2019 is going to be a big year for the
Alien franchise. Following weeks of teasers, the curtain was finally lifted.
As many had predicted, we'll be getting a new
Alien video game, officially titled
Alien: Blackout. What no one expected, though, was for it to be coming only to mobile devices.
A sequel to Creative Assembly's
Alien: Isolation (2014),
Alien: Blackout is set between the films
Alien and
Aliens. Players will once again assume the role of Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver in the film franchise). Like the game before it,
Alien: Blackout will be adopting a survival-horror approach, as players are trapped aboard a crippled Weyland-Yutani space station carrying a deadly, blood-thirsty Xenomorph.
Players will need to survive increasingly challenging, fear-inducing levels by balancing the controls of the space station’s emergency systems to skillfully guide their crew to safety and avoid encounters with the enemy. The unpredictability of both the mysterious alien and the ultimate fate of the crew will force players to make life or death decisions that permanently alter the outcome of the game.
Alien: Blackout is officially listed as a
"premium survival horror mobile game," so it'll likely come with a price rather than existing as a free-to-play game. The game will consist of seven
"fear-inducing levels" that will
"test the inner nerves of both Alien and horror fans alike, where life can end in an instant."
Alien: Blackout is seemingly the first of Amanda Ripley's many new adventures that fans will be able to experience this year. The game will be available on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore on January 24.
With 20th Century Fox teaming with a wide range of storytellers and innovators, Amanda Ripley's stories will come in many forms that
you'll be able to watch, play, and read. Of course, we already know about the upcoming
Dark Horse comic Alien: Resistance and there's been
talk of a television show as well. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for more to be officially announced.
For those of you disappointed that today's announcement was a mobile game, you'll be happy to know that FoxNext Games' studio, Cold Iron Studios, is also currently working on a massively multiplayer online shooter also set in the
Alien cinematic universe. It doesn't yet have a release date, but it'll be released for consoles and PC.