Hunt: Showdown 1896

Finally leaving a review after all these hours....Hunt was an amazing game. Use to have just countless nights playing. The most recent updates and engine changes have changed the game for the worst. Weapon balancing seems to have gone out the window, the people playing are toxic as is possible in looter shooters. Hunt use to feel like an old school cowboy shooter and now somehow it just feels like every other looter shooter. Everyone sells out eventually and Crytec finally sold out on hunt. other than the game looking amazing it just isnt the same Hunt. Nothing feels the same.

This game ain't what it used to be. Honestly, Steam should let players be able to refund games if the games change so drastically from the base game with future updates. Don't recommend, it isn't the game I was sold.

Didn't think I'd ever write a negative review for Hunt, but here we are.

I'd like to preface this by saying that this is from the perspective of a long-time, high-MMR player. I started playing seriously in late 2020, but I had played during early access in 2019 as well for anyone who remembers that. I've been here for the highs and lows, and I think after years of dealing with Crytek making the same mistakes over and over I'm just tired. With every "event" (Which is just a battle-pass season) they introduce more and more clearly broken weapons or traits that aren't just occasionally "broken" in the balance sense (I'll get to that later) but broken on a technical level.

Peacemaker (Desolation's Wake) was especially egregious. I originally typed out a detailed explanation of why, but scrapped it because I don't want this review to be longer than it's already going to be. Long story short, instead of fixing it during the event, Crytek just put out a statement saying "This is against the rules and bannable" like it already wasn't. There's already a rule stating only organic teaming through VOIP or in-game text chat is allowed, and intentionally teaming before a game was already bannable. If this wasn't bad enough, it took them until the event was half over to even issue this nothing-burger statement. It never got patched. They just said they'd revert XP/Money gained by players who abused it, which didn't fix the root issue of games being ruined for 60 days.

Peacemaker is just my best example, as other traits from previous events had similar - although not as damaging - traits like the Infernal pact which made you immune to (and heal) from fire on top of automatically curing bleed. Paired with bloodless, an antidote shot, and the fact everyone was running it and nothing else for the aforementioned reasons, all status effects in the game were essentially useless, also for 60 days.

Another example on the weapon side is the Spear, and how it invalidated every other tool slot melee weapon for months and months before even being addressed by the devs where it got a nerf that did bring it down a peg but not enough to bring back the choice we once had in that category.

I could go on and on about brain-dead balance decisions over the years (Katana invalidating every other melee weapon, Dolch getting special ammo, some new special ammo being a straight upgrade to default, putting Surefoot in the base game, Lightfoot solo buff messing with the fundamentals, etc) to the point of bloating this review to be pages long, but whoever has the wheel right now genuinely needs to take a step back and listen to people who know how to play the game, or step down and let someone who knows how to play take the wheel. They also contradict themselves so often from patch to patch that it doesn't even seem coherent, the most recent example being nerfing Necromancer because they "Didn't want ranged revives to be spammed" and then adding revive bolts for the hand crossbow a patch or two later, which is ten times worse.

Problem is, they know all of this. They don't care. They balance based on usage metrics and back-end data instead of actually looking at the state of their game. It's the only reason the Uppercut keeps getting bullied; people use it because BIG IRON and they see it's popular and nerf it into the ground. I was in favour of the recent shift to a faster pace at first because I thought the most "Patient" team reliably winning every fight was intensely boring, but recently they've overstepped with Surefoot, revive bolts and really common restoration that removes a lot of the careful decision-making that made combat so interesting. I could go on for hours, I feel like I'm missing so much.

A HUGE issue for me was changing how penetration works and then claiming it was a "bug" that penetration was so good for 5-6 years. It very well could be, but if it took you half a decade to find it, that's on you. You shouldn't lower the skill ceiling just to "fix" something that wasn't a problem in the first place.

I've dealt with this for a long time, and I've always thought they're just finding their footing or they need more time to fix whatever it is they need to fix but after years of neglecting the state of the game and refusing to patch during 60 day blocks, I'm just tired.

They recently, for the first time in years, actually made a balance patch mid-event by slightly nerfing the Shredder, which again, was so busted it shouldn't have even shipped but that's the trend. If they become more hands on in the future I might be more enthusiastic but I have no more patience or hope for change anymore.

