Hunt: Showdown 1896

It's a love/hate relationship for me. The gunplay in this game is superior to anything else I've played before. Game itself looks amazing and is oozing with a grim and corrupted, wild west atmosphere. It can feel punishing when you loose your character when you die, but man, it feels GOOD, when you win. But here comes the hate part, which is like 99% focused on the actions of the Devs. For example the big old (new), unfamous UI redesign, which was a MASSIVE failure, that they refused to acknowledge at first, boasting how great it was... It felt like no one, literally no one, tested the changes for the PC version before the launch. They remade it for consoles and literally showed the middle finger towards the PC players with a smile on their face. Or the fact that you can not see the whole lobby after the game, except for the players that you killed / killed you. Their explanation? "Privacy issues"... like what? The only reason they do this, is so you can't report ppl that play with cheaters or die on purpose so they can derank and play with low MMR players. It just makes it harder to report people, protecting the cheaters is never a good look. Not showing the lobby makes sense immersion wise during the game, but after it's done? Give me a break, we should be able to see everybodys stats. Next are in game and premium currency changes, you get less of both. It's not a big deal with ingame currenccy, as it makes sense that sometimes your loadout won't be the greatest, but they made changes, so that you can earn less of the premium one, compared to the past (it's a B2P mind you). It was a sucky play on their end, hidden behind "systems overhaul". And last but not least, the battlepass and events. With each event, there's a battlepass, makes sense. Too bad you won't be able to finish it, even if you complete all the missions, you have to play more to unlock it all! (not counting the extra levels for a charm) I'm growing tired of those, The least you can do, is let us get everything, if we complete everything, not to mention that Passes got smaller. Less value for the same price. When it comes to events, at first it was great, made my group play the game religiously. But after a couple of them, they all started to feel the same. Same shit, different wrapper. The Post Malone circus was the only good thing in the last 2 years (I am a little dramatic here), perks from previous events appear WAY TOO OFTEN, think of something new please, no one really cares about engine upgrade anymore. It wasn't as hype as you promised, it literally just took away few maps for a quite long time, just so we can jerk off to the new fire animations (not to mention performance drop). Having said all that, I still think the game is still quite good, and not every change the devs make is terrible. There are a lot of quality of life changes that are great (though a lot of them were forced by the terrible UI "upgrade"...), which shows that they are indeed doing something, but is it the right direction? Kinda, but not really. You can't fix a connon ball sized hole with a bandaid.

I would have loved to recommend this game before the launch of 1896, it really was a great game with amazing audio design, lore, atmosphere and art style, gunplay, and unique weapons. Sadly ever since the 1896 update last august the game has went completely downhill for me and others. While some of the praises I mentioned still exist the others that don't and the new problems have held this game back enough for me to not recommend it. Starting off with how the gunplay has been downgraded in order to be closer to new modern shooters which hurts the authentic feel of the game. The prestige system still being awful and removal of the lore really shows the communication with Crytek has never been worse. More issues are the growing toxic community, the confusing ui, taking out 3 maps and taking 10 months to add them all back, worse weapon balance and the instaburing meta, new events being the boring same, and increase of exploiters and bugs. The developers for 10 months now have been trying to turn hunt into a more general shooter which has led to gutting very important and key aspects of the heart of this game. The most obvious example of the downgrade of hunt showdown is the current event as I'm writing this being completely taken out due to it breaking the game. I used to love this game but its fallen off from it's glory days and now the company behind the game is struggling just making the future look more bleak.

This game will not let you go! Now with "Judgement of the Fool" probably in the best state ever! Hunt is intense and extremely rewarding. YOU WILL remember your fights and places long after they have been fought. I have played now more than 2k hours and think a have never spend more time in a game. The core gameplay loop and dynamic world never gets boring. Graphics are nothing but amazing. Weapon design, handling und feedback is unique and rewarding. The only warning: - Watch tutorials on how to play and about the core mechanics. Hunt is not known to take new players by the hand - Get a decent headphone as sound is extremely important - Be ready to spend some time in the beginning, if you only want to play 1h/week then extraction shooters are not for you For everyone else: get the game NOW. The money/time spend and enjoyed is unbeatable. I will never understand people playing >1000hours and giving this game a bad review. Maybe it's this emotional attachment you get, once immersed. There is no other shooter like Hunt!

terrible company they forgot how to make a game but they sure can make more event passes and payed DLC.

