Creative Assembly’s first cross-platform game since Alien: Isolation, of which obviously not much remains here, Hyenas comes to seek its share of the spoils in a landscape already well occupied by the big names of the genre, but where new champions can still emerge when the stars align, as titles like Apex Legends and Valorant have shown in the last two years .
Moreover, if the miracle Apex Legends One thing we learned with its instant availability is that you don’t have to campaign for 6 months before launching a competitive FPS in the arena. Hyenas is not there, its official release not being expected until 2023, but registrations for the closed alpha on PC are already open, a sign that Sega has a strong desire to strike the iron as long as ‘he is hot. “To compete with the biggest games in the field, you need to know what players think as soon as possible.“, acknowledges executive producer David Nicholson.
Hyenas takes place in a future where billionaires have left Earth to settle on Mars. The anti-gravity technology that allowed them to take off took the opportunity to screw up the planet and leave the rest of the population in an unstable slum called the Pit. The game features a group of criminals, the Hyenas, whose objective is to recover rare goods and other vestiges of popular culture aboard huge commercial vessels belonging to the wealthy exiles. These relics range from Panini sticker albums to Mega Drive consoles and PEZ dispensers, meaning that the possibilities for partnerships promise to be limitless and that not only must we watch for references to Sega products but also to other publishers and brands.
These freighters are protected by security systems and mercenaries, not to mention the rival teams who are also there to rot the lives of those billionaires who intend to steal our Sonic figurines from us to display them in their Martian mansion. In fact, five teams of three players compete to achieve the best net and ensure the extraction of the goods.
While of course it takes up the concept of distinct characters with their own personality, story and abilities, Hyenas seeks to distinguish itself with a gameplay based on weightless zones, an idea that the unfortunate LawBreakers had tried to exploit. If the game has a nice head of free-to-play, Sega remains discreet about its economic model and is content to promise that the game will not include any pay-to-win system.