Alien: Isolation devs announce Hyenas, a zero-G shooter about stealing merch and swag from the rich

Creative Assembly is going back to the world of shooters. After the relative success of Alien: Isolation, the Total War studio has revealed it's working on a new multiplayer shooter called Hyenas.

We've known that this project has been in development since 2018, and Creative Assembly has occasionally teased it. But now, the game has been officially announced.

Hyenas is a three-player heist game where you compete against four other squads to steal pop culture memorabilia. If this sounds like an unusual setup, it probably helps to know that all the billionaires have left Earth for Mars.

In doing so, they destroyed Earth, thanks to the zero-G tech they used for their ships. The shattered, drifting slums are now called the Taint, and the billionaires are looting it for swag from the planet's past, storing it in mall-like Plunderships.

All of the heists in Hyenas take place in space on said Plunderships - sandbox environments full of that nostalgic merch. These ships are full of traps, alarms and AI enemies defending it. Navigating each Plundership requires more than just shooting skills, as you're meant to exploit their complex designs against the other teams.

When the shooting happens, it will all take place in zero-G. You'll be able to pick your character from a cast of misfits, which we get a glimpse of in the trailer.

Creative Assembly is hoping that Hyenas will be to multiplayer shooters what Alien: Isolation was to horror games. The developer is well aware of the massive risk of launching a multiplayer shooter these days, and it wants players involved as early as possible.

This is why it's making alpha sign-ups available right now. Anyone 18+ can sign up, but you'll also need to sign an NDA. The closed alpha is only available on PC, and only initially in North America and Europe. It could expand to platforms and regions down the line.

Hyenas is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.