First off let me start with a little history and my view of hunt through out my years of playing this game and being a part of it on both PC and PS4 Hunt showdown for me is a game i started around mid 2020 and it very quickly became my favorite game quickly after that, all the late nights played and memories made along the way are to this day close to my heart and i still dream of going back to the days i spent in the bayou hunting monsters and coming out on top of everyone else, taking my rightfully earned bounty back to my family before gearing up and going back to the grind. I've played hunt on and off taking short breaks here and there until around late 2022 / early 2023 when i finally noticed the game changing toward a direction that i and what feels like many others didn't quite like and the devs started to do their own thing without taking the community's feedback into account as much, and at this point it felt like the core identity of what made hunt what it is was starting to fade atleast that was the case for me. Well i still continued to play the game but i was starting to take longer breaks from the game and played less and this continued all the way until the awaited engine update of hunt showdown and soft relaunch in August 2024 where Hunt: Showdown became Hunt: Showdown 1896 and oh boy was this update controversial and for me the beginning of the end. What changed in the new engine update? well first of all a the engine was upgraded from the original Cry engine to Cry engine 5.11, This new engine was supposed to provide better performance for PC which for some it did just that while for some this new engine was unplayable, for me it did slightly improve performance. Next up the new UI and user experience first off let me say that the old UI was definitely not the best there is but comparing the two the new one has some obvious flaws that cannot be denied for example the new UI added so many unnecessary clicks between loading up to a match, setting up your loadout, changing setting and going between menus overall it was like trying to find your way through a labyrinth some of these aspects were adjusted later on thankfully, Then there is still one thing that i can not understand the reasoning for and that is the removal of the lorebooks which were - The Book of Monsters which contained the detailed descriptions, background stories, and tactical advice for dealing with the various creatures inhabiting the world of Hunt Showdown. - The Book of Weapons which contained the historical context, detailed descriptions, and practical advice for each weapon, enhancing your understanding and appreciation of the hunter's arsenal. There were also small little rewards of bloodbonds (paid currency in hunt) associated with these lorebooks that were gained through one time challenges or earned xp with weapons but that was a small part of it. Then there was also an audio system overhaul which improved the sounds to be more realistic, improvements to physics, character interactions, and gameplay elements, nothing great or bad to be said about these changes i feel like they did end up improving the game a little. And last but not least they introduced a new playable map which is great! BUT because of the engine update they made all 3 previous maps unplayable leaving only 1 map while they redo the maps for the new engine the first of the old maps to be released was Stillwater Bayou on September 19th 2024, the second was Lawson Delta on December 13th 2024, and they are finally adding the third and final of the missing maps back on June 18th 2025 and this is a very long time to wait for old maps to come back to rotation which for a lot of the older player base seriously affected the enjoyment of the game. Now for my actual review of the game. The one thing that i've always loved about this game is the gunplay and how the guns feel to handle and i've found no game that makes guns feel as amazing as hunt does this still stand to this day and the core gameplay which of getting into a match, fighting for the bounty with other teams and when you end up coming out on top with the bounty and extracting that feeling is just exhilarating and as they say "hunt giveth and hunt taketh" so there will be good and bad days. Yet still i cannot recommend this game for all that hunt used to be and what it is now i do not think its in a good place overall but this is just my opinion as a older player, do i still think newer players discovering hunt can enjoy this game? yes of course if you're freshly discovering hunt and reading this review and still feel like trying hunt out, go on ahead the Bayou needs fresh hunters to banish monsters and protect the common folk of Louisiana so join the hunters lounge and protect the bayou from the hellspawns that are invading it With this its time for this old hunter to retire from the bayou and let the fresh blood take over, may the bayou watch over you...

After countless hours in this game, I’ve finally decided to write a review. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Hunt: Showdown, especially after returning two months ago following a year-long break. The experience has noticeably worsened. First off, the new front-end UI is atrocious—clearly designed with consoles in mind, and absolutely not user-friendly. Even something as simple as deselecting an item requires you to dig through hidden menus. It’s frustrating and unintuitive. Prestige has been heavily nerfed. In the past, you could retire a hunter at level 25. Now, unless you get lucky and reach level 50, you're forced to spend countless hours grinding just to prestige. It feels more like a chore than a rewarding system. As for the community, matchmaking on European servers is hit or miss. When you're paired with English-speaking players, the experience is generally positive—they seem friendly and communicative. However, I’ve had many negative experiences, particularly with players who speak Russian. Of course, this isn’t to generalize everyone, but it has impacted my enjoyment. And then there's the Cheaters. So no: dont play this game. It's more anger and frustration than joy.

