Hunt: Showdown has been in development for years, and has undergone quite a few changes since its original incarnation was shown at E3 2014. The newly imagined “player vs player vs AI” monster hunting shooter came out with a bang at a variety of shows this year, and new gameplay footage continues to impress.
IGN is currently featuring Hunt: Showdown as part of their “IGN First” series, and it features quite a bit of gameplay footage. Developers provide commentary as the game goes, and they discuss strategy and gameplay while showcasing some of the tenser moments of a Hunt: Showdown match. Check out the footage below:
This is the first in game look at how the different systems in Hunt: Showdown will play out. It already looks very pretty, even though it is still months (maybe more than that) away from release. Even more importantly, it looks like it will be a tense, white-knuckle shooter with plenty of viable strategies and fun, unscripted moments.
One thing that really stands out in the short gameplay session is how big of a role noise will play in every round of Hunt: Showdown. There are a huge variety of things scattered throughout the map that, if you are not careful, will quickly alert both AI-controlled monsters and player-controlled hunters to your location. Barking dogs, flocks of birds, rattling chains, and many other environmental hazards will announce your location to the entire map, not to mention gunfire and explosions from fighting off those enemies.
Even though it still does not have a release date, Hunt: Showdown is shaping up to be a tense, fun game of cat and mouse. Hopefully it continues to trend in the right direction, and hopefully the developers can learn from the mistakes of a game like Evolve, which was another pretty, tense game that was marred by a bad DLC plan and lack of features.
The developers have confirmed that the game will have a Steam Early Access release to foster community feedback and develop the best possible game. We will have more on Hunt: Showdown as it becomes available.