News

‘Alien: Descent’ Location-Based VR Experience Coming to Southern California Mall

The sci-fi movie franchise has a multiplayer location-based VR experience.

The Colonial Marines are recruiting warriors and thrill seekers at a shopping mall in Southern California. If you ever wanted to battle Xenomorphs in an immersive free-roaming and interactive Alien-themed VR experience — now’s your chance.

Dubbed Alien: Descent, the VR experience was created by FoxNext, an extension of 20th Century Fox and Fox Network along with Pure Imagination Studios. Designed for up to four people at a time, Alien Descent promises to give any fan of the Alien franchise a realistic experience that will have your heart racing as you see if you have what it takes to battle alongside Colonial Marines.

Opening its doors at The Outlets in Orange, California on April 26th, the multiplayer VR experience will have you joining an elite squad of Colonial Marines on a mission to an outpost after receiving a distress call. The last message from the outpost reported some sort of infestation, which you must investigate, contain the threat, quarantine any survivors you find, and then evacuate everyone from the outpost back to safety. But be ready, because if you’ve seen any of the Alien movies, then you know that things never seem to go as planned for the Marines, and that Xenomorphs and face-huggers come fast from all directions.

To bring Alien: Descent to life, Pure Imagination Studios used wireless technology along with special software to create a deeply immersive free-roaming VR experience you can experience with friends. Apparently the team uses a critical latency-reducing process with rendering all happening within the HMD, this means Alien: Descent doesn’t require a PC backpack.

Alien: Descent isn’t the first movie franchise to get the fully immersive treatment. The Void created Ghostbusters: Dimensions in 2016, and then followed that up with Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire in 2017 – both experience are still available for fans, with locations in NYC, Orlando, Las Vegas and London.

If you haven’t tried the Ghostbusters or the Star Wars VR experiences, then you might not know that the experience takes the environment and objects from the virtual world, and combines them with the walls and items from the real-word. This means if you touch the wall in VR, you’ll actually feel a wall, or if you pick up an object, you’ll actually pick up a physical object. Alien: Descent is expected to give you that same feedback and experience.

“VR attractions bring together immersive entertainment with social experiences that can’t be replicated in the living room,” said FoxNext president Salil Mehta in a statement to Variety. “The rich storytelling opportunities in the Alien universe makes it a perfect fit for cutting-edge destination entertainment. Plus, who doesn’t want to battle Xenomorphs and save the world?”

Alien: Descent doesn’t launch until April 26th, but you can enlist now on the official website, with tickets costing $22 per attendee.

This isn’t the first Alien based VR experience from FoxNext. Last year the company released the Alien: Covenant In Utero VR experience to promote the movie Alien: Covenant.

As of right now, FoxNext hasn’t announced any additional locations for Alien: Descent, but keep an eye on their website for updates.

About the Scout

Bobby Carlton

Hello, my name is Bobby Carlton. When I'm not exploring the world of immersive technology, I'm writing rock songs about lost love. I'd also like to mention that I can do 25 push-ups in a row.

Send this to a friend