The sad thing is, this game is so well made. The graphics look great. The sounds are incredibly well done. The gameplay is fun. The different enemies in the map are fun and also terrifying. I really thought that I had found my new game to play for while! But after just a few games, even at my incredibly low level, I'd get paired up with people who would have hundreds of hours into the game, and just demolish me every time I'd come into contact with them. It's really discouraging being new at a game, and getting sniped by a 7th prestige guy with a crazy good loadout, when I barely know what's going on. After a few hours, I just gave up. If they can add in some proper matchmaking, I'll probably play it again. But I don't feel like playing a game for 20+ hours while not enjoying it, trying to get good enough to not die immediately when seeing someone. Which is sad, cause it's very fun otherwise.

Guys Chill out! They game is good, they made a mistake and are Working on it. We all like to play it.. if you really don't like the game its fine but stop bombing the Review because there was a fuck up!!!! We are all humans and have had Problems on our Work once! LEt them fix it and all will be good!

I used to love playing this game. The unique sound system and gunfights were very enjoyable. I didn't even mind the introduction of the battle pass. Unfortunately, the constant events every few months made the game feel like a chore. Unnecessary changes to the UI and core game mechanics also soured the game for me. The biggest gripe of all is how much the core gameplay loop has changed. Gone is the thoughtful cowboy shootout and it has been replaced by frantic, crackhead gunfights. It just stopped being fun.

get better servers, get better reviews, it's pretty straightforward. keep making excuses and compromising, get dogshit reviews... like I said, pretty straightforward...

I genuinely love Hunt: Showdown. With over 1,600 hours invested, this game has become more than just a pastime for me. The dense atmosphere, the unique gunplay, the brilliant audio engineering, and the dark, haunting setting are still unmatched in the PvPvE genre. Hunt had the potential to be a true milestone — had being the keyword. But since the relaunch under the new name Hunt: Showdown 1896, things have taken a disappointing — at times even embarrassing — turn. Patch 2.4 (initial release: June 18, 2025) was a new low. Many players (and likely Crytek themselves) won’t forget how poorly it went. And while mistakes happen — developers are only human after all — this wasn’t the first major misstep, and it probably won’t be the last. My Main Issues with the "1896 Relaunch": - Performance & Optimization Yes, I get it — a major engine upgrade comes with higher requirements. But nearly a year later, performance is still in desperate need of optimization. Pre-1896, I was getting close to 200 FPS on high settings. Now, I barely hit 110 FPS — on the lowest settings. That's a massive downgrade, not an upgrade. - "New" Content That’s Just Old Content As a long-time Overwatch player, I’ve had to go through this before: removing content, only to reintroduce it much later and pair it with a big and exciting new event. Recycling old maps or weather effects and calling it a "big event" feels lazy and disingenuous to longterm players. - Lack of Communication Where It Matters Yes, Crytek has started communicating more — but it’s mostly dev diaries that feel irrelevant unless you’ve just started the game. What players really want are clear, honest updates about the state of the game and when we can expect long-needed changes. Crytek hasn’t meaningfully used their own Public Test Server (PTS) in recent updates — a tool that’s been around for years. If they had deployed Patch 2.4 to PTS beforehand, issues like the catastrophic live rollout—where servers crashed and Crytek had to rollback to 2.3 after a full day offline—could have been identified and fixed before hitting live servers. It’s baffling that such a safety net exists and yet isn’t properly utilized. - Server Stability Server problems have existed since I first started playing Hunt over two years ago — and while they’ve become less frequent, they’re still present and disruptive. Especially on patch days, the servers are simply unreliable. - Cheaters and Ping Abusers Cheaters are becoming more blatant — some don’t even try to hide it anymore, likely because Crytek does not seem to care. EU servers are increasingly flooded with players from regions far outside their scope, with no effective region lock in place. It’s rare to enter a lobby that isn’t at least half made up of players who clearly aren’t from the selected server region. - The Bounty Has Lost Its Value The game’s core objective — securing the bounty — has become meaningless in many higher-level lobbies. Especially in 6-star matches, most players are too afraid to make the first move, leading to drawn-out, passive standoffs where no one wants to risk anything. The thrill of the hunt is gone if no one’s really hunting. - Unreliable Matchmaking The matchmaking system, once relatively solid, has become increasingly inconsistent since the last MMR update. I personally got boosted from 4–5 stars up to 6 stars — a rank that used to be reserved for the sweatiest players or those without a job. Now, it feels like everyone is up here, including myself. The problem is, there's no real way to drop back down to your previous MMR, because the system pulls you right back up almost instantly I’m not writing this out of rage, but out of genuine disappointment and concern. Hunt used to be one of the most immersive, unique experiences on the market. Watching it lose its identity to bad decisions, lazy recycling, and technical instability is heartbreaking. I want to recommend this game. I want to see it thrive. But right now, I can’t do that in good conscience. Hopefully, someday soon, I’ll be able to change this review back to a positive one. Do I still plan on playing Hunt despite all of this? Hell yeah. I love this game way too much to quit. As frustrating as it can be, there's still nothing out there quite like it. That’s exactly why I care so much, because Hunt: Showdown is special. I just hope Crytek realizes that before it’s too late. Crytek please wake up!

