Hot off the heels of Alien Earth, Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition is the flatscreen conversion of Survios’ 2024 Alien: Rogue Incursion VR. Rebuilt from the ground up, this new version of Alien: Rogue Incursion comes loaded with graphical enhancements, improvements, and full controller/mouse and keyboard support, to bring the latest Alien horror experience to a wider audience.
With a focus on delivering a truly terrifying and immersive adventure, the Evolved Edition promises to be the most definitive version of the game, letting players face off against the Xenomorph threat in a way they never could before.
Does Survious manage to keep the same heart-pounding terror and immersive dread from its VR counterpart, or is this conversion a less-than-stellar port?
From VR Terror to Flatscreen Frights
In Alien: Rogue Incursion, you play as Zula Hendricks, a rogue Colonial Marine who is sent to investigate a distress signal on a planet known as Purdan, aka LV-354. As it turns out, Purdan is a Weyland-Yutani blacksite, the franchise’s main evil mega-corporation that has a sickening obsession with controlling and weaponizing the deadly Xenomorph species. This obsession has, of course, gone terribly wrong, something you find out shortly upon landing on Purdan as Xenomorphs now overrun the base.
Now, I won’t spend too much time diving deep into this re-release, as many of my opinions remain unchanged from my original review of Alien: Rogue Incursion, including the story. It’s not the deepest when it comes to lore of the universe, and though this time around it does market itself as a first-parter experience, it still comes up short in the story department.
The main draw of the game is going to be in the gameplay and set pieces themselves. Like the VR version, Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition manages to create a menacing threat when it comes to the Xenomorph. Sure, it’s not on the scale of Alien Isolation, where a single Xenomorph is hunting you throughout the entire game. But given that this is meant to be closer to Aliens (the sequel film to Alien), where it’s more action-focused, and the Xenomorphs are taken down by the dozen, the game does a fantastic job at making the Xenomorph feel like a true inteelegant hunter, where they’ll throw a few at you, while the rest scurry off into vents, and sneak around to try and flank you and such.
They know they have the numbers, and not only will they be used to try to overwhelm you, but they’ll also use that to their advantage.
The VR experience definitely had a much more terrifying aspect to it, given that you were in full control of the character movement with your own body. This sense of physical presence made the close-quarters encounters with the Xenomorphs feel visceral and truly terrifying. When you had to physically lean around a corner or duck behind a crate, it added a layer of immersion that is difficult to replicate on a flatscreen. The Evolved Edition, while still frightening, loses some of that immediacy. However, it compensates with a finely tuned control scheme and a more cinematic presentation that makes the action feel intense and satisfying in its own right. The developers have successfully translated the core gameplay loop, proving that the Xenomorph threat can be just as potent when viewed through a flatscreen space.
Tighter Controls to Face Off an Even Deadlier Threat
The controls, of course, have been entirely rebuilt, going from motion input to controller/mouse and keyboard, and the conversion is spectacular. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the VR version of this game for what it was. I thought Survios did a fantastic job at making use of 3D spatial audio and the immersive nature of VR, but the flatscreen controls feel incredibly intuitive. Moving from a physical, one-to-one movement system to a traditional control scheme is often a massive stumbling block for VR ports, but here, it feels like the game was always meant to be played this way (even if VR is still my go-to). The shooting is tight and responsive, and the movement feels fluid, allowing you to react quickly to the Xenomorphs’ unpredictable movements.
Motion actions that previously required you to reach around your body for a certain utility have now been replaced with a single button press. That does, in many ways, lose a lot of the “horror” the VR version had, where you would be fumbling around, trying to reload or swap weapons as something was trying to eat your face. The Facehugger scene certainly doesn’t evoke the same bone-chilling feeling as it does in the VR version, but it’s still a great scene.
But one big difference here is the reworked AI. While the VR version received several patches to fix bugs and improve the AI (which, by the way, was not bad by any means), the Evolved Edition undergoes further reworking to compensate for the less immersive format. The Xenomorphs are just more deadly and think more before throwing an onslaught of Xenos at you, often keeping you more on your toes during encounters.
Where I feel the VR version was leaning more towards Alien Isolation, this flatscreen conversion feels like a proper Alien Colonial Marines (that awful Gearbox release) that fans have been craving for. You don’t have to worry about Xenomorphs spinning around in place and constantly being predictable in their locations. They genuinely feel like a threat here, using vents, ceiling holes, floors, and any cover to try and sneak their way to you.