The most recent nail in the coffin for me is disregarding the game's atmosphere for IP collabs meant to draw in new players that, in my opinion, feel cheap and desperate. Why does every skin from the current pass need Post Malone's initials stamped on them? The Sparks Pistol has his initials branded on it literally 14 separate times, I wish I was joking. It feels like one of those "Every other popular game is doing it" situations where they feel like they have to as well if they want to break into the mainstream, which I think is misguided given that Hunt will never be mainstream unless they turn it into something else that isn't Hunt. They know this though, and they're working on changing it. Whether or not the game changes for the better or just becomes more generic is up in the air, but from the recent string of changes it's feeling more generic already.

I've already gone on long enough and I haven't mentioned a lot of other problems but it is what it is. The bad is starting to outweigh the good for me but don't get me wrong, I still love the game and want the best for it; I just don't think Crytek knows what to do with the game and it's going to cost them as more competition starts to appear.

If you're a new player, you won't be bothered by a lot of my personal issues with the game. Go ham, have fun. As soon as you climb in MMR (I play in 6) you'll understand, and whether or not you're patient enough to put up with the neglect will be down to you. Good luck.

Game used to be fun. After the update a lot of issues and bugs. UI looks garbage. Not optimized. They should have just left is at it was. Why was this update needed?

Literally couldnt play the game, was just stuck on a black screen everytime i tried to load in, didnt matter the fix or the workaround I tried.

One of the best game I've ever played. Before they change the UI
And the engine that made the game unoptimised
And the new map with trees that have hitboxes 3 times the size of the model
And the strategic and careful approach to fights that's been replaced by faster paced gameplay
Hunt changed for the worst

Absolute piece of garbage main menu, the person who decided it's okay should be fired. Each loading in the game you get a million different announcements. It just looks like a mobile game. Of course they added some improvements to qol but that's all they made a very solid looking main menu to look like some gachi mobile game

I never thought I will be writing a "Not Recommended" review for this game.

As you can see from my playtime, I've poured quite a huge part of my free time into Hunt. That itself proves my fondness to this game.
I started playing right after its early access, back when there was no "1896" in its title. I was drawn into the grim, ruthless nature of the Hunt; everything around you can and will kill you, and you have to make the most of what you have―your equipment, your trait, your position and your knowledge of other enemies' equipment, trait and position. Forming a strategy is a must to at least survive, even though that means you're leaving without bounty. You need to traverse the map carefully, paying attention to the surroundings, and plan your next move deliberately. Failure to do so will result in your (and your partners') death, losing everything you brought in.
Every firearms had something to offer; each gun had its own strengths and weaknesses, so there was no such thing as "trash weapon" nor "superb weapon," meaning that you would always have a chance to topple over enemies, if you know how to play your gun right.
The world and environment is something that no other game would be able to pull off, its occult-esque darkness surrounding the world, which can be found both in-game in the lore book, i.e. the Book of Weapons and the Book of Monsters. The events pre-1896 were on track with its lore and brought interesting seasonal addition into the game in the form of short stories (and some cool narrations along with them).

But right now, after Hunt's 1896 reboot, everything matters no more. They completely removed all the books from the game, so we can't even have a look of the game's lores anytime you want (Crytek did announced that the books will be available on Hunt website, but why ripping them away from the game in the first place?).
Gunfight-wise, they've started to add more and more broken weapons and traits which makes any strategic aspects completely useless. They are now encouraging more fast-paced fights by implementing absurd equipment and buffing up more spammy weapons. They made every gun have all same custom ammo, made every shotgun buffed, made more expensive weapons powerful, and de-penalized being downed with Revive Bolt and Restoration shot. The worst weapon so far is the "Shredder," a crossbow-ish weapon that shoots sawblades semi-auto that ricochet off the walls and home on enemies in proximity. That's the most absurd mechanics I've ever seen in any other shooter games (other than CoD), and it doesn't even fit into the game's original gunplay system in any way. They completely lost touch on what to do with equipment and are only focusing on attracting major audience by steering away Hunt's core gameplay.

What dove a final nail in the coffin is the recent event, Post Malone's Murder Circus. Before this event, at least themes of each event were always on par with Hunt's originality. But the Murder Circus is all for Post Malone, a real-life celebrity (evident as shown in its title). Almost all weapon skin has a "PM" initials engraved, and there are two Post Malone Hunter skins in the battle pass. If I ever wanted to see a famous musician or actor, I'd go play CoD or Fortnite. I liked Hunt for its own unique atmosphere, not for having a real-life celebrity.

