Up to 10 players, in teams of two or solo, drop into a decently sized map. You're never told if you're alone, nor how many other players you're up against. It is left ambiguous.
Every player in the match has 60 minutes to do...whatever they need.
The map is populated by assorted monster types; generic zombies, powered up flaming zombies, armoured types, and so on. Their distribution is random.
Each map spawns either one or two "boss" monsters, and several "clues" to pinpoint their location. This is the game system leading players to one another.
Finding clues narrows down boss locations. Defeating bosses initiates a "banishing" period, wherein every player is alerted to your location. Banished bosses can be looted for a trophy.
The ultimate goal is to get in, find a boss, kill it, banish, get the trophy, and extract. Extract to one of the handful of randomly generated extraction locations.
Guns hit super hard, but also reload super slow. All weapons are based around deep south Wild Western era equipment. Every shot matters, especially against players.
Players can level up their "Bloodline", which accumulates XP with every match. Bloodline levels increase weapon, tool, and consumable options in the store, of which are purchased with money earned in matches.
"Hunters" are your player characters. They are equipped with aforementioned weapons and gear, alongside perks, which are purchasable as you level up each individual hunter from a match's success.
And once you hit level 16 Bloodline? Every hunter that dies, and their gear, is gone forever. Death is permanent. A new hunter must be purchased, and geared out.
The level of intensity this game provides is something else. It intelligently keeps the moment-to-moment play ambiguous. How many players are actually in this match? What are their strategies? Hunting clues and taking down bosses is a core facet of the game, but an equally valid strategy is to wait for another player to do just this and then hunt them down and steal the bounty.
Even little things, like revives. Games like PUBG highlight when a team player has been "downed", alerting you to the existence of their alive team mate. In Hunt revives are possible, but the combating players can never tell the difference between a truly dead player and one waiting to be revived.
The game provides moment-to-moment tension and intensity unlike anything else. You're managing your limited ammunition against the undead, but also considering your volume of noise (the game has incredible sound design, with numerous factors like crows, horses, cans, glass, and other stuff to make sound awareness essential). The matches cleverly draw players together...but optionally, with truly no real way to know how other players are responding to situations. Hell, some players might feel they're out of their league and make for an extraction point after brief play, salvaging their gear and hunters despite not actually defeating any other players or bosses.
Hunt: Showdown is currently in 0.6, with 1.0 full release set to drop in August. And I can safely say that while this definitely has room to grow, the current build is remarkably robust and consistent for an early access game. I've had literally no game breaking bugs after 21 hours play, and neither has my mate. There's two maps with several times-of-day for each one, three bosses, several generic enemy types, and a ton of guns and gear to unlock and enjoy through the progression system.
Currently absolutely nothing in the ways of microtransactions or tricks to bait players into spending real money. It's just utterly wonderful and couldn't get any more recommended from myself.
Every player in the match has 60 minutes to do...whatever they need.
The map is populated by assorted monster types; generic zombies, powered up flaming zombies, armoured types, and so on. Their distribution is random.
Each map spawns either one or two "boss" monsters, and several "clues" to pinpoint their location. This is the game system leading players to one another.
Finding clues narrows down boss locations. Defeating bosses initiates a "banishing" period, wherein every player is alerted to your location. Banished bosses can be looted for a trophy.
The ultimate goal is to get in, find a boss, kill it, banish, get the trophy, and extract. Extract to one of the handful of randomly generated extraction locations.
Guns hit super hard, but also reload super slow. All weapons are based around deep south Wild Western era equipment. Every shot matters, especially against players.
Players can level up their "Bloodline", which accumulates XP with every match. Bloodline levels increase weapon, tool, and consumable options in the store, of which are purchased with money earned in matches.
"Hunters" are your player characters. They are equipped with aforementioned weapons and gear, alongside perks, which are purchasable as you level up each individual hunter from a match's success.
And once you hit level 16 Bloodline? Every hunter that dies, and their gear, is gone forever. Death is permanent. A new hunter must be purchased, and geared out.
The level of intensity this game provides is something else. It intelligently keeps the moment-to-moment play ambiguous. How many players are actually in this match? What are their strategies? Hunting clues and taking down bosses is a core facet of the game, but an equally valid strategy is to wait for another player to do just this and then hunt them down and steal the bounty.
Even little things, like revives. Games like PUBG highlight when a team player has been "downed", alerting you to the existence of their alive team mate. In Hunt revives are possible, but the combating players can never tell the difference between a truly dead player and one waiting to be revived.
The game provides moment-to-moment tension and intensity unlike anything else. You're managing your limited ammunition against the undead, but also considering your volume of noise (the game has incredible sound design, with numerous factors like crows, horses, cans, glass, and other stuff to make sound awareness essential). The matches cleverly draw players together...but optionally, with truly no real way to know how other players are responding to situations. Hell, some players might feel they're out of their league and make for an extraction point after brief play, salvaging their gear and hunters despite not actually defeating any other players or bosses.
Hunt: Showdown is currently in 0.6, with 1.0 full release set to drop in August. And I can safely say that while this definitely has room to grow, the current build is remarkably robust and consistent for an early access game. I've had literally no game breaking bugs after 21 hours play, and neither has my mate. There's two maps with several times-of-day for each one, three bosses, several generic enemy types, and a ton of guns and gear to unlock and enjoy through the progression system.
Currently absolutely nothing in the ways of microtransactions or tricks to bait players into spending real money. It's just utterly wonderful and couldn't get any more recommended from myself.
