Following its original release on VR platforms, Alien Rogue Incursion has arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 with part one’s Evolved edition
Alien Rogue Incursion features a Graphics and Performance mode to choose between on Switch 2 – both are really good.(Image: Survivos)
If you’re in the mood for another perfectly solid slice of the Alien universe while waiting for Creative Assembly’s sequel, Rogue Incursion has you covered.
You might not know this, but 2014’s Alien: Isolation is one of the best survival horror games ever made. Forget Resident Evil, don’t worry about Silent Hill or Dead Space… when it comes to skittishly trying to flee the clutches of a horrific and demented pursuer within a claustrophobic space, Creative Assembly’s Xenomorph escape-a-thon has no challenger.
Another thing you may not have known is that the Nintendo Switch port, released much later in 2019, is an incredibly faithful way to endure this nail-biting experience. It was a full-fat rendition that may not have looked quite as pretty, true, yet it still managed to bundle in all the terror and suspense of Amanda Ripley’s journey, distilling it near flawlessly into the palm of your hands. Playing this way felt like magic.
Rogue Incursion provides a solid suite of iconic weaponry to make use of – including the legendary Pulse Rifle.(Image: Survios)
I bring this up since earlier this week saw another Alien game come to Nintendo’s latest hybrid platform in the form of Alien: Rogue Incursion – Evolved Edition. And if you couldn’t already tell by its mouthful of a title, this is a game that’s home through several evolutions – literally!
Initially launched as a VR exclusive at the tailend of 2024, publisher Survios clearly didn’t see the necessary return on its investment, retro-fitting the game to work as a more conventional, ‘flat-screen’ release with Evolve Edition already hitting PC and PS5 before now coming to Nintendo Switch 2. This served as an ideal way for me to check out what I understood to be a pretty solid entry into the Alien canon, even if the VR seams still show and it never quite reaches the highs of my beloved Isolation.
The good news about Alien: Rogue Incursion is that it doesn’t bite off more than it can chew. Centred on renegade colonial marine Zula Hendricks and her trusty synth companion Davis, it tells a pretty eloquent side story that neatly slots into the time frame where Amanda Ripley is still kicking about following her iconic encounter with Xenomorphs on Sevastopol station. Admittedly, as far as locations go, the remote planet of Purdan doesn’t tout the same level of character, but it serves as the perfect battleground in which to hack terminals, explore a ravaged colony, and blast away at endless Xenomorph hordes using your pulse rifle.
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Alien: Rogue Incursion shows no interest in instilling the same level of scares as Alien: Isolation, then, in fact I wouldn’t call it a survival horror game at all. What it does do, however, is highlight how a more action-forward title set in the Alien universe can still work when set in an interesting nugget of the universe.
Purdan’s natural ice wind caverns and somehow far colder multi-floor facilities strikes a perfect balance between tension and gung-ho firefights, with a control scheme that’s just the right level of unintuitive so as to force me to fumble around for my motion tracker, plasma torch, or next weapon. I can only imagine how intense some of these scenes would play out up close in a VR format.
Speaking of which, despite the valiant efforts of Survios, there’s no getting away from Alien: Rogue Incursion’s true origins as a VR first title. Flipping out the map occurs as an actual object in front of you in the world a la Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, for instance, and some of the required button prompts seem wildly unnecessary. Press ZR to insert an audio file after already picking it up? I mean, come on.
You’ll soon discover that the planet is home to some seriously shady Weyland-Yutani experimental antics.(Image: Survios)
All that being said, as a contained little slice of the wider Alien canon, Rogue Incursion succeeds… at least judging from the first half of the planned two-part story. As it stands, Rogue Incursion on Nintendo Switch 2 ends up being a tad short, yet it’s somewhat forgivable given the lower £14.99 / $19.99 purchase price.
Rogue Incursion was never going to reach the highs of my beloved Alien: Isolation. And yet, it’s certainly helping to tide me over before Creative Assembly’s in-development sequel eventually rears its incredibly long, slimy head. None of this is to say that Rogue Incursion doesn’t stand on its own; it does.
While it’s a shame the story is incomplete in this adapted, ‘evolved’ edition right now, getting to patrol and survive on a new planet within the Alien universe is still a cool experience chock full of franchise-specific surprises. Whenever part 2 does hit Nintendo Switch 2, I’ll be there to nuke even more Xenos from orbit. Because after all, it’s the only way to be sure!