I don't know what to think of Hunt: Showdown anymore. This isn't the Hunt I used to know. Once a dark, tense and slow-paced game, with an actually fine-balanced equipment, has become nothing but a so-called "Western" run-and-gun trigger-happy shooter. I may come back when my Hunt partners group up for a couple of matches, but I'm not going to actively play this game onwards.

(Edit: some typos)

Before the renaming to Hunt: Showdown 1896, this game was a dream. From the atmosphere to the mechanics in the game. Now it's going downhill. Modern skins, like GhostFace or Post Melon are killing the game. Where is the game where you could immerse yourself without feeling like you're playing one of those FPS games that constantly have new crossovers?
Searching for rounds takes ages. Once you find one and start it, textures don't load properly. Enormous bugs and leggs plague the game. You can only hope not to be kicked out of the round because the connection to the servers breaks down again.
Since these shortcomings are apparently not enough to finally change something. The developer has managed to push the PC requirements so high that the game won't even start. So now I can either dispose of the game and forget about it, or upgrade my PC or buy a new one.
The game had real potential. I always enjoyed playing it, whether alone or with friends. Unfortunately, they've managed to screw up Hunt and make it unenjoyable.
Just a joke!!!

a game i really want to like but their servers are garbage and their current trajectory is driving this game away from its unique identity and into every other type of shooter out there. don't buy it, it's not worth the money anymore.

Sadly, no longer the uniquely cool game I supported in early access.

I thoroughly loved the setting and immersion but since the Hunt is a live service game, it's reached the point in its lifespan where the those things I appreciated about it have been tossed in favour of gameplay changes to appeal to a broader audience, as well as nonsensical money-fueled immersion destruction that thoroughly ruins the stellar gothic atmosphere. I enjoyed my time with this game before now, but cannot recommend it to anyone looking for the experience it used to offer, because it's been diluted to the point where you can't even taste that flavour anymore.

Rest in peace.

SERVERS ARE GETTING REALLY REALLY LAGGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! out of 20 rounds 3 will disconnect a day experienced by multiple people i play with. DEFINITELY A SERVER ISSUE DON'T BUY until improvements are made

One of my Favorite games are ruined, it was good, it is total garbage now. Trying to navigate this new menu screen made me uninstall the game, and when i loaded in there is only bugs. The game lost its grit, the old music and feel to the game is gone, please don't buy and make them think what they did is working.

Currently the game does not continue from the starting blackscreen. Only my mouse cursor visible and a black screen. I can't close the game or tab out, just waiting for 5 minutes until it crashes. Tried -dx11/-d3d11/-dx12 startup variables and windows defender settings. Valve pls fix.

I used to love the game, but I’m not happy with the direction it's heading. Now we have Posty in the game—what's next, Nicki Minaj? I wish the developers would stop catering to the Fortnite and Warzone fanboys. While I think the idea of a circus event is awsome, I think its time to take a break from the constant events and money grabs. You should focus on fixing the game instead.

Well, I have played thousands of hours of this game, absolutely loved it while making excuses for the clunkiness and the poor choices.

The Post Malone Circus however has just completely broken all apologising I can do for it.

Semi auto proximity fused explosive sawblade crossbow. Absofuckinglutely not.

They've come a long way from the early days of slow, heavily audio informed, every shot counts gameplay to the shitshow of incoherent spam it is now. I made excuses for the battle pass mess because I found the art team had a consistent quality output but now? Candy-cane scopes, celebrity name endorsement dross.

I want the game I bought back - because this current piece of trash isn't it. Not even close.

I bought Hunt:Showdown. I want to play it. Where did it go? I didn't buy this. I can't even go back to the original game that worked (mostly) and had some fun times in it.

I feel like the developers have literally stolen something from me that I owned and enjoyed. The curse of modern game development - an awful and inexorable slide of any good title into the has-bin of mediocrity as some corporation tries to squeeze every last penny from its beaten and abused IP. We think we own our games. What a joke.

They should have just made a new game so that I could have avoided it rather than ruining a game that I liked. Instead they made the sorts of changes I'd expect and might understand - if it had come from an Early Access title I'd paid half-price for rather than a fully priced AAA title I'd played and enjoyed for years.

Will never purchase or promote another Crytek product again.

This game was, hands down, my favourite FPS—until they decided to "upgrade" it. Now, it feels like a completely different experience, and not in a good way. The engine update brought chaos instead of improvement, the UI overhaul seems tailor-made to frustrate, and the monetisation. Let’s just say it’s an empty husk of its former self.