The game is alright so far, but my god this is absolute worst UI I've ever seen in a game like this. Unequipped a weapon? Good luck finding it. In fact, good luck finding anything. I don't know how this design got past basic QA; it's abysmal. I'm tempted to stop playing for the UI alone. Over 2 hours playing with it and I'm still confused. As a UI/UX designer by trade, I'm simply baffled that this is what they went with.

Use to be a great game. In an attempt to fix the UI, which did need some work, the devs managed to make most aspects of the game worse. Who doesn't love having the game you paid for taken from you and replaced with something worse. I feel like I deserve my money back. This is not the game I purchased

This was at one point, the highest quality PVP experience I had ever had. The overhaul update of 2024 absolutely tanked the player experience irreparably, and subsequent updates have continued down an ever worsening path. It has become buggier than ever, and the servers seem to be much less stable for reasons I can't explain, but worst of all the gameplay no longer feels special. Gone is the slow, weighty, methodical pace to my movements, you now move around with the floaty speed of a geriatric apex legends character reminiscing and hallucinating their glory days, and the most magical, heartpumping fire fights this game used to offer just no longer hit quite right. Don't get me wrong, there's still a really unique experience to be had in here, but its pretty much lost its edge by trying to fall in line with other games of its ilk, only to trade in what only IT can do so very exceptionally, to do what other games do quite poorly. RIP Hunt, genuinely a tragic loss for the scene

I actually love this game, but this new UI of the menu just pisses me off. Whoever designed this abomination should be ashamed. Tiles omg, so many tiles everywhere and they are so big that you have to scroll horizontally to see them all. Only 3.5 tiles fit on the screen. It's extremely confusing. What happened to the good old list? You could put all the information on one screen without scrolling. It's not a mobile game, why tiles??? Then why do I have to double-click everywhere to confirm? Five thousand buttons are displayed at the bottom to execute different commands. There are far too many sub- and sidemenus that open when you just want to change the search filter, for example. Presumably all these options no longer fit on the screen because the TILES take up all the space. Why can I no longer compare weapons when I select one and then hover over another? Why do I have to open an extra tab to select my hunter? Why do the tabs at the top disappear when selecting and why do I have to confirm the selection with CTRL to get back to the lobby? When recruiting, it is not clear which TILE is for the free ones and which is for the normal ones, unless you click on it once or just know it (and again, of course, a double click to confirm, I love it). Why do I first have to select a category in the home tab and then the respective game mode, why can't I do all this in the Play tab? Oh, and did I mention TILES? If you want to buy a weapon it is of course... a double click. But if you have previously pressed X to look at the stats of the weapon, double click opens the detail menu???? Why is it so hidden? Why do you need so many clicks and keys to do the simplest things? This is just bad UI design. After a game I'm tired of having to dig through this menu until I can play the next round. I've stopped playing many times just because of that.

+ great game with intense tactical fights (every fight is unique), huge loadout possibilities/playstyle variety, awesome (maybe the best) audio design, works great with 2080super - somehow toxic community (but you can mute them), updates are sometimes buggy (but get fixed), hard to learn (understood the basics after something like 100 hours)

This game is a detriment to my mental health, its terrible and borderline painful. 10/10 recommend it

Servers go offline for 10+ hours on huge update + new event day, people buying ingame premium currency and not getting anything but losing their money, complete sh*tshow of an event launch. In the end everything gets reverted. For compensation 10K HUNT DOLLARS are handed out... insanely pathetic, many people have wasted their whole day for this, took PTO even, and this is how much the players are worth in the eyes of Crytek, 10k ingame currency, which is nothing, a worthless amount. Every battlepass costs money, every dlc costs money, and the base game also costs money, yet this is how the players are treated. P2P game with sub F2P customer experience. And this is really just a small issue compared to constant ping abuser chinese players or the virtually nonexistent anti-cheat, perhaps lets also mention the completely cluttered, new and updated visuals and the completely eye f'ing lighting in the game.

