‘Hunt: Showdown’ Closed Alpha Preview (PC)
If you are keeping up with PC first person shooter games right now you’ll know that the likes of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite are showing that the battle royal style of battle is popular. There are some new contenders appearing on the horizon though in the shapes of Escape from Tarkov and now Hunt: Showdown…
The idea of Hunt: Showdown is fairly simple, you are part of a secret hunting society who must work either alone or as part of a duo (the preferred choice) to hunt down a monster that is hidden on a map. You have to do battle with other lesser creatures while hunting down clues as to where your bounty is. There can also be five other groups of hunters who are also hunting this creature, and will kill you to claim the bounty.
When starting the game, you are presented with two progression systems, one is the “Bloodline” which is your main experience system. You are also presented with a number of hunters that can be purchased, who will then be used in the actual game. They are expendable, but can be levelled up to toughen them up for the fight.
Once you select the hunter you then go out onto the map and either stealthily find your bounty, or go full force taking out anything that moves. This means especially taking out the other hunters who will most likely take you out on sight too. Even at the early closed alpha stage the game looks beautiful, and very atmospheric. This is especially the case during the night levels. With this level of beauty though there is a cost, and that is in-game performance, which will hopefully be fixed.
The key thing to remember here is that Hunt: Showdown is in the process of being tested, and is a true Alpha version of the game. This isn’t a marketing play that is often used now for early access to the game. Hunt: Showdown needs optimisation, and has many issues such as long waiting times to get into an actual game, the potential for to be kicked out, and of course at times poor performance.
What is important though is to point out that this is not a negative thing, in fact as I write this the servers are down and players are eagerly waiting to get back into the game. While it may be frustrating that the developers may take the game down to fix bugs, it should also be a sign that the developers are doing what is necessary to make the best game they can provide.
It may be my background in software development that helps me to understand the testing process and what an “alpha” version of an application actually is, but it gives me a lot of patience, though I would love to get back into the game. I enjoy the levelling up process that is in place, and I particularly enjoy the game itself (though I would change a few of the control choices that have been made). This is personal preference of course.
Having been lucky enough to get on the Closed Alpha of Hunt: Showdown and taken time to watch some of the streams of Twitch, this is an entertaining game not only to play but also to watch. Not as hardcore as Escape from Tarkov, but not just another Battlegrounds clone, Hunt: Showdown is something that feels refreshing, and I’ll be following the development process of this one to see what new monsters will be introduced, because I know I’ll be hunting them down and claiming my bounty.
Hunt: Showdown is in closed beta at the moment, but will be arriving on Steam Early Access at a later date.