What used to be a gritty and immersive journey through 19th-century Louisiana now features pop culture crossovers that feel painfully out of place. Seeing celebrity faces and movie icons in this setting is jarring, to say the least. It’s like they traded the game’s unique atmosphere for quick cash grabs, and the magic has all but disappeared.

I’ve spent countless hours with this game. But now, if someone asked me whether it’s worth their time, I’d have to say no. It’s become a prime example of how bad decisions can erode what made a game special in the first place.

very good game, this game is really fun but their servers are fucking terrible, I have a 4070 super with ryzen 9 7900x and getting 200 fps with max settings but still lagging on some games, just got dc'd out of a game which would not reconnect then I died while I was away, how fucking hard is it to just use a good server, its a big game post malone plays it ffs, fix the damn game before adding UI updates damn

I think this marks the end of me playing hunt. I've bought the game 5 times now, once for me and 4 more times for friends. My pitch every time? It's a slower game, guns are clunky and old but in a way that feels good. Every shot landed feels so good and the tension in everything makes clearing a lobby feel so good. Now the game has homing rocket launchers? No thanks, this isn't the game I bought anymore. And even when they take it out after the event it still is indicative of what is to come. The fact that they even entertain that idea tells me they've completely lost sight of what the game was now. I obviously have no way of knowing who makes these decisions but shit like this wasn't happening until Fifield was involved.


Atleast I got my 1500 hours out of it. Looking forward to Hunger, hopefully they can take the mantle for what hunt used to be.

For every new player, I can just BEG YOU NOT TO BUY THIS GAME. Let Crytek overthink their actions, but with their combined 3 brain cells, that's probably never going to happen.
Do not waste your time and play something else, this game is not worth it.

After way too much playtime I can tell you this game was fun about 2 years ago, but with every further update, it gets somehow worse...
Crytek seems to think the issue for their dropping player count is a promo problem, that's why we get event after event starring 400h veteran players, but the real problem is Crytek itself. Every update - even tho it gets tested internally and let me tell you their testers do an outstanding job, they know about every existing bug - gets pushed live in an unplayable state, the UI has been an absolute nightmare for almost half a year now, but all they do is promise, "with the next update it's gonna be better" but no.
The number of bugs on live servers is just insane, but the leadership thinks that "only because players don't complain about it do we not need to fix it." When a bug becomes an issue, they have no fix for it for weeks or even months.
Instead of caring about their diminishing, for some reason still loyal player base that hasn't uninstalled this unplayable mess, they fuck you right up the ass with every new update, just after raising your hopes that the game is going to be playable again.... but hey guys, there is a new DLC you can buy and while you´re at it, buy the season pass as well.
In summary, every new update goes like this: there is one absolutely broken gun/trait/traitline, one pretty okish thing and something horrifically useless.
Don´t make me start with the UI, it's a mess, you can't find anything and after trying to equip a hunter you have either a broken mouse from clicking it to death or sore hands from all the useless and inconsistent key binds.
By the time you finally get in a game you grew a beard and the server either crashes, has horrible performance or you get outpinged by Chinese with 200ms+ ping, but hey, at least they are not cheating right *smiley face* - wrong the anti-cheat sucks and every cheater that gets banned is free to play on another account as long as they are not cheating again - right because they learned their lesson and stopped. With a hardware-id spoofer you can avoid their bans and just keep cheating, you´re welcome cheaters btw, go haunt Crytek.
And I almost forgot about the sound. The sound once was so good you could hear everything, now you can´t hear ANYTHING, no footsteps, no gunshots, no nothing.

This used to be a good game. now it is ruined with the worst ui ever created and a bug that disbands the party when you try to play. Do not buy

ONCE A GREAT GAME TIL DEVS SOLD THEIR SOULS FOR THE BUCKS.

So many people was pissed about the new UI, that didn´t bother me, but then they changed the whole atmosphere of the game which was what made this game unique. Now this is just another FPS copying COD games season pass with nonsense content in a horrible new "for the sake of business philosophy" by Crytek. What on earth is doing Post Malone or ghost face here?
I used to love this game back then but now I´m just uninstalling it for good.

With so much sorrow I can only say:
RIP Hunt Showdown..................................................................................and f Crytek

Developer Meeting :

Hey guys, I have a great Idea! How about we update the game engine 5 Years after the game was released? Ruin the entire menu UI which everyone asked for us to clean up forever and consolefy it. As an added bonus, alot of players that bought the game years ago cant even start the game anymore due to our "update". Oh, youre listening? Okay, I got more, how about we also delete 66% of all of our maps and then, months after all of that going down and us fixing nothing - we deal the ultimate blow and release pink clown zombies with funny music and gangsta rappers with lazer weapons! You know, in our "1894 realistic gritty western shooter"

Sounds good? No? Okay, lets release it.