I like hunt and have been playing for years but its going down hill fast. Devs have lost sight and are out of touch with community. it's all about skins and payed cosmetics and squeezing what they can before letting it die.

The game is good, it earned its mixed review from the 2.0 update release which had a lot of tech issues. It happened again with the "judgement of the fool" update recently. Besides that, it's a great game all around with good PVP and PVE. It doesn't deserve that mixed review if you ask me. Everyone makes mistakes and at least it wasn't a monetization issue which nowadays goes a long way for live services games.

Still can't understand why they broke a beautiful game, and put a huge amount of work (apparently) into enshittifying the product. Thanks!

First of all this is a long time coming this review. Secondly this has nothing to do with the latest shit show that was the failed update/delay in the event, honestly it didn't really affect me and for someone who doesn't like the events, I don't really have an opinion. Meh. My biggest gripe with the game currently, is the match making, 95% of my lobbies are plagued by either new 3 star smurf accounts or ones that dropped their MMR intentionally playing with their 6 star friend who wants to boost his KDA. There really is a simple fix to this, make it so the MMR of team is based on the highest rated player. Lets talk about false promises. 2D replay was mentioned in the first year of the games actual release, we've heard nothing since, something so basic, that would be good and would help reduce frustrations of other players understanding how they may have died etc. Ping restrictions, this has been an on-going topic for years, and to add salt to the wound, they've mentioned they will be bringing in restrictions MULTIPLE times, as recent as last year. Nothing is yet to change. Events are basically every 6-8 weeks and last about that time, that's not an event, thats just a feature when it lasts 2 months. That means around 50% of the time isn't just the normal game, and the only conclusion I can draw is they literally have no idea where to take the game. For some reason I believe this instils FOMO and brings back some players who for some reason then buy blood bonds for a pass just to get a skin they won't ever play with. Predatory as fuck. A year to return DeSalle to the game with some mostly minor changes? Absolute joke. Server performance has been an issue forever and its clear they're not willing to front the money to better the problem. This is more of a personal gripe and I appreciate many people won't agree with me here, Hunt "SpamDown" now has far too many fast firing guns, honestly may as well play COD at this point. Not every gun needs to have the same variants, the fact that Crown Shorty exists is god damn mind boggling (this is just the latest example).

Playtime: 1200 hours TL;DR: Sadly, I can’t recommend this game to anyone right now. Pros • Atmospheric • Crisp sound design • Beautiful graphics • Unique, niche experience Cons 1. Terrible UI • Since the engine upgrade, the UI has taken a massive hit. It's clunky, unintuitive, and nowhere near what could be considered even "decent." • While it's slowly improving with each update, it's still far from acceptable. 2. Questionable balancing decisions • The game heavily rewards passive or “rat” gameplay, actively discouraging aggression. o Example: Nerfing wall penetration makes it easier for players to camp inside buildings. o Releasing and buffing silenced weapons. o Repeated buffs to traps. o Nerfs to stamina, poison resistance, and regeneration shots. 3. Performance issues • The beautiful graphics come at a cost: noticeable micro-stutters even on high-end systems. • A known issue causes VRAM not to unload properly, leading to decreasing FPS the longer you're in a session. The only fix is restarting the game. 4. Broken matchmaking • The matchmaking system is completely unbalanced. The 6-star MMR bracket is so wide that I often get matched against players with double or even triple my playtime—especially frustrating as a solo player. • No ping limit: Many 6-star lobbies are filled with Chinese and Russian players abusing high ping on EU servers. I genuinely want to recommend this game, but in its current state—I just can’t.

Every time they update they make it easier for the console players and harder for pc

I really love this game. Since the 2.4 update I have had more crashes since I bought it, lost more and more hunters because of it. Crytek please fix this so I can go back to enjoying your game.

