Hyenas (video game)

Hyenas was a planned science-fiction first-person shooter developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Set in a dystopian near-future, players were to take control of a space pirate known as a Hyena and compete in teams of three to raid heavily-guarded Plunderships. The game was ultimately cancelled by Sega in late September 2023, citing a low potential for profitability.

Gameplay 

Hyenas was a PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment) game supporting up to fifteen players in teams of three. Additionally, maps were populated by MURFs, non-player character guards that will attack players on sight. The goal of players was to break into vaults spread across the map, loot the Merch inside and escape the ship alive.

Vaults are guarded by MURFs and can be approached either directly or using stealth to avoid combat. Breaking open a vault door takes time during which the player is vulnerable, this can be shortened by picking up a specific item.  

Each piece of Merch has a value attached to it. When a team raises their value above a certain threshold, the getaway area is opened. If the team with enough Merch can hold this area for a given time, they win the game. However, downed players will drop Merch they are carrying, so other teams will target those in the lead. 

Each playable character has a unique weapon and ability such as a sticky rocket launcher or a shield that reflects projectiles. If a character is killed, they can be revived by a team member at a respawn station. There are a limited number of these stations and each can only be used once per game. 

Every Plundership features areas of zero-gravity, including areas where it can be toggled on or off. Mastering zero-gravity movement and combat is a key part of gameplay.

Setting 
Hyenas takes place in a near-future setting. After the wealthy move to Mars and turn it into a paradise for those who can afford to live there, the Earth is torn apart in an enormous accident. The survivors live miserably on a collection of orbiting slums known colloquially as The Taint. To add meaning to their vapid lives, the elites of Mars raid the ruins of Earth for Merch, pop-culture relics such as old VHS tapes or vinyl records. Players control a titular Hyena, a space-pirate from the Taint that raids enormous Plunderships on their way from Earth to Mars in an attempt to steal the Merch held within.

Development  
Hyenas was initially dubbed "Project Keaton" and presented internally in 2017, where it was greenlit following the critical success of Alien: Isolation, despite its commercial disappointment. Wanting a game with broader commercial appeal, the studio's management decided to create a console-based online multiplayer shooter inspired by Destiny, Escape from Tarkov and PUBG. It also drew inspiration from Apex Legends, although the development team refrained from developing a battle royale title due to the belief that genre would be dominated by experienced development teams. Hyenas was estimated to have a 5-year development time. 

The game's feel was intended to be based on lovable rogues like Han Solo or the crew in Firefly, in a gritty sci-fi setting incorporating some realistic elements. It was planned to utilize the engine of Alien: Isolation, but was switched to Unreal Engine partway through development, requiring part of the team to be moved to work on Total War instead. In 2019, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp visited the development team and provided feedback on the concept, creating a mood video and influencing the creative direction of the game towards collecting valuable pop-culture artifacts and inserting Internet humor. This was said to have been welcomed by the development team, who had often felt "rudderless". Blomkamp eventually parted ways with Sega. 

Hyenas was said to have been Sega's highest-budget game ever, exceeding the USD $70 million spent on Shenmue in 1999. Sega called it one of its "Super Games", ambitious titles it hoped would recoup their investment. The game was officially announced on June 22, 2022 as part of IGNs Summer of Gaming event. Announced at the same time was the first of several closed alpha tests, the first of which began on September 23. The game's first public playtest was at Gamescom in Cologne in 2023. After the game's alpha tests, Sega was unhappy with the game's progress and began providing more scrutiny, sending employees from Sega Japan to remain permanently at the developer's UK office in an unusually hands-on manner. 

The game was due to release on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. However, in early August of 2023, Sega executives publicly called Hyenas' development "challenging", raising the possibility it would be cancelled, and stated they would look at "adjusting" the game's business model, possibly to free-to-play. Its development was halted by Sega on September 28, 2023 along with multiple other unannounced games, due to "lower profitability of the European region". 

An anonymous developer blamed the game's failure on a lack of creative direction, management being "asleep at the wheel", making an unoriginal game for a saturated market, as well as the "disruptive" engine change to Unreal. They believed that, in the future, Sega would be more demanding about games they published due to the significant monetary loss of the game's cancellation.

Reception 
Ed Thorn of Rock Paper Shotgun was initially unimpressed by the game, calling it "obnoxious and underwhelming", but in an August 2023 preview, he stated that he came away "pleasantly surprised". Saying that he liked the combination of fast-paced team deathmatch and extraction shooter, he noted that it might have more of a chance of launch survival than he thought, but also expressing the opinion that the game would still "struggle to crack a saturated space". In another preview, Lexi Luddy of Shacknews said that the game was a "lot of fun", but expressed trepidation that it would survive, noting technical difficulties during the beta. Kelsey Raynor of VG247 said that the game was "surprisingly distinct from other shooters", noting how it paid homage to the 80s and 90s. Jake Tucker of TechRadar stated that the game had an "overwhelming" pace and was set apart by its bright colors and vivid costumes, which, combined with its nostalgia, gave him the impression it was designed for newcomers to extraction shooters. He said that the game was not for him, but expressed the hope it would do well for people who were fans. However, he noted that he was not sure it would find an audience as a paid game when compared to free-to-play games like Fortnite.

References 

Cancelled PlayStation 4 games
Cancelled PlayStation 5 games
Cancelled Windows games
Cancelled Xbox One games
Cancelled Xbox Series X and Series S games
Creative Assembly games
Dystopian video games
Fiction about space pirates
First-person shooter multiplayer online games
Science fiction shooter video games
Sega video games
Video games about pirates
Video games set in outer space