'Maneater' Dev Teases DLC With Horrifying Shark Hybrids

Maneater, the action role-playing game where you play as a megashark with a motive, is getting DLC and developer Tripwire Interactive is alluding to a very weird expansion in a new ARG.

Bondi Rescue buffs, look away now, because this game is not your Hoppo's shark hunting simulator. A villainous shark hunter is being followed by a reality TV show crew as he hunts for an adult bull shark. Tragically, the shark that they kill is pregnant, but the shark hunter cuts open and removes the shark pup from her body, and slices into the baby so that he may identify it when it grows into an adult.

Playing as that baby shark, the player consumes fish, aquatic mammals and reptiles, and even humans, maturing and becoming larger and stronger. Mutagenics allow the player to specialise their shark into a stealthy predator, a hulking tank, or a bioelectric hazard. I won't spoil the end of the story, but let's just say that Mother Nature has a funny way of solving a fight.

Similarly, Tripwire Interactive has a funny way of announcing Maneater DLC. The game's official Twitter account has been hacked by someone who signed off as "T," and this person is... eccentric, to say the least. They claim they are here to "liberate" the audience, and that the "truth is a lie." They also shared a QR code with the caption "photosynthesis," and it brought fans to a page showing fictional animal hybrids - you know, those genuinely terrible Photoshop jobs. Interestingly, two of the results were a shark spliced with a seagull and shark spliced with a horse.

Yesterday, "T"'s identity was unveiled. It's really Trip Westhaven, the narrator from Maneater, proudly informing fans that he has left behind the censorship of the television network who used to employ him. Apparently, broadcasting "explicit depictions of actual death" didn't fly for some reason, and so he'll shift his show onto an online platform. Oh, good.

With Trip finally unmasked, it's possible that Tripwire Interactive is gearing up for a real reveal of the DLC. However, those strange hybrid animals and the erratic behaviour of the narrator means that the outcome of this ARG could be anything. We'll keep you in the loop when we learn more.

Topics: News