Crytek has brought us games that have taken their technical section to the limit, with the maximum exponents that are Crysis and Ryse. Both games have helped many fall from their chairs and hallucinate with the technical section created by the CryEngine. After several releases of Crysis and a mediocre reception of Ryse: Son of Rome, Crytek was not going through his best moment. Its expansion, with another European study, resulted in a failure and the study was embroiled in millionaire losses.
Despite all that, in Crytek they have continued working, this time in a very different proposal to everything seen so far and perhaps not as ambitious in the technical as the previous ones. We do not have a history of Romans who must crush buttons to kill enemies or a supersoldier in a futuristic environment with a good arsenal of weapons to their supply. This time we moved to the time of the cowboys, only in this universe the concern is not which bank to rob, but which monster we should banish. Welcome to our Hunt analysis: Showdown.
Who said you couldn't pass fear in a multiplayer?
Hunt: Showdown has a pretty interesting universe and it is that since Crytek they have been in charge, this time, of creating a rich and nuanced universe. Despite being a multiplayer game we have at our disposal a glossary with lore about monsters and different elements of the world, something similar to what happens in Destiny.
The first thing we encounter when entering Hunt is that it asks us to play a tutorial, something that we must accept if we want to understand how the game works. All accompanied by a soundtrack that surprised me. Continuing with the theme of sound, we must emphasize the importance of the message shown at the start of the game and that we recommends playing with helmets, something you should do.
The sound section of Hunt: Showdown is one of the best I've been able to live in a video game since Hellblade: Seanua’s Sacrifice. It's amazing how careful you are and how important any noise is in this game, although I will delve into that later.
Returning to the theme of the tutorial, there we have the basic scheme of the game. First we must look for clues that lead us to the location of a monster. Then we must reach him, face and defeat him. The thing does not end there, since we must banish it, a kind of "exorcism" that eliminates it from our world. Once banished we must collect the loot and flee to an extraction point.
On paper, The tutorial, which we play alone, is a terrifying experience, since the world is plagued by enemies and any noise attracts them. These zombies are of different types and really turn the game into a kind of survival horror. The confrontation against the monster is quite agonizing due to the strength of its attacks and the effects it can produce, such as poisoning us. But the real game starts when you start your first game.
Hunt: Showdown is a Player vs. Enemy and Player vs. Player game at the same time. What does it mean? That everything we have lived in the tutorial must be added that there will be several groups of human enemies competing to reach the same tracks as you, so it is normal to be killed (or killed) before facing to the monster
Enemies everywhere
Playing Hunt: Showdown has been a unique experience and it has been fun and unfair in equal parts. First, despite playing with a partner with whom I was communicating at all times, there are several moments of tension and fear that we have lived. Non-human enemies have a very good ear and any shot will attract them. We must be careful not to step on crystals or bump into stage elements. Like nonhumans, human enemies will hear all kinds of noises thanks to their careful sound section that will make the shots resonate and we can deduce where they come from.
If we are interested in ending them, we can set up strategies and listen to their movement, being more stealthy, of course. Unfortunately Hunt: Showdown is not a game that is well leveled And it has been many times when players with powerful weapons have killed us before we can realize.
Hunt: Showdown is a strategy game and any difference – however small – is remarkable. The weapon unlocking system is linked to the level progression of our profile, while our character has its own progression, progression that we lose if he dies. In Hunt: Showdown there is permanent death and, honestly, his only reason for being that I find him is for us to go back to the store to get back everything we lost.
Unfortunately Hunt: Showdown is not saved from microtransactions and as a good online game abuses them. We can access better weapons and equipment before if we buy an in-game currency with our real money, which we also get playing, but in smaller quantities.
This time it's not the graphics, but the sound
Hunt's biggest favorable point: Showdown is its sound section, which is taken care of to the fullest. The feeling of being inside the game and that any sound is perfectly positioned in the world is most satisfactory. The shots, the footsteps, the screams … in a game where the noise is so important, Hunt: Showdown gives a good account of it.
While the graphics this time are no big deal (We have analyzed the version of the game on Xbox One X), it is the sound that takes the palm and with which Crytek has shown that technically they have a special hand. Few games will find a sound section so careful and real, making us really feel overwhelmed when we enter a building and listen to the enemies run around the roof, while we plan how to surround them in silence and end them.
The modeling and the textures are the sections that most suffer in the graphic, but on the contrary we have a powerful lighting system that comes into fullness when the sun's rays are mixed with the fog, or when our revolver takes out that humillo that reacts to the light.
An interesting proposal with a lot of future ahead (and to improve)
Hunt: Showdown is an interesting game and that bring some fresh air to the competitive multiplayer. Their mix of PvP and PvP brings a feeling of constant tension in which you can't trust even your own teammates (there's friendly fire). The pity is that very rarely we get to the battle against the monster, since clashes between players tend to opt for those who have invested more time and money, making the experience trimmed.
Reaching the end and extracting the loot makes you enjoy great rewards for your profile and character, a character that you can lose if a game goes wrong, a strange decision and difficult to understand. For its part, the technical section is quite fair, with eternal loading times and sometimes longer than our stay in the games.
The sound, the atmosphere, the good work of his world and the originality of his proposal make Hunt: Showdown have something special that if Crytek continue to improve over many months, they will achieve a great result. For now, this is a good start, without hesitation, great game modes or amazing variety, but of course they have certain aspects to enhance the competition. We will see what lies ahead.
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