The video game industry has had its fair share of first-person shooter games set in dystopian futures. Games like Bioshock and Half-Life have enjoyed immense amounts of success both critically and commercially, and these kinds of games show no sign of slowing down even in the advent of VR technology. As a matter of fact, it seems to be speeding up even more as VR allows developers to really maximize the first person potential of games. Experiment Gone Rogue is another addition to the large catalog of sci-fi VR games, but can set itself apart from the crowd and establish its own identity?

Premise and Aesthetics

Experiment Gone Rogue is set in a dystopian future where Earth has been taken over by an alien race called Cirinians. Behind their benevolent rule, the Cirinians have been conducting heinous experiments on humans. You play as the game’s main character, a soldier who was genetically enhanced to become a living weapon. Guide the main character in its quest to destroy the very creatures that created it.

The premise of Experiment Gone Rogue is nothing new, especially within the science fiction genre. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be anything new or unique added to the premise to make it stand out. If you’ve played first-person shooters with a sci-fi setting, chances are you’ve encountered most of these themes and story beats before.

The aesthetics aren’t very unique either. It is surprisingly more colorful than your standard sci-fi game, but the buildings, character, and weapon designs are practically ripped from its sci-fi contemporaries. It should be mentioned that the graphics themselves are pretty good. Aside from the virtual go-go bar, much of the characters are animated well and move fluidly.

Story and Gameplay

One major issue with the game is the story pacing. The premise is nothing new, but it could have been acceptable if it had been executed well. Sadly, the pacing of the story is a bit disjointed and difficult to follow. Story beats happen almost randomly, and there’s almost little to no connection to what you are doing within the game. As mentioned above, the game has a virtual go-go bar randomly thrown into it where players can interact with dancers and even watch them topless or completely nude.

As for the gameplay, it’s pretty much your standard VR shooter. If you’ve played other VR games, this one won’t be difficult to get used to. You can grip things, climb bars, and shoot enemies with your guns. You can also throw grenades and other projectiles. There are tons of weapons to choose from and one of the fun things to do in the game is to find the hidden places to get your weapons upgraded. 

Just a Standard Sci-fi Shooter

Experiment Gone Rogue has nothing that makes it stand out, unfortunately. By itself, it’s a passable VR shooter game. However, it doesn’t have anything that players haven’t seen in other sci-fi shooter games before. If you have any of the Valve shooter games in your game library, I’d say just fire them up again rather than playing thing. It’s still worth a shot if you’re looking for something new, though.