Hunt: Showdown Review

"Quite a Showdown"

Multiplayer

February 25, 2020 at 4:00am
By Jason Stettner

This is a really interesting competitive multiplayer experience featuring two main modes. The first is Bounty, where players will track and then battle over loot. The second is Quickplay, this is a more streamlined setup where players cleanse rifts while holding off others. That’s the just of the game, but it does offer quite a bit of complexity and neat gameplay elements.

I’ve been following this for a very long time, having seen it at E3 in its initial reveal so it’s somewhat great to see it finally release. Thought that might have been a neat note to make on this review, as I’ve seen it change a lot over the years. Going back to Bounty, this is the core element of play. I’d suggest the Quickplay to get a better handle on how things play when you start out. In the Bounty mode you’ll be playing alone, in duos or in a group of three. Twelve players are out exploring this desolate swamp landscape and ultimately trying to survive. It’s a seriously harsh and violent world with various monsters filling every inch of it.

On top of that, you’re actively hunting a massive creature by finding a few clues to lock onto its position. From there, it’s a battle of wits. You might be calm, sitting back to see how it plays out or just go right in. Once the big scary monster is eliminated, there’s loot and everyone will still be competing for it. If you have it, you’re a target as others want it and you need to get out of there. It’s interesting, some will battle whereas others will be calmer and just swipe the loot once the other players are weakened. I recall one time I took on a colossal scary spider, opened the front door and was blasted away, quite shocking.

Gameplay

This is a slower sort of game, it’s less about speed and more about being careful within the environment. Working with others, or being tactical by yourself. There are piles of monsters and they most certainly can kill you. They might light you on fire, swarm you or literally tear you apart. This often happens when you’re distracted fighting other players, or perhaps being careless out there. It’s also a gorgeous world, the visuals are stunning on Xbox One X as they’re enhanced.

It really does look fantastic, and I didn’t notice any performance issues. It feels large in scale, and very immersive across this ugly swamp world. It’s grim, gritty and just filled with dead life. Seriously, those walking husks look great and every little aspect of this world has something going on. From the infested water, to the decrepit buildings you might venture into. This world is also best experienced with headphones as they nail the 3D binaural audio.

There are bits of glass to alert others, lots of ground material and of course caged dogs that bark crazily. A neat aspect of this title is that death can be permanent. You’ll go through a number of hired guns, with weapons you purchase in-game to prepare them. You might bring in health, extra tools or more advanced weapons. There’s a wealth of content in this type of system and it works well here. Quickplay is a bit more casual though, so this system isn’t really present there aside from pre-set classes.

The Conclusion

Hunt: Showdown is a great competitive multiplayer experience featuring a rather ruthless and gritty world to face off in. It’s very impressive when it comes to the visuals, and the immersion that’s present here. It all works well, with unique systems and a more tactical style to it.

I really liked how it handles combat, and the extra enemies that might get mixed into what’s going on. I did find the loading to be a bit long, as it can take awhile to get into a match. A frustrating aspect since a monster might take you out right away, it awkwardly happens. That aside, there’s a lot of complexity to this game and I feel it’s something you can just keep playing multiple times.

It feels fresh as you go on a hunt, deal with other deadly players and generally just try to survive. Both modes can be rather exciting, and I liked the options for playing cooperatively with others. That’s an extra layer to the action, to try and coordinate for your group survival.

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Hunt: Showdown Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Sandbox Strat

Rating Overall: 8.2