I have sunk a lot of hours into this game, but I am done. This game is dying or already dead. Before the switch over to being "Hunt: Showdown 1896" (around August 15th) the game ran pretty well, damage was consistent, the textures didn't bug out, it felt like the Devs listened to the players, bugs might have been fixed, so on and so forth. Ever since that update a steep decline in quality has been apparent. Right now the game's average players has drastically declined in less than a year. At its peak Hunt was averaging around 19 THOUSAND PLAYERS, and even had 23k average players in July 2023. Since that update in August 15, 2024 it has steadily declined to 15k, 12k, and at the time of writing this review it is an almost pitiful 9.5k average of players. 1. Cheaters are blatant in this game, no matter how many you report the amount stays the same. I would even argue there is a cheater once every four matches. 1/4 MATCHES. Whether it is players instantly reviving over and over -when Necromancer can only be used once and there are no more revive bolts- even when a team is completely wiped out, to bullets penetrating that can't, to bullets shot aim seeking the nearest target (as in they could be looking far to the left and still headshot a player). I do not even know if the Devs are updating their security. 2. Another huge thing is the Devs are actively ignoring their community. I would not be surprised if they delete this review and other reviews for being negative, which would be proving my point. I have not been playing long enough to know if they ignored their players before the 1896 update, but since that update I have seen their communities reporting bugs, offering suggestions for new content, sharing criticism, or generally just complaining. The Devs seem to not see the bug reports, the cheaters, and anything positive for their content, but erase negative criticism and complaints (actively banning people from their Discord server for this specifically). 2.1 This is a personal worry, but do the Devs update their security? Are they even trying to keep their players safe and engaged? 3. Damage is no longer consistent. Shotguns within a 5 feet range while hitting the chest of a player can range from their maximum damage, to a bloody 24. Some higher caliber weapons, such as the Sparks (being the 2nd highest damaging rifle in the game) can do 13 damage in about 3-10 feet range if it hits a person's arm or leg. The Sparks does 149 damage, which one shots someone missing any amount of HP (max health is 150). No matter what weapon you are using, your damage is no longer consistent. 3.1 One of the bigger changes as well was the changing for the amount of registered ticks for projectile flight speed for when a player dies. I might not have explained that correctly, however, I can say that this change has nearly completely changed how trading works in a negative way. You could have shot your bullet, but because it does not travel fast enough it does not even reach the intended target, meaning what could have been a valuable trade has now cost your team their life when they possibly get bodied by the somehow surviving player. 4. The GPU usage is insane. Hunt used to not be an issue for my PC to run, the fans would not even kick up, but now it does. My GPU is nearly screaming for help while my textures flip from low poly to high poly textures like thumbing through a book, to the fog in daytime to being so blinding that it is nearly impossible to play with. The intensity on the GPU knocked out a huge amount of the player base, most of whom can't reach past 30fps, have technical issues, or straight up crashing attempting to casually play. 4.1 While playing the game, you can get randomly tabbed out even when you are fully locked in with no borderless. I haven't tried this with a singular monitor, but it is a big issue that completely changes the way a fight goes, whether that is with another player or basic mobs. My friends and I have more than five times been tabbed out of the game during player fights alone, just as an example. 5. I would say about 20% of the Devs efforts goes to game support (like fixing bugs, updating security, adding lore and fun mechanics), while the rest of these efforts go into 40% DLC Cosmetics and 40% events that no longer bring anything new to the table aside from a temporary boss and perks, possibly a new permanent skin locked behind money. 5.1 After having already bought a full price game, of 29.99 USD, you are then constantly bombarded by special currency and skins that are locked behind paywalls. In conclusion, it is my personal belief that this game is dead. If there is somehow a magical, non-greedy revival there might be a chance for it. But I am done being bullied by the games inconsistency and bugs. I may not be very good at the game, but Hunt itself working against the player does not grant me the courage or inspiration to continue. Farewell to a game I once enjoyed.

Don't mind the bad review bombers with +2k hours (and still racking up lol). Game is amazing. Nothing like it out there.

80% of my time with this game was in it's early access/first iterations. I know more people are pissed about recent changes, but i havn't even played the newest version of the game since they lost me awhile ago. This is was the last battle royale I bothered trying before really understanding they weren't for me. The reason being is that this game does a lot of things really well, atmosphere and basic pve mechanics, the sound and hide and seek mechanics are a nice strategical layer to things, the gunplay is absolutely top notch. PVP (when I played at the time) was fair and solid, and not and overwhelming mess of needing meta knowledge of ammo types and builds. Over time the game got needlessly complex. The UI wasn't updated when they started adding new currencies and tabs making it a cluttered mess to look at, much less navigate. Questionable design changes to systems that were solidly tested and enjoyed as far back as early access.. the devs just seem to have lost touch to me, and that was before this recent 1896 update. I think this game sells itself on the idea very well.. and it's a great idea, implementing the hide and seek mechanics with the gunplay in this era. The moment to moment gameplay CAN be interesting when things unfold or do come together in those rare occasions where you've tracked that team and they ran into another team and you can set up a flank and get them both with yours.... but the reality is you will usually be creeping very slowly through maps to avoid sound traps or being seen. Lots of hiding, waiting, and educated guessing. You can play faster and more carelessly but even with a lot of knowledge it can work against you. Strategies are often based on movement, usually large flanks to force a mini encirclement, or to reposition outside the enemies incoming flank, and spawn points will usually dictate the pace of your game. Spawning near another player spawn or early obj may totally change your approach to that game and put you more on "defense" than "offense" depending on how you choose to engage. Simply put, I'm fine with the difficulty and learning curve in this game but I don't like how patience in this game doesn't always pay off,(even in a way where you learn something) the matches can be long, the updates can be rocky/questionable, and there's a lot of nothing going on a majority of your play time. The game doesn't respect my time enough for me to bother with it anymore, and I havn't even touched the game in years. Add to that the harshness of the character loss system, which, if I was learning a bit more of the why's and hows (like implementing an actual kill cam which the devs say they cannot do) i'd be more okay with, but after putting so much time into a character only to have no idea where I went wrong - what sight line was I accidentally in, what was the sound I made that pulled their attention - did they just stumble into me? Things like this are never really answered so i just have to guess how to change my gameplan on the next go round with a crappier character. A game on Hunt Runs for 45 minutes, you can extract early, but an early game is still about 15-20min. 80%-90% of that time will be waiting or looking to take a shot. This "lots of nothing for a minute of something" seems to be a Royale problem inherently, which is what I meant earlier, the game does what it does very well, It's just catering more to that hardcore punishing type of royale MP gamer more over time and that's just not my speed. Something like this on a smaller map, maybe round based with lives is more my thing. Great start to the idea though.

I can't recommend the game. It's gradually becoming like Call of Duty due to the game director David Fifield whose worked on those titles before coming to this game. The games effectively become just as fast paced as it due to how easy it is to be instantly killed from full health, it's essentially a result of the game being Sniper Rifles(not literally) vs Shotguns and taking a fast fire rate weapon to supplement these. Crytek also does events constantly to the point that burnout sets in and no one really wants to play the vanilla game, while the events are also doing FOMO tactics with battlepasses where the cosmetics in them never returned.

super buggy and the developers have no clue what theyre even doing but very fun niche gothic cowboy extraction game. bounty clash go hard

Great update. Please keep taking the game in this direction, focusing on QOL and ironing the rough edges instead of big shiny new content, it's EXACTLY what fans want!!

Game is good, not perfect, but pretty good. There are no games like Hunt: Showdown. It's easily my favorite FPS when it comes to PVP — the gunplay, the feeling when you're the one being hunted because you're the bounty holder. The sound design... The basics of the game are easy to understand, but mastering them will take its time. Even with almost 300 hours, I still have a lot of room to improve at the game! A lot of the gripes I had, which came with the 2.0 update, are fixed, while some of them remain : like the UI, which still needs more changes, and the optimization of the title. I genuinely think that the game no longer deserves to have "Mixed" and "Mostly Positive" scores on Steam... But do not get me wrong. As I said, the game still has some flaws: the UI, the optimization, updates being a bit too slow for my taste, the monetization of the game, and my biggest gripe: the lack of new content. Man, how much I need a new boss. Hopefully, after this year (2025 was focused on fixing the game rather than adding new content), we can hope for new (good ?) stuff ! And for God’s sake, not the same event system over and over again...

This game is a little gem. I can't play any other shooter except Hunt now, everything else feels tasteless after playing Hunt.

I cant stop playing this game. No matter what they do to ruin it, I keep playing it. I love being a cowboy but I hope they dont keep picking gun play speed. I miss the old days of game fights being 75% skill and 25% luck. Now I just feel some guns are just too strong. But the core basic of hunt, I believe is still there at least in my three star lobbies. Chaos and bad players (myself included)

Fantastic slow paced tactical extraction shooter. Audio and positioning is important, shots count. No crafting or anything else besides the great core gameplay loop. Game gets improved over time and despite some issues like bugs, very few balancing patches during events and still missing content from pre 2.0, it is in my opinion the best shooter out there currently and will hopefully only get better over time.

