Hunt: Showdown has finally seen a full release on Xbox, PC and PS4 and it set to take the streaming world by storm by mixing a perfect blend of Survival Horror and Battle Royale and now the boys have had a chance to sink in a few hours with it they are ready to tell you exactly what they think of the Crytek’s latest innovation.
We will do this review a little differently than normal and all 3 of us will be here to give you a brief breakdown of our experience so far and score it in our own ways. We will then average out these scores at the end and give a final “Official Respawning Score” for the game.
Honestly, I didn’t think I would get into the game as much as I have. In the initial tutorial and first couple of matches I thought the game was fine but I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about… This rapidly changed as I unlocked more gear and got a little better at the game and I can genuinely say that the game has fully sunk it’s hooks into me and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I love the blend of Survival Horror and Battle Royale and with my first few hours of the game I can safely say that the situation I find myself in with it flits between joking with the guys right through to sheer tension and terror in a matter of minutes and it. Is. Perfect.
One of the main things I love about this is the Permadeath Risk VS Reward mechanic that the game gives us. If your hunter dies in a game, there is a chance they will remain dead and lost to you with all the equipment you have accrued along the way. This forces players to think about what loadouts they take with them on any given game – whilst you can spend all your hard earned money on loot that will make the round a little easier on you, there is that chance you can lose everything and I am fully in love with this mechanic, I think before each round what I would be willing to gamble with in case I came across some hunters far better than me who could rinse me and steal everything I own.
I have not liked a Battle Royale game this much before and I honestly give it a 9/10, I have dropped a single point as I found it a little difficult to get into at the beginning but now it has it’s hooks in me I cannot stop thinking about it.
I have had this game on my radar for a while now. I’m an avid watcher of a few streamers on YouTube and have watched quite a lot from one particular, and their coverage of Hunt: Showdown whilst it was early access. The game intrigued me, due to its blending of, what I would call, an almost Red Dead Redemption style setting and the horror aspect of zombies, hell-hounds and various other beasties. I love the idea of being a bounty hunter cowboy or cowgirl. The one aspect that did put me off was the battle royale side. But I can now safely say, I love it.
I was quite skeptical at first over how much I would enjoy a battle royale game. But the way Hunt merges it into a PvPvE setting is brilliant! The way it makes you think twice about running and gunning, for fear of tipping off the other players to your position. Additionally, do you wait for others to do the hard work and swoop in and claim the prize or are there players out there, somewhere in the corn fields or swap land, just waiting for you to take down the big bad, so they can sweep in with their team and pick you off at your most vulnerable.
This tension really makes this game stand out for me. And as I played with Luke and Will, the tension really ramped up at times, leaving me literally, cowering in a corner, afraid to move, for fear my movement would tip off other players and I’d get set upon, leaving me defenceless against a full strength team. And that leads me onto one of my favourite parts of the game; the sound design. I cannot stress this enough, play this game with headphones.
The way sound plays such an integral part of the game, blew my mind. The sound of footsteps can mean life or death against other players. The way crows will only make noise and fly into the air, when a human player walks past them, tipping off any other players to the location, is an awesome touch. And the sound the enemies make. This was more than evident when I played the tutorial and faced off against the spider boss, for the first time. The sound and movement of this thing, genuinely made me feel uncomfortable. And for some unknown masochistic reason, it made me want to play more. And, like Luke, I can’t get this game out of my head. I want more!
I give this game a solid 9/10. Losing a point, only because the menu navigation is a little clunky, being a PC port.
Here is your varied opinion kids, I didn’t care about Hunt at all pre-release, in fact the only reason I knew about it at all was because Luke and Lance told me all about it, I heard cowboys, zombies and Co-op and I was sold.
So, with a ye and a haw, I got invested, and I mean REALLY invested. The world is gorgeous (Par for the course for Crytek really) and the game play handles with a suitable weight to make your actions feel powerful…when you get things right. The zambos are fairly terrifying and a legitimate threat rather than just cannon fodder while you look around for clues and enemy players, and the giant spiders? Forgot about it, I don’t think I’ve ever been this uncomfortable during a game since Shelob’s lair in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
I do have some small complaints here and there; the progression system seems a little all over the place with some rewards being from earning them and others being arbitrarily given for unlocking others or hunters? And as Lance touched on before, the UI handles with all the grace of a moose on ice, the sins of a PC port I suppose. Watch back our streams and you’ll get to hear me moan several times about how the game forces me to use a cursor rather than snapping to menu options!
Overall, Hunt has been a great experience that came out of no where for me, Its been a while since a battle royale game has made me want to go back and play so much. Expect a fair few more streams in the future! I’m giving Hunt: Showdown 8/10
So there you have it gang. We absolutely adore Hunt here in Respawning towers and cannot recommend it enough.
Collectively we give it an 8.666 but to satiate our score overlord Mikey I will round this to an 8.5. Hunt is an absolute treat that literally anyone can enjoy. So final verdict: