Mannequin, an asymmetrical VR multiplayer game, enters open alpha today on Quest.
Revealed last year, Mannequin by Fast Travel Games supports up to five players in 2v3 matches, seeing two Agents hunt down three shape-shifting aliens known as Mannequins. Reminiscent of Prop Hunt in Garry’s Mod, these aliens can pose as frozen human statues and kill Agents with a single touch, while Agents scan for Mannequins using an EMP gun. For the open alpha, Mannequin features two maps and an early version of the social lobby.
“Mannequin is Fast Travel Games’ most ambitious project yet,” said CEO Oskar Burman in a prepared statement, whose studio previously launched Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice, Ghost Signal and Cities: VR. “The feedback we’ve seen so far has been incredibly encouraging. We’re excited not only to be delivering our first-ever internally developed multiplayer title but also to evolve in how we deliver games.”
We found ourselves “suitably impressed” during our Mannequin preview at Gamescom 2023. Going hands-on with a pre-alpha build, we praised its use of VR physicality to create a “really engaging” multiplayer game.
Despite the limited posing offered by current technology, the game’s core concept is one we haven’t seen done like before in VR. Even if it borrows mechanics from the prop hunt concept, there’s enough transformation and novelty in adapting it for VR to result in something that feels fresh and original, hopefully with a decent amount of depth to it as well.
Mannequin launches this year for Quest, PC VR and PSVR 2, and you can access the open alpha via the Mannequin Discord server.
