Sniper Elite studio Rebellion reveals Alien Deathstorm, an action horror FPS

The studio behind the Sniper Elite series has announced a new horror sci-fi action game.

Alien Deathstorm is the latest game from British studio Rebellion, also known for Zombie Army Trilogy and last year’s Atomfall.

The game is set in an off-world colony which has been devastated by a storm, and the player has to survive while fighting the alien creatures they encounter.

“The player has been dispatched to this remote, off-world facility as a result of a complete loss of communications,” head of design Ben Fisher told the official Xbox Wire blog. “Their job is to determine what has suddenly caused the colony to fall silent, and then try to save as many lives as possible.”

The game takes its visual cues from older sci-fi movies, such as Alien, which means its has more of a retro vision of the future.

“We’ve been inspired by the slightly more analogue world of 1980s sci-fi, which is much more mechanical keyboard than it is touchscreen,” Fisher explained.

“We think it’s given our colony a chunky, lived-in aesthetic that has a genuinely unique feel. We’ve taken influences from everything from Lovecraftian eldritch horror to 1980s VHS sci-fi, so we think that people will be intrigued by what we’ve built.”

The game is described as a “true hybrid”, combining Rebellion’s experience of action shooters with more high-tension exploration and discovery.

“If we had to describe it as anything it’s an ‘action horror’ game with a layer of constant threat and environmental discovery that fully supports the second-to-second ballistic action,” Fisher said.

The ‘Deathstorm’ in the title refers to a “planet-wide, seasonal atmospheric cataclysm that has torn through the colony without warning, causing absolute havoc”, meaning the player not only has to cope with the creatures attacking them, but the elements too.

Alien Deathstorm will be released in 2027 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass.