The developer studio Creative Assembly is actually known for the strategy epics of Total War. But now they are bringing a crazy shooter: Hyenas (PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch). MeinMMO briefly presents the title and shows how you have a chance to participate in the alpha on Steam.
What is Hyenas? The first-person shooter draws on current trends in the genre and is an evolution of extraction shooters – you start a match, fight NPCs and other players, collect loot, and need to leave the playing field alive. Everything is playable in co-op.
The graphics exude Borderlands vibes with a cel-shading-like look, and the setting could hardly be further away from Escape from Tarkov, the first major extraction shooter.
Because you are on a raid and robbing space stations from wealthy people to steal old merchandise that is worth a lot of money. Accordingly, there are pop culture references at every corner.
There is no official gameplay for the game yet. However, MeinMMO was able to see a match at gamescom – you can find our report on Hyenas here.
The key facts:
- PvEvP shooter
- Hero mechanics
- Extraction at the end of matches
- Fights in zero gravity
- Whacky humor
- Colorful, crazy graphics
- Showdown with the other teams at the end
- Short matches around 15 minutes
Further down, we show you how to have a chance to participate in the alpha. You can watch the announcement trailer for Hyenas here:
Hyenas: How to participate in the alpha
The shooter announced that it will open the servers for the alpha test over a total of four weekends. Although Hyenas will also be released on consoles on the full release, the alpha test runs only on Steam on the following dates:
- January 20 to 23
- February 17 to 20
- March 10 to 13
- March 31 to April 3
You can find the English website for registration here: playhyenas.com.
You must be at least 18 years old to participate, need a Steam account, and an account with Creative Assembly. You also need to link the two accounts – you can do this during registration for the alpha test.
After that, you need to answer a few questions about your gaming habits and agree to an NDA. This is a type of confidentiality clause, and by agreeing, you are agreeing not to publish any gameplay from the alpha.
Then you are registered for the alpha test. However, it is not certain when or if you will receive an invitation to test.
Personal impression author: At gamescom, I was able to see a prepared match of Hyenas and saw an interesting, new interpretation of the extraction shooters.
Above all, due to the hero mechanics – the playable characters all have individual abilities that can be built up and changed over time. This allows for many different tactics, which can become even crazier through the zero gravity mechanics.
In addition, there can be a showdown at the end of a match, and the player squads go after each other.
This brings a touch of battle royale into the game, although the presenting developer at gamescom did not want to take any comparison with a battle royale. The escape with the loot is in the foreground, not the fight against the other teams.
If you like shooters with different classes/abilities for your characters and find the principle of extraction shooters exciting, then Hyenas is definitely worth a look.
What is your impression? Leave a comment. If you are looking for more games with hero mechanics, check here: New MOBA reminds of a mix of Destiny and hero shooter – Free on Steam and Epic
