Alien Rogue Incursion Evolved Review: A one-person army

It's Zula versus an entire planet in Part One.

Alien Rogue Incursion was first released on PlayStation VR2 and supported Windows VR devices in late 2024, then heading to Meta Quest 3 in early 2025. Now, with Evolved, the need for a virtual reality headset has been done away with… though at its core, it remains a VR game. For better or worse.

Developed and published by Survivos, Rogue Incursion is set between Alien and Aliens and revolves around the unlikely duo of Zula Hendricks and Davis 01, a rogue Colonial Marine and her faithful synth companion, respectively. Over the course of an 8-10 hour campaign, the pair will investigate a distress call, find the villainous Weyland-Yutani at work, and battle waves of Xenomorphs.

Sticking to its virtual reality roots, Rogue Incursion Evolved is presented in a first-person view, extremely similar in appearance (for obvious reasons) to Creative Assembly’s Alien Isolation. While Isolation is about atmosphere, stealth, and keeping away from overpowered Xenomorphs, this is anything but. Zula has a pulse rifle, a revolver , and a shotgun — and over the course of the game will eliminate more Xenomorphs than all the Colonial Marines in Aliens combined.

If that doesn’t bother you, perfect! In between copious Xenomorph battles, Zula will use a tracker and map to roam the hallways of a Weyland-Yutani blacksite, using a plasma torch to cut through sealed rooms and solving a single puzzle type to rewire power back to door locks and containers. Apart from that, there’s not much else in terms of a gameplay loop.

In terms of look and feel, Rogue Incursion is top-notch, with immersive design, Xenomorphs, and sound that makes you feel right at home within the Alien franchise. Die-hard fans would most likely be better off playing the VR version of the game to really drive that home. It would also improve the experience of set piece moments clearly designed for VR that lose impact outside of VR accordingly.

For a game that is mostly about shooting, combat is clunky. Xenomorphs will generally attack one at a time, despite coming at you in packs of up to three or four. You’ll know they’re about to approach as the same thumping music track kicks in beforehand, and immediately stops when the last baddie has been felled. Enemy AI is predictable and Xenomorphs themselves have limited actions; you can easily tell when they’re about to pounce, rush you, or jump off to safety.

Certain scripted moments will guarantee new Xenomorphs will pop out of gratings or vents, though additional enemy encounters seem randomised. Those matter spawns are incredibly annoying, especially when you’ve started to engage with a terminal or are neck-deep in a rewiring puzzle. You’re constantly made to stop what you’re doing to start shooting, and it’s far more frustrating than nerve-wracking.

Rogue Incursion is excessively dark to boot, which makes it scary — at least initially — but moreso just frustrating as time passes. It’s incredibly hard to see where you’re going, it’s overly difficult to see the rewiring puzzle you’re working on — to the point where I’d usually have to back out, mid-puzzle, just to shine my flashlight on it and actually see how far I’d progressed.

The back half of the game will have you backtracking to numerous locations, making map functionality incredibly important; it’s here where backtracking turns into fetch quests and you’ll need your map hand to carry something instead. Adding to frustration is the fact that your flashlight will constantly toggle itself off after you’ve backed out of a terminal, opened a locker, or exited a puzzle.

Your reward for slogging through Rogue Incursion‘s back half is a narrative that abruptly ends. The title’s full name is Alien Rogue Incursion Evolved Part One, you see, and those that finished the game back in late 2024 have been waiting for a resolution since then. Rather than that happening, Survivos has seemingly spent that time in an effort to grow the franchise’s install base.

If you like to dabble in Alien games and haven’t played Alien Isolation as yet, I’d recommend that over this. If you’re a true Alien fan and happen to love VR, grab that version of Rogue Incursion instead. If you’re still reading, don’t have VR, and don’t mind a $45 AUD price tag, then this one is for you, warts and all.

Alien Rogue Incursion Evolved heads to Windows PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, alongside Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 on 30 September. It’s already available with VR on Windows PC via Steam, Meta Quest 3, and PS VR2.

Alien Rogue Incursion Evolved Part One was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5 and PS5 Pro, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.