General manager David Fifield sums up Hunt: Showdown as "the exquisite tension of the pervasive unknown" in one word.
After working on massive games like Call of Duty and Halo, Fifield joined Crytek in July 2022. However, he fell in love with Hunt and was motivated to work on this strange, swampy multiplayer first-person shooter. The scenery is tainted and menacing, the tone is melancholy and desolate, and the anxiety rises with each step you take and the sound you hear. and that just keeps getting stronger—much longer than a normal shooter would allow it to before letting loose with a shootout.
Anyone who has set foot in Hunt can relate to Fifield's words accurately. It left a lasting effect when it came out of early access five years ago, immersing you in a hazardous environment with unsettling AI monsters and other players, and arming you with cowboy-era technology to combat them. That fundamental experience is still there. Its three maps have an abundance of vegetation, maybe the greatest in the genre, which blocks sight lines and allows for real ambushes. Hunt requires a lot of listening skills; in fact, even a snapping twig in the forest might provide useful information. Its focus on ambiance, audio-visual fidelity, and realistic gunplay distinguished it from other shooters even after five years.
We were still getting used to the term "extraction shooter" when it initially came out. Teams of one, two, or three people compete, squabbling over bounties and trying to "extract" while fending off AI adversaries. When Hunt arrived, there wasn't much of a precedent for this kind of activity. When battle royale games first came out at the end of 2017, they drove players to confront one another and placed them against each other. Hunt's 19th-century universe was very different from the current military world of Escape From Tarkov, which had only been published the year before. a decision that adds to the game's unique aesthetic.
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The length of time heightens that stress. According to Fifield, weapons are equipped with intricate reload animations and period-accurate mechanics. "I have to make every shot count because it's clunky, takes a long time to reload, and I'm vulnerable if I run out of these bullets." The antiquated technology is what prolongs every interaction and renders a wide range of weapons practical. Attacking an adversary with an axe while they are vulnerable to a fatal strike is a reasonable tactic. Even the out-of-date weapons have historical roots. One of Hunt's more bizarre weapons, the Bomb Lance, is essentially a spear that can fire dynamite), "Well, the technology to do this was there," remarks Fifield, "it's like mixing a little bit of chocolate and peanut butter to make a period-accurate weapon that didn't exist."
Hunt's supernatural AI adversaries, an army of the dead and cursed who seldom harm you but are essential as resource-eaters, noise-emitters, and chaos-creators, are another important aspect of the game's personality. The disorganized figures accentuate the overall feeling of deterioration seen in all of Hunt's maps. Many active multiplayer games aim to create vibrant, friendly environments, which makes sense. Apex Legends creates a vibrant sci-fi frontier for its characters, while Fortnite is a melting pot of cartoons. You had to step over dead horses though, this bayou. Monsters from beyond the earth use barns and mines as their dens.
It's not just the visuals that create that vibe. Fifield tells me, "Hunt's audio is world-class, without a doubt." Indeed, it's a unique kind of gaming where you may win with your ears. Something as simple as a footstep, a horse's cry, or the ruffle of a brush could reveal an enemy and save your life. Gunfire in underground areas has been adjusted by a recent patch, which muffles it to make it simpler to distinguish from open-air fire. However, the background noises really make the experience; the buzzing of insects or the screams of unseen monsters create an eerie clamor. The wildfire in Hunt was a seasonal occurrence burning over the final two months and was more than simply a towering inferno that required players to navigate; you could make use of the fire's thunderous crackle to absorb sound.
The fact that Hunt places these threats, resources, and systems in the world and then takes a step back, giving players the freedom to select what to do with them, is nearly entirely responsible for my yearly return to the game. Players are not forced into conflict by artificial means, and your evening's best work may consist of three kills in a single match. Perhaps you narrowly escape defeat by a different side and decide to end the game. Fifield notes that "there is no deathmatch respawn, no diminishing circle, individuals aren't running around," which allows you to play the game in a variety of ways. As a result, your opponents are extremely unpredictable, which keeps the game interesting even after years of play.
Fairness, in Fifield's opinion, is the one essential component that determines whether an extraction shooter survives or fails. or rather, its absence. "You have to accept that it's not always equitable. It will either be the person with the better gun or the person with the worse gun who survives and dies. Hunt'sIn addition to their peculiarities, weapons are far more asymmetrical than their contemporary military counterparts, making loadout selection a risk/reward decision. The functionally automatic Avtomat rifle version is an anachronism and one of the priciest weapons in the game. Even if it will set you back more than a thousand dollars, when you have one in your possession, you frequently feel more vulnerable and fear losing it to a more cautious opponent brandishing a $57 bow.
"We are lacking both shields and body armor. Because flesh and bone are so easily damaged by many common weapons, their lethality puts all of your precious possessions at risk—just one headshot will take you out. Because of this susceptibility, it means even more when a menial "white shirt" takes a costly Mosin Sniper from the dead body of a well-known and successful player.
The New Old West
Hunt requires more patience from its players than most of its counterparts in multiplayer first-person shooters, especially the kill-die-repeat track meet of Call of Duty, even though it can be played aggressively. It may be more difficult to explain and learn due to its complexity. It also contributes to the explanation of why, even after five years, the game's popularity keeps growing. By word of mouth, Hunt is gradually connecting with those who value its specifics. "Every event, we break all of our records [for player counts], and more people come in and stay longer," says Fifield.
The unexpected diversity of Hunt's hunting base is one little but important way the game has captured my interest. It is not uncommon for games of this type to exclude women or persons of color, frequently in the name of historical authenticity. However, Hunt: Showdown's illustrious hunter cast includes characters who more overtly acknowledge the game's roots in North American history, such as Chinese men and women and First Nations peoples. That Hunt's universe is as varied as the actual America of the period seems very reasonable to me.
After this, where does Hunt go? Encouraging new players to join the team more easily is currently a top priority. "We're trying to make the tutorial better. We think it will be more instructional than the current training missions and will be more scripted with more explanations." Gamers should anticipate that extremely Fifeld said it would happen shortly. The game will eventually be updated to the most recent CryEngine version. It is presently operating on a legacy version that was released four years ago, therefore updating to the most recent 5.11 version will be a key topic of discussion throughout 2023. Thus, some gameplay and graphical improvements will result from that. However, it will take a while to accomplish that, so players shouldn't anticipate that anytime soon.
In actuality, though, I could never see Hunt changing and I would still visit. The game's core is still as compelling now as it was when I first visited the bayou as a scared fool running through the swamp with a flashlight—one of the most infrequently utilized equipments in the game—but Crytek closed 2022 with its most intriguing seasonal event ever. Players who attempted Hunt in 2019 or 2020 and were unable to survive would find it unapproachable due to its comparatively intricate nature. But as time has gone on and more seasoned players have praised it and offered guidance, word of mouth has gradually attracted an increasing number of individuals seeking an alternative multiplayer experience.
Fifeld exclaims, "We don't even know what our peak is," given how quickly the game's fan base has expanded. It is evident from the plans to switch to a newer version of the game's engine that Crytek still sees promise in the game's second era and that Hunt won't be supplanted by a sequel.
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