Although it certainly had its problems, especially with the trade window and custom ammo, it was a much-loved gem and a game like no other, where I used to spend so many hundreds of hours.

Then came the 1896 update, and what looked so promising turned the game into something that had nothing to do with my beloved Hunt Showdown of all those years ago.

A UI that is a nightmare, bugs everywhere, bugs that are only fixed when they affect the in-game currency, balancing from hell, battlepass/gamepass through the backdoor with events that take months and have even more balancing issues, strange in-game design and DLC choices and then there is the cheater and ping abuser problem and Crytek are doing nothing about it.
This game is not fun anymore. I hope it will change for the better and they will undo all the damage they have done - but right now I am not very optimistic about that, when I look at the direction this game has taken.

I used to love Hunt: Showdown. The unique atmosphere, intense gameplay, and risk-reward mechanics. But the changes are slowly making it worse every update

After almost 3000h in this game, I finally think that it might be time for a review.

Hunt went through a lot of changes and not every patch was a real banger. Experienced hunters know that Crytek had some issues in the last months but they fixed a lot.

Yes, we had times with a lot of bugs.
Yes, we had really big performance issues after the big 2.0 re-release.
Yes, the UI changes were terrible. A lot has been fixed even though it is still not great.
Yes, Crytek often needs way too much time until fixing and patching things.

BUT let's face the good stuff.
With the latest patch and the Post Malone circus update, Crytek did a really good job. A lot has been fixed, Trade killing is less of a problem. The changes to custom ammo are healthy for balancing the game. New traits and unique event mechanics have been added. The circus concept fits suprisingly well. The new map that came with the 2.0 update is the most beautiful map they have ever made.

I really think and hope Hunt Showdown is finally back on track and Crytek might finally treat their game like the true gem that it really is! <3

Game is moving the wrong direction with crossovers, constant events, gameplay and guns moving away from the slow and methodical to cringe like the explosive saw-blade launcher, and increasing semi-autos and everything custom ammo.

This game USED to be the go to for a good time but with the mass amount of changes and a dev team that soley listens to the bell curve (4 stars) it's now a rat tilted mess with servers that can barely handle 12 players and more work time goes towards churning out half baked skins and now weapon INSPECT animations. This has been a fall from grace and the only thing keeping the game alive is the event cycle that preys on FOMO. A bullet drop mechanic added after almost 6 years that doesn't even function correctly mixed with the already wonky hit reg due to the penny saving servers is a joke, slapping 1896 on the name doesn't make it a new game it's just a shadow of it's former self. RIP to one of the most unique games to hit the market and a round of applause to Crytek for fumbling yet another title good job boys :D

Genuinely sad about the state of the game.

I have played the game off and on since 2020 always had a great time playing the game and the devs were spot on with updates. The new bosses fit right into the games theme, new guns were effective alternatives but not meta changing, and new maps were interesting with unique terrains and compounds. But I feel the game has strayed from what made it fun for me.

Beetles are basically a UAVs or scouting drones, increased burn damaged on downed teammates paired with necro being a single use perk means you have to rush the rest of the encounter or just abandon your teammate.

I loved that it was the opposite of a run-and-gun game. My go to gun for the longest time was the sparks which can only fire one shot every 5 seconds. It made picking fights important. Today I got ran down by a team with rapid fire saw blade launchers that ricochet off surfaces, can hone, and also has explosive rounds... The closest thing to it before was the avtomat which was prohibitively expensive, recoiled your camera to the sky, and made your hunter basically unable to hear. The saw blade has none of that.

The UI update is an eyesore to me but I can look past it once I got all my favorites set up and load outs ready because I can avoid interacting with most of it. Servers just aren't reliable and bugs are plentiful, I can't tell you the last time I had an evening of play where no one D/C'd or a match didn't load. Even had a bug where my whole team was suddenly unable to turn their character with their mouse. All things that weren't issues earlier on.

I'll give it another try after the event is over but I'm drifting farther away after each update.

This game has serious technical issues. Frame drops, disconnects, the infamous cursor glitch. The game does well with new things to keep the game fresh, but it fails in making even the base game functioning normally. If they fixed the tech stuff in this game, it would be amazing. Now it just induces rage.

