In Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown, “reckless players are dead players” – well yeah, there’s monsters in that dismal swamp

By Stephany Nunneley

In Hunt: Showdown, “reckless players are dead players,” according to Crytek which makes sense considering you’re trudging through a humid, dank swamp filled with mosquitoes that laugh at your piddly insect repellent.

The first developer diary for Hunt: Showdown has been released by Crytek, and it features various members of the development team discussing the PvPvE monster hunting game.

In it, the viewer will become acquainted with its origins at E3 2014 when it was known as Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age through its re-reveal at E3 2017 and the reiterations in between.

Along with discussing development, the team provides information on strategies which will help “keep a player alive” as they face monsters hiding in the Louisiana swamps. No word on whether Skunk Ape is one of the monsters lurking in the stagnant waters. Or the rougarou, the Cajun variation of the loup-garou, which would be a bit odd considering it’s such a large part of the culture’s folklore. In previous images of the game, we have seen what appear to be zombies, so there may be a fair amount of voodoo involved.

Two of the more formidable monsters have been detailed somewhat on the official website through journal entries: Meathead and The Hive. Three others are shown, and the writing underneath is in some other language. But, if you inspect the image code for each, there’s a little something to be gleaned at least.

Here’s what we gathered on each monster shown on the website:

• The Butcher: “A deformed animal head of some kind. I can see flesh and teeth and a tortured eye.” Mother of mothers. Quell the fire of the butcher’s hook.
• The Spider: “An arachnid form with long, hairy legs. It appears to be tangled in a web. I cannot see in the darkness if it is dead or alive.” Souls are to be to collected. Bodies are to be worn; to be joined.
• Meathead: “He calls them souls farmers, I think. Paxton’s journal has an entry about a thing simply called Meathead. It must be the same creature. Terrifying thing… A headless and massive, almost bloated, humanoid monster with leeches for hair. The stuff of nightmares.”
• The Hive: “A warped photo of this monstrous being. I can see the rough form of a human, but something is bursting from its chest.” Scognomillio thinks it feels like and evolution of a simpler form, in this case a person possessed with some kind of insect spirit. Eventually turning the body into a a hive itself.
• The Infection: “The infection takes hold. It takes a human host and from there the darkness spreads. Here it appears to be the form of a woman, something I can’t see is emerging from the body.” Darkness lusts for the red water in you. Lord of the fireflies it thirsts.

If you head over to the website, there are journal pages on a desk shown on the interactive portion featuring drawings of other monstrosities. So, we expect more will be waiting for players in the dark.

Hunt: Showdown sounds like an interesting game for those who enjoy PvP and are looking for a different take on it. Just be sure to pick a decent co-op partner because the other team as well as the monsters are out for blood.

The game will be released this fall on PC.