Zombicide: Invader looks like Dead Space meets Warhammer 40,000

After the mutated orcs and fantasy zombies of Black Plague and Green Horde, it was surely only a matter of time before undead-killing series Zombicide took to the stars. Well, here it is – and it’s looking pretty great.

Zombicide: Invader is the first sci-fi instalment in the long-running co-op franchise, relocating the humans-on-walking dead action to PK-L7, a small far-flung mining planet that happens to be the home of a murderous group of creatures.

If that setup sounds familiar (thank you, Aliens), it’ll come as no surprise that the game’s first visuals also harken to staples of science-fiction horror: specifically, its infected Xeno swarms bring to mind a mixture of John Carpenter’s The Thing and the zombie-alien necromorphs of video game Dead Space, while its armour-clad human soldiers are as space marine as they come.

Having a few more brains than the zombies of games past, the Xenos will have a wider array of tactics as they hunt down the group of up to six survivors, but will still be drawn to any disturbances like their undead counterparts.

The soldiers will be trying to eliminate as many of the monsters as they can, all the while trying to complete a variety of objectives in roughly hour-long scenarios.

Players can take on the role of trained marines or civilians, each with a different array of skills to help hold out against the onslaught, trading equipment and making sure their weapons remain operational in the harsh landscape of the planet.

Unsurprisingly, studio CMON is returning to Kickstarter with Zombicide: Invader this April 10th where, chances are, it’ll probably do quite well.