I loved Hunt and played it on release, then had a break, and was a daily player in 2022 and beyond. I unfortunately cannot recommend this game anymore, not with the direction the design team is going for.

This isn't the game I fell in love with, I hope it comes back, but if not, be prepared for it to fully lose its unique identity.

Only in Hunt: Showdown will you find some of the best audio and visual game design known to man, along with formidable physics for a shooter game, and yet at the same time, the worst UI that I've ever seen in any multiplayer game that has somehow gotten even worse after the recent major update.
The balance changes I disagree with make me want to quit after the match sometimes, yes. But this update makes me wanna leave before I even finish making a hunter loadout.
Such a shame, really.

Woooooooooooow. I thought about making a bad review like a year ago. I have played this game off and on from pre alpha gameplay. The game was fantastic for like maybe two years of play. Since then it has gone downhill faster than an avalanche on cocaine. I do not recommend playing with the direction the devs are going.

Gonna be honest here, Hunt Showdown has been an incredibly enjoyable game for my friend and I over the years. Some of the most fun and memorable gaming I've ever had in a PvP setting have definitely been experienced with this game.

Unfortunately the lack of innovation / the constant same old re-skinned events, the general lack of creativity by the developers and what feels like a team that's lost the direction it once had really leaves me without a reason to continue supporting the game.

To top it all off, in the words of one of the gamers of all time: "cry engine more like trash engine"

This game once had a vision of what it wanted to be and all the events, additions, and media matched that vision.

Nowadays, this game wants to be something that has nothing to do with what it was, and it will never go back to that.

If you are a sheep and think live service isn't a plague, I am genuinely happy that you will never learn.

For everyone else, sorry but this game isn't a good one anymore, I suggest you find something else.

Authentic and unique game completely ruined by the incompetent devs - both from design and technical standpoints.
Design-wise - game transformed into fortnite & apex legends arcade shooter cringe. Every new update adds more and more stupid things like revive bolts for crossbow. Weapon identity and core balancing decisions of the past is completely lost - like adding silencer to krag.
The game did not recover after the major update (1896). UI is awful, lots of bugs (see dcs on using dark vision), bad optimisation.
The cherry on top is the priorities of the devs - they are more interested these days in questionable collaborations and showbiz it seems. Well, good luck to them.

Crytek: "Lets make a crossbow have explosive bolts! That would be so fun for our players! Now add a semi-auto, mag fed, version of this crossbow! Make it super awesome for players who can't aim for shit and love spam weapons! Greatest addition in years!"
These devs are the dumbest POS ive ever seen. So stupid. This update looked cool until i got into games and got killed by losers with a saw blade launcher and auto crossbow. Get rid of the bullshit weapons and make it the cowboy game we used to love.

Hunt: Showdown was an amazing and fun game.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is a joke. A bad one.

This isn't Hunt Showdown anymore. It's Crytek's attempt to make their own version of Fortnite or Warzone using an extraction Shooter they already had dozens of thousands of players playing. The entire game's atmosphere and lore have vanished in the last year while new fanboys are still trying to convince the older players they're just being babies and that the new casual playerbase is worth the loss of the core audience.

-$40 for the game (when I purchased it) and now they expect a $15 battlepass per event
-The events are more active than the fucking base game is
-The events themselves completely spit on the game's established artstyle, atmosphere, and lore.
-The events themselves used to be free and completely doable in 2 weeks through just playing. Now theyre overpriced and take 2 months to finish if you arent a jobless fanboy.

what a fucking embarassment

Things to consider before buying:

- Game is pretty much impossible to play with randoms. Would only recommend purchasing if you have at least one friend who plays the game.

- Performance is currently all over the place. The next-gen update screwed up the game's optimisation and introduced a ton of bugs. The "minimum" requirements really do provide the absolute "minimum" amount of play-ability. More modern GPU's (even lower end ones like the RTX 3050 or the RTX 4050) don't struggle with the game though.

- Hunt is very unforgiving and rewards wasting time. An hour of your effort can be pissed away because some subhuman slug decided to spend an hour sitting in a dark corner with a shotgun. The results of most gunfights are determined by who sits and does nothing while staring down a scope the longest. While combat can definitely be exciting, most of the time it devolves into waiting for someone to peek a corner.

- The developers are currently in the effort of "modernizing" the game. This entails adding Fortnite-esque collaborations with modern, popular properties. This currently includes Ghostface and Post Malone. While the devs do make an effort to make these additions fit the lore, they still stand out like a sore thumb.