On the visual side of things, the flatscreen version is a massive glow-up. If you’re coming from the Quest 3 version, the difference will be more noticeable. However, for PSVR2 and PCVR, playing on the PS5 almost feels like playing on a high-end version of this, with better lighting (ray-traced lighting really shines here), textures, and a rock-solid 60 FPS throughout. Survios didn’t just port the game over and call it a day; there’s real work put into this, with new animations to account for the ones performed by motion.
I love how the DualSense feels in this one, too, with every gun having unique haptics and triggers, and certain actions being felt through the controllers’ motors. Supporting the DualSense to its fullest is always a plus to me in any game, and it’s just one of those extra added layers to make the experience feel more immersive for flatscreen gamers.
Save points are still accessed via panic room terminals (similar to the Resident Evil typewriter system). This was an issue I had with the original VR version of the game, mostly due to the lack of autosaving and having to replay sections repeatedly in VR. Well, it eventually became tiring to the point that it could induce motion sickness as you tried to rush back through a section to get caught up again. Arguably, since it’s now on a flatscreen, that’s not really an issue anymore. It’s much easier to go through the motions of things without going through those motions physically, and you aren’t constantly bobbing your head around. Of course, that can be said about any flatscreen converted VR game, but coupled with the bugs the original release had, it made for a less-than-enjoyable experience at the time, where auto-saving would have been greatly appreciated. I’m glad to see it’s a much more manageable experience in its flatscreen format, even with the higher difficulty AI; I’m not bothered by that issue.
There are still some odd bugs here and there, and on PS5 Pro, we noticed some of the newly added character animations that are performed in place of the motion controls do have a bit of a stutter to them, but overall, the experience is generally a lot more polished than it was in the original VR release. Mind you, the story’s shortcomings aren’t addressed here, as this is still a first part that ends rather anticlimactically, for the sake of part 2. At least it’s marketed this time, so players won’t feel misled into thinking it’s a standalone, but that still doesn’t fix the ending.
There’s also no upgrade path available for those who purchased the game on either PSVR2 (for PS5) or PC (via Steam). I’m not too bothered by this because other games have done this, where you go from flatscreen to VR, with the latter being charged, so why can’t it be true for the opposite? That, and the pricing isn’t aggressive by any means, with this being $30 rather than the original $40 for the VR version. It would still have been nice to have had a discount of sorts for those who supported the original release, and vice versa for those who would later transition to VR.
Evolved to Survive
Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition is more than just a simple port; it’s a meticulously crafted conversion that proves the core terror of its VR counterpart can thrive on a flatscreen. Survios has successfully translated the visceral dread and intense combat of the original into a polished and well-optimized experience that feels right at home on consoles and PC. While the story remains a bit light and the cliffhanger ending might leave some players wanting more, the refined controls, stellar graphical upgrades, and a genuinely threatening Xenomorph AI make this a must-play for any fan of the franchise.
It’s rare to see a VR-to-flatscreen port handled with such care. The developers didn’t just rely on the novelty of the Alien license; they took the time to rebuild and rebalance the game, resulting in an experience that feels tighter and more engaging. Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition isn’t trying to be Alien: Isolation, but rather a worthy spiritual successor to Aliens, delivering a relentless and action-packed horror experience that will leave you on the edge of your seat. For those who missed the VR version or prefer to face their fears from a less immersive perspective, this is undoubtedly the best way to do it.
Score: 8/10
Pros
- The flatscreen conversion is handled expertly with tight, intuitive controls for controller and mouse/keyboard.
- Visuals have received a significant “glow-up” with improved lighting, textures, and a rock-solid 60 FPS.
- The reworked Xenomorph AI makes the enemies feel like a more cunning and deadly threat.
- Haptic feedback on the DualSense controller adds a fantastic layer of immersion to the gameplay.
- The flatscreen version successfully captures the action-horror tone of Aliens in a way that feels like a spiritual successor to the film. Even if it ends anticlimatically, this feels closer to a proper Aliens: Colonial Marines game.
Cons
- Don’t expect too much from the story, especially since it’s set up as a two-parter.
- No “new” content, which, while we weren’t expecting it in terms of story, could have solved the lack of weapons in this re-release.
- The lack of upgrade paths for existing VR owners and vice versa is still a little disappointing.
Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
