Prey: Typhon Hunter and Transtar VR out now as free Mooncrash extras
Morgan Yu and The Spiders From Mars
Prey: Mooncrash was already my pick for expansion of the year, and that was before today when Arkane Studios threw in two more games for free. Typhon Hunter is a multiplayer game inspired by Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod favourite Prop Hunt - a team of five shapeshifting alien shadow-spiders attempts to outfox a lone human. Transtar VR is an escape room-styled prologue to Prey for the fancy space-goggles crowd. Anyone who owns Mooncrash should check their Steam library for Prey: Typhon Hunter, which includes both and installs as a separate game. Prey (with its brillo expansion) is on sale, too.
I jumped into a quick couple rounds of Typhon Hunter, and it's a good, fun, silly time. Players begin in a lobby where they can goof around and emote at each other, before anyone who feels up for being the human nominates themselves. Maps are small, claustrophobic and cluttered, and matches are just five minutes long. The human's goal is to wipe out all the Typhon, with a greater victory awarded if they can do it without respawning. The Mimics are just trying to stay alive and score as many kills as possible. It's like hide and seek, but with more spiders and murder.
Late in each round, a temporary power-up lets the human see the Typhon - even through walls - forcing them to scurry for cover before finding a new hiding spot. Better still, this 'bonus round' is accompanied by an instrumental bit of Semi-Sacred Geometry. In the rounds I played, I found the best strategy as a Mimic was to imitate a book and push the original off the desk and onto the floor, where it's less likely to be noticed - basically roleplaying a cat. You can only attack after being near the player for a few seconds, so you've got to play it cool.
As for Transtar VR, I'm sadly unable to try that due to not having any VR hardware yet, but I'm eager to hear what people think of it. It sounds surprisingly fleshed out - a multi-level adventure set before Prey, with a bonus museum stage to ogle Prey's scenery and monsters in true first person. Arkane also promise VR support for Typhon Hunter in an update in the new year.
Typhon Hunter and Transtar VR are out now and should be in the Steam libraries of anyone who owns Prey: Mooncrash. The Deluxe edition of the game (including Mooncrash) is 50% off on Steam right now, and costs £15/€20/$20. If me calling it 'expansion of the year' wasn't enough, check out John's reviews of Prey proper and Mooncrash.