Alien free-roaming multiplayer VR experience set to hug your face this year

As far as showing off the potential of virtual reality goes, there are few more terrifying experiences than the never-publically-released Alien Isolation demo. While the home VR Alien experience may yet to have arrived, the terrifying movie franchise will soon get a virtual reality makeover for a new theme park attraction.

FoxNext, the immersive entertainment arm of studio Twentieth Century Fox, is developing a multiplayer VR experience that will let four visitors face off against the xenomorph hordes.

The Hollywood Reporter states that the mobile-based Samsung Gear VR is used to deliver the visuals, with "specially-created" prop guns with haptic feedback given to each player. It's all housed in 2,000sq ft space that will also use heat and mist machines, along with a vaguely-named "motion platform", to immerse players in the xenomorph hive.

Game on man, game on

FoxNext has worked with iP2 Entertainment and VR content creator Pure Imagination Studios to build the Alien experience, using iP2's proprietary wireless tech.

Alien may not be the only franchise Fox is looking to adapt for the VR space

“We are constantly assessing properties for the potential they have in the VR attraction space, and being immersed in the Alien universe inspires some of the most compelling and emotional reactions,” said Joshua Wexler, co-founder of Pure Imagination, told the Hollywood Reporter. It's easy to imagine Fox's Avatar and Planet of the Apes franchises making the jump to VR in this way.

It sounds very much a similar attraction to Hyper Reality's The Void Ghostbuster's Dimension experience, which put players into the paranormal flick.

As for the as-yet-unnamed Alien experience, it should be ready for public play before the end of the year, with the 36-acre Fox World Malaysia its likely first home.