SEGA is back with a brand new IP with some amazing easter eggs from their other IP like Sonic. Here is our HYENAS First Impressions.
HYENAS is developed by Creative Assembly en published by SEGA. The game will come out on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S but there is no release date announced currently. They will have a closed beta starting August 31st and you will be able to sign up for it on Steam right now by clicking the “Request Access” button below the wishlist button.
At Gamescom 2023 we were invited by SEGA’s PR firm to come and check out their brand new multiplayer looter-shooter HYENAS. We got to see a tutorial mission and even got some time hands-on with the game to play a match. So what we can talk about will be limited at this time due to the short (but sweet) time we had with the game.
In the menus of the game, you can check out your challenges, collectibles, and characters. During the matches, you can collect skins and collectibles that will be random loot drops that you can pick up while finding Sonic Statues. The character I played was HERO-KI, a guy in a suit themed like Sonic, the skins he picks up are actually all Sonic-related, so you can transform into Knuckles, Shadow, Tails, and more. There were also other random collectibles that could be found in the game like consoles but also music, the music is all classic 80s era songs that almost everyone knows and loves, the music will play throughout your match and is also customizable.
Each character has their own skills and weapons as well, but during the match, you will be able to pick up stuff to customize a bit more, like some skills and also your grenades. So the whole game is about looting a few areas, Finding Sonic Statues, and then extracting all the money and collectibles you find without being taken down by the enemy team. This really is a lot easier than it sounds because the statues are pretty hard to come across and if the enemies’ teamwork is good, then you are going to have a hard time.
There are also a ton of NPCs in the areas that protect that loot and also some boss NPCs that are harder to take down than the regulars. I had a great time just running around the big map taking down these enemies and looting some random boxes but then danger struck. A pretty good team came across us and had to stand our ground, we took 2 of the 3 down, but that 3rd person was so good, he took down me and one random teammate and revived 1 of his own, which sadly was already the end of us but during the battle, you just felt a rush, unlike other shooters like Call of Duty.
What we noticed is that the gameplay flows really well and it’s pretty fast-paced, It really reminds me of the Call of Duty days around the Black Ops 3 era, but that is also due to some of the features the game has in its gameplay. In rooms, you can turn off the gravity and fly around the room making things easier at times to reach. Besides flying to loot, there are also some secret passageways that lead to hidden loot rooms. All the loot you find seems to be random, but there are a few “high loot” rooms that will give you better loot, and you are tasked to open that room and get all the good loot out of it.
Talking to a Developer
We also got a chance to talk to one of the developers of the game after we got defeated about some of the features of the game but also the game itself. At this time, they do not have a release date and price point for the game yet. The game started development a pretty long time ago before this type of game popped off with Tarkov, so the game was a bit of an internal experiment for them, but seeing the success of these types of games recently, gave the studio a boost in morale but also some proof that this is a game that people want, but it also shifted thought about the price because initially it was supposed to be a full AAA priced game, but seeing the other games having a bit of a lower price point, the devs started looking into making the game a bit cheaper then initially thought.
Looking for more reviews to read? Be sure to visit this page and discover a wide range of informative and insightful reviews. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions.
