Sega has finally pulled back the curtain on the new Creative Assembly FPS. It's an ambitious-sounding multiplayer game called Hyenas, coming from the studio responsible for Alien Isolation, Halo Wars 2, and the Total War franchise.
Hyenas was revealed with a pretty slick cinematic trailer, which is designed to give us a sense of the zero-gravity gunplay and focus on speedy movement mechanics. While Creative Assembly hasn't shown any gameplay off just yet, its description of how Hyenas will play kind of sounds like a twisted version of Hunt: Showdown – Crytek's PvPvE shooter. The biggest differences being that Hyenas is set in space, and is clearly carrying more positive, energetic vibes.
Set in a world where the billionaires have abandoned Earth for Mars – shattering the planet with the very zero-gravity tech that allowed them to escape in the first place – Hyenas will have you and your friends assembling into crews of three to raid Plunderships, which are sprawling shopping malls packed with all sorts of nostalgic tat that the rich want to use to furnish their Martian mansions.
To get your hands on this high value loot (such as Panini sticker albums, SEGA Mega Drives, Sonic the Hedgehog keychains, and PEZ dispensers) you'll be going up against both human and AI threats. Five crews total (each made up of three real players) will enter into a single Plundership map, with each trying to get their hands on the best loot and then get out of dodge. You'll need to contend with "a sandbox playground of interlocking systems" and work smartly to "exploit the environment, security networks, hired goons, and competing crews" to gain an advantage. Oh, and switchable zero-G zones that promise to create some spectacular shootouts.
It's a wild concept, which is why closed alpha sign ups for Hyenas are now available for PC players. Executive producer David Nicholson acknowledges how tough this genre is to crack, and Creative Assembly wants to be prepared. "We believe the key to modern shooter success is understanding what players want to see and where they want to take their experience. We know we've got something interesting on our hands, but we also know the odds are stacked against us."
"To take on the biggest games in the industry, we need to hear what players think, right up front and early. If you’re in, we want to take you along for the ride. That's why after today's announcement, we’re also launching into the first of our public Alpha tests."
Hyenas is set to launch in 2023, and it's coming to PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One. You can sign up for the Alpha here.