Overall, game is currently on a downward spiral. Do not recommend.

I have played this game since beta and it has had it's ups and downs. I have never played a shooter that was that immersive, with that good sound quality and gameplay. But over the years the sound got buggy and less immersive, the gameplay got way more arcady and very fast paced. And then finally the latest big patch, "hunt 1896" basically destroyed any fun - new map is not fun and the just entering the game and navigating the menu takes away any wish to play the actual game.

It is fun game, but it is no longer the Hunt I have played and loved for 2000ish hours.

Hunt: Showdown was my #1 first person shooter for 5 years. It's sad to see that one of my favorite games, with entirely unique art, aesthetics, and gameplay, has given in to today's live-service crossover slop standard.
I was very skeptical when they added Ghostface from Scream as their first crossover (paid DLC )character. Before this all of their characters had been original. While some definitely wore their inspirations on their sleeves, they had unique backstories/lore implications and really made you feel like a legend wading around in this hellish Bayou. They did not rely on brand popularity or iconic imagery. The upcoming event is literally called 'Post Malone's Murder Circus'. You can't make this shit up. Beyond disappointed and cannot see myself reinstalling.

This game at its core is great. But the general state of things in 2024 compared to prior years is just not good. The UI is just so infuriating it puts me in a bad mood before the match even begins. So poor server performance, ever increasing bugs and the awful kill trading window just makes everything worse for my mental. I used to tolerate that stuff honestly but to make the UI awful each new patch is just so weird to me that I have to just stop playing and uninstall it for a while.
Like why introduce bugs in the menu system as well as make such poor design choices there... why piss off players before they get to actually play the game lol.

It's a good game really but the devs consistently release the most dog sh*t patches. Especially in regards to UI its just so bizarre. The UI designer needs to be demoted to janitor, it's actually just so infuriating. The guy in charge of UI must be trying to sabotage this game or he's just a talent-less hack. I've repeated myself many times on the UI I'm sorry but it really is just confusing me on how its just so bad.

It's also really is insulting that Steam has this game in the 'Labor of Love' category for the 2024 awards.
Yes yes, they update the game a lot for events but oh my days why does every patch introduce more bugs than fixes and why does the menu UI get worse every time. How is it a labor of love when they just rush patches out the door with hardly any quality control. This is your only active game Crytek, get your sh't together. Please realise you're making more bugs every patch. Honestly you should just release your damn cosmetics to fund yourselves but actually put effort in your patches, take your time! Labor of love my ass.

Eugh, please Crytek this is one of the most unique PVP games out there and it's probably my favourite but yeah, let me just pick my hunter, equp a loadout, search for a gun that works with levering... ooops just sold my gun ARRRRHHHHGGGGGHHHGFHGHFGH

The game has become less player friendly, chasing monetization and other FPS gimmicks rather than embracing the stuff that made it unique.

Hunt: Showdown was a one of a kind PVP extraction shooter. Hunt: Showdown was a unique gem, it was slow paced, suspenseful, and well made. It made players truly appreciate stealth and guns that fire faster than the other persons guns. Hunt: Showdown was my favorite FPS video game and I would have defended and loved this game with everything I had. But that all changed when the 1896 attached...

The Scorched Earth update ruined the game for me. The new UI was horrendous, un-optimized, confusing, and should have never been added in the first place. Sure, while the old UI did need some work, as it was annoying to navigate for new players, once you got used to it, it was smooth sailing. The new UI is a downright monstrosity. It is supposed to be tailored to console users, but it just ends up being way worse than the old UI, as it makes the starting menu a lot more difficult to navigate for all platforms. Why do I need to open so many sub-menus!? Not only is the new UI frustrating to use, for a significant period after the update, many players (include myself) could not play the game, due to the "graphical improvements". Even after the developers made the game playable, many players continually experiencing major game breaking lag spikes that were not a problem before the update. These lag spikes might still be a problem.

While the Scorched Earth update was filled with bugs, un-optimized menus, and very questionable inclusions, the worst part of this update that completely ruined the game for me was the developers themselves. The developers have continually ignored the community and have done everything in their power to make their game nothing but a digital identity crisis. As demonstrated in the Harvest of Ghosts update, the Scream legendary hunter DLC, the Post Malone Q&A, and the upcoming Post Malone's Murder Circus, Hunt: Showdown 1896 is becoming CoD: 1896. The game is trying to absorb as many pop culture icons as they can, regardless of if it fits the aesthetic or not (no matter how hard you try to explain, in my opinion the plastic mask wearing Scream character does not fit the aesthetic in the slightest) all the while changing to become a fast paced close quarter FPS shooter filled with semiauto or fully automatic guns. The game has been tailored to make Solo game play unfun and nearly impossible while confusingly buffing teams using the same logic the developers used to debuffed Solo game play. Hunt: Showdown 1896 is rapidly sprinting away from its roots, trying desperately to go mainstream by forcibly replacing its aesthetic, game play, and old player base.

