is promising, and one must remember that it is possible to play Alien: Isolation in virtual reality despite it not being a standalone VR title.
If Survios retains the "in space, no one can hear you scream" philosophy, where the player feels almost helpless and has to survive rather than discover abundant ammunition, high-powered weaponry, and other ways to combat the Xenomorph, Alien: Incursion could be a massive hit that has us ejecting Alien: Isolation out of the nearest airlock.
More Alien Movie Universe News & Articles
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