Crime of the century: how Creative Assembly got the gang together for the ultimate pop-culture heist in E376’s cover game, Hyenas

gamesradar.com:

Before Hyenas was announced, the news that the developer behind Alien: Isolation was making a sci-fi shooter set certain expectations. When it was eventually revealed, it felt like the Creative Assembly purposely set out to make the polar opposite of whatever most of us were imagining. In E376’s expansive cover feature, we spend time with game and developer to find out exactly what makes this multiplayer heist-’em-up tick. 

Fresh off the back of Halo Wars 2, a strategy game based on an existing property, the studio was evidently keen to push in a completely different direction. Hence, the competitive crime spree of Hyenas, in which five teams of three compete to grab as much merchandise as they can from a large spaceship before escaping with it – and their lives – intact. There are elements of Payday 2, Prey and Escape From Tarkov, while it winds up in a situation familiar to players of battle royale games: a climactic shootout within narrow boundaries – only here it’s an extraction point, where the squad with the booty fend off rivals as their teleporter gradually warms up. 

It does, however, share some common features with Alien: Isolation, not least the way it views the future through the lens of the past. Here, the swag you’re chasing is designed to precision-target your nostalgia gland: in this future, the detritus of our childhoods has become ultra-valuable, meaning you’re battling it out to secure Rubik’s Cubes, VHS tapes, Panini sticker albums and mixtapes. 

There are elements of hero shooter, too, in the unique designs and skillsets of its criminals. Our cover star Prima, for example, is a deranged ballerina capable of graceful zero-g acrobatics, while drag queen Galaxia’s ability to halt bullets in mid-flight