Hunt Showdown, on paper, may look like just another zombie first-person shooter game in a crowded space. Yet, the thoughtful execution of Hunt is what makes it a game that every FPS gamer should try.
What makes Hunt such an underrated game is also how it is a beautiful mix of different gaming genres. The developers picked ideas from other great games and integrated them. Yet, at the same time, the result is wholly unique in its particular way.
Hunt Showdown is a game that mixes the best elements of action, tactical, and horror into a cowboy-inspired game. The result is nothing like any other zombie FPS game. How is this game underrated and underplayed? Hunt is a successful product with a growing player base but deserves a much greater following.
What Makes Hunt Showdown a Great First-Person Shooter?
Crytek, makers of Hunt, managed to utilize gameplay mechanics that have already been used in other games but feel unique in this game when combined. With one headshot, you are dead instantly. There is no room for error. Furthermore, if you alert a group of crows? Too bad. All the teams nearby know where you are now. It’s this quick change of pace and outcomes that is partly why Hunt Showdown is so underrated.
Let’s dive even deeper into what makes this game so unique.
Breathtaking Sound Design Will Blow You Away
Hunt Showdown takes sound design to the next level. This is not only true for gunshots, explosions, and ambient noises. Crytek meticulously crafted every sound to have a purpose in the game. Not only will you hear what type of surface a player is running on, but you will be able to gauge the location of another team a hundred meters away from you.
What’s more, guns in this game are incredibly loud. Yet, they are noisy in a wonderful way that makes the game even more immersive. Often, FPS games feature guns with lackluster sound effects that sound ‘’meh’’, generic, or ‘’cool,’’ at best. In some lamer examples, they even sound like gentle airsoft guns. Yet, gunshots in Hunt: Showdown sound punchy, lethal, and scary when you are in someone’s iron sight.
Understanding Sound Effects Can Help You Survive in Hunt: Showdown
Experienced players can pinpoint what gun and at what distance it’s being shot. In fact, sound is so critical to the game that Hunt developed an amazing way for players to study sound and know-how gunshots sound at a certain distance. They published a straightforward tool that will allow you to view a 3D model of the gun and shoot it. Not only that, but if you zoom out, the game will provide a distance tracker to test the gunshots.
There are situations in this game where you are going to be slowly approaching a compound, where you suspect players may be waiting in ambush. As soon as you hear the sound of automatic fire, you will recognize the type of weapon they are using and completely change your plan of attack.
You Can use Environmental Sounds to Pinpoint Other Players and Ambush Them
Hunt is not like Call of Duty or Halo where you run around blasting at everyone in sight. If you run around making noise or without a care for the environment around you, you will be silently taken out.
This game has mastered making a map dynamic for the player. The map will always be against everyone. Yet, if you are clever, you can force it to be on your side. You can use the noises in the game world to tell where enemy players are coming from, set the traps, and hunt them down.
Crows Can Alert Everyone From a Distance
As an example, we have crows. These animals will be around the map at random spawn locations each match. Once you get close to them and scare them, the crows will make a loud series of caws and fly away.
Enemy players won’t only be able to tell the direction of the sound. If they are fast, they will be able to see from where the crows fly away.
Scared Farm Animals are Another Horrifying Touch that Makes Hunt Showdown Underrated
As the name suggests, wounded horses are horses lying down, waiting to be put out of their sad misery. If you get close to a wounded horse, it will be scared and start bleating desperately.
We also have caged dogs and chickens that will start barking or clucking when approached. This noise will alert players near them. Hunt Showdown developers have cleverly placed these underrated environmental hazards throughout the map in such a way as to hide them from players moving without care or attention.
Other Noises that Will Give Your Position Away in Hunt
Inside every compound, you will find cans, bottles, and chains hanging from the ceiling. If you walk or run through these…well, you probably already know what’s next. This can be used in your favor when you are in a gunfight inside a house or a building. If you were careful and scouted the location out first and knew the locations of the sound traps, you will have a great advantage.
