Hunt: Showdown Review - Games Finder (2024)

Hunt: Showdown takes a darker fantasy twist to the growing popularity of extraction based shooters on the video game market which have players putting their equipment at risk in the hopes of taking down bounties and expanding their resource pool. First released in 2018 as an early access title Hunt: Showdown was an early addition to the genre and notably one of the few at the time bringing this experience to the console market.

Within Hunt: Showdown players take on the role of a bounty hunter with some basic level of mythical powers to help them track down mythical monsters for the bounties that they hold before extracting from the area. Set within the past the 1895 setting of Louisiana Bayou lends players towards simple firearms and explosives alongside the trusty knife melee weapons that are highly effective against basic foes provided you can sneak up on them. Your enemies are not just horrific creatures though with other hunters competing for bounties that creates a PvPvE dynamic that is popular in the genre.

The result like many others in this developing genre of games is a difficult balance between dispatching or avoiding the AI enemies without drawing significant attention to the player from other hunters given death comes easily when other players are involved. PvP is near impossible to avoid when seeking the objective though given the mechanics have players fighting over the same objective and alerts to other hunters based on actions around the map.

This primary game mode known as Bounty Hunt supports up to 12 players with solo, duo or teams of three fighting against each other one of the game maps and drawing either one or two bounty contracts from the pool of boss monsters known as The Butcher, The Spider, The Assassin, The Rotjaw and the Scrapbeak with their own distinct mechanics. Deciding whether to be the primary hunter and defend against attackers or playing a stealth assassination style to stop the hunter chasing the targets are decisions players will constantly be faced with and need to adjust to the situation at hand.

Other game modes includes a quick play mode know as Soul Survivor that players closer to a battle royale with your focus on discovering a powerful Wellspring of energy and defending that from other players. In this mode players don’t bring their equipment either and instead start with basic melee and healing tools only which encourages more scavenging than the core mode. Hunt: Showdown also offers some training and time trial modes for players to learn the core mechanics in single player tests against the book of monsters the game has to offer.

This is critical given that each monster possesses its own unique elements that players must understand to effectively be able to dispatch them and ensures that they all have some level of threat. The infected grunts are the staple enemy and are essentially the townsfolk that have been turned by darkness to attack players on sight. While they can be easily taken down with a quick bullet or knife they aren’t all the same with some having their own cleavers, torches and pistols for a little extra difficulty on this basic enemy type alongside the considerations of alerting other threats. Beyond these you’ll find marked enemies that are armoured, able to summon a bee hive, a tormented soul on fire that explodes and packs of hellhounds that each have different counters.

Thankfully the weapons that are available to players are equally diverse and provide the necessary tools to dispatch these horrific creatures. Falling into categories such as pistols, shotguns, rifles and melee options each has different aiming, reloading and damage strengths with an emphasis on slower firing weapons given the time period that the game is set. These weapons that you bring or find also work alongside the other primary progression mechanic of hunter traits that are accumulated based on your successes and help your hunter bloodline compete in the harsh world. With growing bloodline ranks comes new passive traits that give you various methods to reduce damage, recover stamina, locate additional loot, sprint longer or fire faster.

Summary:

• A dark themed extraction shooter with varied PvPvE content challenges.
• Fight against a wealth of strange bosses and enemy types with their own counters to consider.
• Play as an aggressive objective focused hunter or play the stealthy hunter that steals the rewards right under the others.
• Gain new passive traits as you level up your bloodline ranks to buff your hunter with new vital utility to your success.
• Available on Windows and consoles.

Links:

• Buy Hunt: Showdown (Steam)
• Buy Hunt: Showdown (Microsoft Store)
• Buy Hunt: Showdown (PlayStation Store)

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Review Platform: PC

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