Trepang2

Trepang2 (stylized Trepang²) is a first-person shooter video game designed by Trepang Studios and published by Team17 in June 2023.

Gameplay
Gameplay is similar to mid-2000s first-person shooters. Players control an amnesiac test subject who wakes up in a Horizon black-site. The protagonist is handcuffed at first and must rely on stealth, but players eventually must fight their way through enemies, both human and paranormal. During combat, players can slow down the action using a bullet time effect and can also turn invisible. Players are sometimes aided by allies.

Plot
Subject 106 is a prisoner of the Horizon corporation, a global business entity that wields a large amount of military personnel while hiding inhumane experiments behind their doors. After gaining the assistance of the mysterious Taskforce 27, who 106 once worked for, he escapes the facility and does so by killing the vast majority of the Horizon personnel.

106 fights with the task force to clear out several black sites, Horizon facilities that fell to their own test subjects and to obtain significant evidence to destroy the company. As he does this, he encounters several drones that warn him that there is more going on than just corporate espionage. In fact, 106 discovers that most of the real causes of Horizon’s failings were due to cloned soldiers from Taskforce 27 going rogue, eventually leading 106 to turn against his allies after they succeed in destroying Horizon.

After having a close battle against his successor, Subject 107, 106 destroys the Taskforce’s base through its reactor, dying in the process as the device needs to be activated manually. Should the player obtain all the drones throughout the game, 106 is transferred to an unknown facility, being informed that his work isn’t over.

Development
Developer Trepang Studios is based in Vancouver, Canada. Development started in 2016 as a hobby project to learn the Unreal Engine. The team grew from being a single person to four members after posting public demos. Stealth and bullet time were not originally part of the game's design. They were added later to balance the difficulty. Some of the enemy dialogue was also added to give players a fair chance to react to enemy tactics, such as flanking. Team17 released it for Windows on June 21, 2023. Ports to the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 were released on October 2, 2023.

Reception
Trepang2 received positive reviews on Metacritic. Video Gamer called it "an excellent ultra-violent shooter" and praised the combat, stealth, and story. TechRadar said it does not surpass F.E.A.R., which it was inspired by, but it "delivers stylish, bloody action".