Zombicide: Invader pits familiar faces from pop culture against the zombie-alien apocalypse

Zombicide’s first venture into sci-fi horror didn’t shy away from wearing its influences on its sleeve when it was first announced, and it seems that its newly-launched Kickstarter is similarly giving its due to sci-fi greats.

Zombicide: Invader’s campaign has already well surpassed its £176,000 target, sitting pretty at more than £600,000 with more than three weeks left to run.

The campaign includes the core game, a standalone spin-off to both the main Zombicide series and its fantasy siblings Black Plague and Green Horde that features zombified aliens in the place of your run-of-the-mill walking undead.

Although its basics will be familiar to anyone with at least a passing knowledge of Zombicide, Invader is said to make setting up even faster, with a quicker flow between turns. The survivors will gain experience and level up, unlocking new skills and equipping new items as they rid planet PK-L7 of ‘Xenos’.

Invader’s Aliens-meets-Warhammer 40,000-meets-Dead Space setup is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to its pop culture references, though, as the game’s Kickstarter campaign is offering up a host of familiar faces as optional purchases and stretch goals.

Joining the distinctly space-mariney Jared, Magnus and Baraka in the main box is Vivian, a curly-haired survivor with more than a passing resemblance to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise.

One of the stretch goals already unlocked by the campaign adds Lieutenant Katie Benedict, who resembles Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace as portrayed by Katee Sackhoff in the Battlestar Galactica reboot down to her tank top and dogtag.

Also unlocked is Richard Kindred, a dead ringer for Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard from Blade Runner in both look and name.

Venturing outside of sci-fi, Madame Singleton shares her love of extravagant earrings with Tina Turner’s Aunty Entity from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, joined in the ‘80s nostalgia pit by Marty McFly-a-like Morty McCallister, presumably overshooting his return Back to the Future.

We also spotted Doctor Stakefrieze, a leather-jacketed, small-glasses-wearing spit for Laurence Fishburne’s iconic Morpheus in The Matrix.

Only one of Zombicide: Invader’s stretch goals remains locked at the moment, but the game’s current momentum suggests it’s only a matter of time. We wonder who else we’ll see make their way from pop culture to the zombie apocalypse – honestly, we’d play as the T-Rex from Jurassic Park in an instant.