Hunt: Showdown [PC, XBone]

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Mantis
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Hunt: Showdown [PC, XBone]

Post by Mantis » Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:25 pm

The current early access title by Crytek. Underwent a bit of development hell and recently re-emerged as a strange PvEvP 10-player hybrid game.

It is utterly excellent. It's set in 1895 in a Louisiana swamp where you play solo or with a teammate; the server will consist of up to five teams of two at most, or variations based on people playing solo. You don't get any kind of notifications where other players are or whether they've killed each other; you just drop into this large swampland map and have to use your 'dark sense' (ie. press E to get pointed in the general direction of an objective) to find various clues as to your bounties whereabouts. There are quite a lot of clues littered around the map to find, you can locate up to three, which shrinks the radius of the map so you have a better idea of where the bounty is. The bounty in question is currently either a giant spider or large butcher-type zombie; or both! Kill the boss before the other teams and you get the loot, but then you suddenly become the target because everybody wants your swag, and you have to try and escape at one of the randomly placed extraction points at the edge of the map. There are all manner of other zombie type creatures populating the map to stop you too, but they aren't really that much of a threat to even the most poorly equipped character, so long as you have a melee weapon you can take most of them down. It's other players sneaking up on you that present the real danger, because those other bounty hunters are your competition, and people will try to eliminate you before taking on the boss if they get the chance. Gunfire sounds carry a long way, so if you're forced to open fire on a tougher zombie foe your best bet is to hightail it out of there.

It's essentially a survival horror arena shooter. The atmosphere and vibe it creates is just fantastic, so eerily spooky and the sound design is seriously on point. Your character is hired from the main menu with ingame currency and levels up as he survives each subsequent round; die in combat and you lose him entirely though and have to hire a new character. The progression system is quite in depth and there is a way of carrying over exp between dead characters via 'bloodline' unlocks.



This is the most intense multiplayer game I've played in a very long time, it's great. Performance is a little janky at the moment as it's in early access and needs further optimisations, but I can get a fairly consistent 60fps out of it with everything set to high barring a couple of the AA effects turned right down.

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Pew-Pew
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Re: Hunt: Showdown

Post by Pew-Pew » Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:49 am

I've heard mixed things about this game, and it looked pretty janky when I watched a video of (I think it was Jackfrags?) it being played. How active is the playerbase? Seems like something that will die off very quickly.

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Mantis
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Re: Hunt: Showdown

Post by Mantis » Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:24 pm

It had a free weekend just gone and I believe it peaked at around 25,000 at that point. Normally it hangs around the 5,000-6,000 mark I believe, though I imagine that may be higher now people have caught on after trying it for free.

The only real janky aspect about it is the performance, being Crytek and still being in development, it can drop frames fairly easily in large combat scenarios when you bump the options up. Everything else about the presentation and gameplay feels fairly slick though.

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Lee
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Re: Hunt: Showdown

Post by Lee » Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:23 pm

Aye seems more are playing it after the free weekend as it was usually hovering around the 2k-3k with people trying to play being put in with people with higher levels and better gear. Putting more off playing it.

I kinda like the idea and the theme to it but it's that last part of the games mechanic where the players with the relics are shown on the map with the exit point leaving people to just jump you freely. That's put me right off it. Has that been changed yet?
Mr Annoyed and Proud of it.

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Mantis
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Re: Hunt: Showdown

Post by Mantis » Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:28 pm

I don't think so, no. I've not played enough to really experience the endgame that much yet though. Most of the time I just farm a few clues, kill some zombies and then extract when I know where the boss is so that I can level my character up.

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