The Gunfights in Hunt: Showdown are Underrated and Seem Out of a Movie
Gunfights in this game will hold a special place in your heart once you experience them. They can last from a few seconds to even twenty minutes and more. Once the showdown starts, your heart will scream for mercy and beg for the excitement to be over. The action will put you on the edge of your seat while trying not to blink. Your senses will be alert. If you lose sight of an enemy, you are doomed. They are most likely flanking to kill you.
Hunt: Showdown is Even Better When Played with Friends
Teamwork in this game it’s fundamental. If you can, you should grab a friend to play with you in Hunt: Showdown. You have no option but to trust your teammates to watch other possible angles of attack. Moreover, you have to trust them when all of you are rushing a building to certain death. It’s a huge benefit if you can understand how they think and what will be their next move.
Even when you and your other teammates are fighting a single guy inside a building, you will surely pay for it if you get co*cky and forget to coordinate.
Hunt Showdown is a Very Intellectual and Underrated Game
Hunt: Showdown is not a game where you will be rushing buildings, slide-canceling to lunge with an energy sword, and spraying around every corner with your automatic gun. If you play Hunt like that, you will be hitting a return to lobby button very quickly.
Hunt is a thinking man’s (or woman’s) game. If you don’t plan your shots or if you are not confident and patient, you can be sure there is a player in the match that is. Not only that, but they will get you without you ever seeing them.
Guns are old-fashioned and slow. So, picking your shots and being patient are vital for success. You will often find a comfortable angle in first-person shooters and get a kill streak there. Yet, you will be greeted with a bullet as soon as you pick that angle for the 2nd or 3rd time. Sound will give you away. Repositioning is a game-changer in Hunt.
In Hunt, you will also need to equip your hunter with the right kit in order to prepare them for the Showdown. This includes picking the right items, guns, and tactical gadgets in Hunt Showdown. Failure to equip them will result in their permanent death. You will go through many hunters in your time with Hunt. Yet, the risk of permadeath and loss of character progress will always keep you on your toes. This is true even if you recently ranked up for more prestige in Hunt.
The Visuals in Hunt are Groundbreaking and Worthy of a Museum
There will be many times in this game where you are moving around the map, and you will stop just to take a screenshot of the view before you. Even the menu design and a lot of the icons are completely overlooked and underrated in Hunt Showdown.
The graphics were meticulously created to be photorealistic and loyal to their actual locations. This game handles all times of day; morning, evening, dawn, and night. This review of Hunt Showdown wouldn’t be complete without mentioning how the night turns Hunt into a completely different game. You will stand out of your chair, turn off every light around you, and close the curtains because it is truly gorgeous. While you might feel safe in the dark forest waiting for your enemies, you will never know what lurks around you.
The Monsters in Hunt will Haunt You in Your Dreams
The whole objective of the game is to find and kill a giant, scary monster that will grant you a bounty that you have to escape with. The bounties go from a spider with a face of a human, to an assassin that will try to sneak behind and slash you with its blades, to a man turned into a bird. There’s even a terrifying butcher boss in Hunt with a pig’s head and a massive blade.
They all have their difficulties and will kill you in one way. Once you beat one of these beasts, the real monsters will show up, enemy players that will give everything not to escape empty-handed.
Final Thoughts in Our Review of Hunt Showdown
Hunt Showdown is an underrated first-person shooter with a premise that might sound weird, but you will never forget this game once you play it. Hunt will put you on edge; it will play and put your senses to their limit; it will haunt your thoughts; and it will punish you for every mistake.
When the showdown starts, bullets will start flying out of nowhere and players and monsters will try to breach your compound. There is no ‘’let me catch my breath for a second.’’ Once you get the bounty, there is no looking back. It’s all or nothing, and you need to reach that extraction point while enemies rush behind you desperately with nothing to lose.
We hope you have enjoyed our review of Hunt Showdown and have a better understanding of why this game is so underrated. If you do not already have a copy, we encourage you to pick one up or check out one of the other great horror FPS games like Hunt Showdown.