It is clear to me that the game I loved, Hunt: Showdown is dead. In its place is a disappointing mockery of what it once was. If you like the new direction Hunt: Showdown 1896 is going, I am happy for you, I am glad that the game is improving for you. But heed my warning, the developers will stop at nothing to cater to the mainstream audience. Everything you enjoy about the game will be destroyed, either by bugs, poor balancing, or both. If you have any technical issues with the game, you WILL be left behind. The developers will not listen.

TL;DR Old Hunt: Showdown dead, its becoming Fortnite or CoD. Angry rant. Buy game at your own caution, do not become attached to game.

A once legendary game. Since the re-release of this game and re-branding of 1896, the DEVS have completely lost the plot. A once functional game has become riddled with bugs. Maps have been taken out of rotation for months. The UI is now harder to navigate and requires twice as much clicking to do anything.

And yet nothing has slowed the ever-grinding gears of skin DLC.

Perversely, they rename the game Hunt: Showdown 1896 and continue to add modern content: GhostFace, from the 1990's horror movie. Post Malone - a modern musician.

The previous governing philosophy of this game has been abandoned. How long until they do a Pirates of the Caribbean crossover? Maybe some Marvel superhero crossover next? What a sad, sad joke this game has become.

I do not recommend this product and I will no longer support it.

My favorite fps of all time until that new engine upgrade... extremely bad new UI. With over 550 hours of playtime and some money spent over 1 year. When i bought the game in december 2023 i would really recommend this to everybody that likes fps games... But i can't because of hunts new updates and ENGINE. That new engine was biggest downgrade of all hunt updates. Before new engine i had about 100 fps With my 3 years old nvidia 1650 super, after update i had like 40 fps.

Engine upgrade - created more bugs and more crashes, much less fps, cursor appears in-game for no reason and you have to shut down game and restart, unable to load into games after crash (sometimes)

UI - Whole ui is lagging (have to click on everything 3 times to open it), you have to go through 5 more pages to access loadout, often gets stuck on a screen summary after game where you can't go to lobby but you have to restart. I can't believe that this UI was made.. it's extremly bad and im still getting lost after 55 hours, the main thing about the ui and whole game, it's really badly optimized.

Battlepas - new events with battlepasses for same price (10euro) but less skins and not even good at all, the battlepass being promoted by crytek on every page you look at, now they're collaborating with movies and celebrities to push skins that don't fit at all in the game atmosphere.

Reviving crossbow - Now let's talk a bit about the new reviving crossbow... It's making the game really unplayable and non realistic because of that fast revive - you have dead teammate on ground like 50 meters away from you and you just take that crossbow in your hand, switch arrows to reviving bolts and shoot him with the bolt and done he is revived... I would rather stay with necromancer than this thing, absolutely ruining the game even more.


Compik

Play since closed Beta, game made fun, devs were engaged.

Game runs like shit now, code is a single collection of bugs . (The game feels much worser than in the closed Beta)
I don't even start with the extraordinarily sh*t changes to the menu.

But hey you can buy like 50+ skins so the bug fixing is not that important!

This game is getting worse with every update, and the devs would rather fill their pockets.

> Dev focus is entirely prioritized on pumping out a custom hunter every month priced at 1/3 of base game, turn to low quality designs like GHOST FACE. FROM SCREAM.
> Bugs are worse than ever, connection issues abound, the game is in a generally poor state due to a lack of maintenance on the issues that matter.
> Genuinely the game straight up refuses to run sometimes, and when it does, it plays utterly terribly. The game's performance is awful, and nothing is being done to fix it.
> In fact updates only make it worse.
> Not to mention the awful UI, which gets worse with every update.

Fellas I can't express this enough, the game engine is in absolute shambles and the devs will do absolutely nothing to fix it, as they'd rather focus on pumping out terrible, overpriced cosmetics as their primary 'content'.

> Fellas Post Malone might've just gotten announced as future content.
> yeah, the fucking rapper.
> This game is doomed.