The many awful design choices of this game are arguable. The fact that I can queue randomly for a gamemode that ONLY allows three player mode on my own, and get two teamates, but if I queue up with a friend, im physically blocked from queuing with a third, forcing me to be at a disadvantage for NO reason. That's arguable. But the fact that my game has now crashed twice RIGHT before I was about to win a game, making me lose both my victory, and the character I came in with which costs in game money and time to maintain and level up, then FORCIBLY VERIFIED MY FILES, and REFUSES to launch until the multiple minute process is over, despite the fact that my files are perfectly fine, and this buggy ass game wont stop crashing for no reason, because its PLAGUED with technical issues. It took them way too long to release a UI update and while it is an improvement I'd say over all they didnt fix HALF THE UI ISSUES IN THE FIRST PLACE THAT WOULD REQUIRE A UI UPDATE. This game is riddled with poor design choices, and riddled with bugs that are almost never being fixed. Until it does, my review will remain negative despite how much I play, because I don't think it's worth the price I bought it at for such a subpar experience of what could otherwise be an incredible game.

For me currently the best extraction-shooter experience. Brought me back into multiplayer shooter and makes me want to master every aspect of it, even though it has a steep learning curve. The wild-west-horror setting with single loaded, bolt and lever action guns and throwables make the showdowns very exciting. Every kill, every success feels very rewarding. Most of the time even loosing does not feel that bad, as you still might have had an awesome round or maybe you learned something new. Every round is different, unique and rememberable. There are currently 4 beautifully handcrafted maps your can sink thousands of hours into it without getting bored. The focus on audio clues and the general audio design is phenomenal. Hearing is more important than seeing. This also benefits the tense atmosphere and the overall astethics of the game. The Graphics are on a very high detailed level if you bring a mid- to high-end gaming setup. (Bring more than 8GB of VRAM and lots of L3 Cache) The game had some issues with updates which made some fans a little bit salty, but those were minor things and got sorted out after some time. I wish all the best for this game's future, full servers and long lasting support as there is nothing compareable out there.

I got the game because the guns looked interesting and fun to use, but the entire skill ceiling of the game is just knowing where the other player is and hiding. If you dont like shooting things, this game is good for you, but if you actually want to be allowed to shoot your gun more than 10 times every round, avoid it.

This game has the best sound in any game I've played. It's very addictive and the devs do their best to listen to the community. They're pretty good on fixing issues relatively fast. I love the game and recommend it to everyone. I have over 6k hours and I'm not even bored.

What can be said about Hunt: Cheatdown 1896. A niche game with great audio and a vast arsenal of weapons, yet plagued with cheaters. Cheaters that Crytek don't ban at all. The only ones who get banned, are those from audio bans in game. Crytek gives false metrics about "bans" and the "work they are doing to combat the cheaters" which is no work at all, so don't be fooled by their lies, or the cheating partners and their simps that are paid to play the game and lie about the current state of cheaters in the game. I mean when the face of their game is a cheater that has a vac ban on counter strike, enough said. There apparently is a fair play task force, which everyone knows is non existent. Crytek continues to fall back on the same bullshit response that "With privacy laws, they cant divulge anything that has been done regarding any issues", which spoiler alert is nothing. If you're even remotely familiar with this game, this is not new information. The ones telling you otherwise are cheaters themselves or other simps. Crytek allows vac ban cheaters to play their game and they cater to all the cheaters on the daily. There are players with 7 million bounty+ (over 7000+ hours) still actively cheating on the daily and Crytek still does nothing about it. These players that have been cheating since the games release and are still actively cheating on the daily and are allowed to play Crytek's disaster of a game, to put that in perspective. Whether it's cheaters from day 1 on Hunt, fresh account cheaters or vac banned accounts from other games, Crytek welcomes you all with open arms. However, instead of rectifying the issue, Crytek is more concerned with shoving new DLC's down your throat every 2 weeks, and expects people to keep supporting and paying them money, while Crytek continues to act oblivious to the state of their game and refuses to do anything about it. The difference between Crytek and other companies, is that other companies actually ban their cheaters, I can assure you that Crytek does not. By the player count alone its safe to say this game will be dead by the end of the year, if you don't already consider this game dead. They will either make the game free to play or implement crossplay with console and pc. A 10k player average is not good, especially when the majority of that player count consists of cheaters. Imagine if Crytek actually cared about retaining the real, legit, normal players, not the fruitcake cheating pretenders who clout chase for their boyfriends. The only thing Crytek cares about is if they get your money, after that you mean nothing to them and they could care less about anything else. This is the same company that acts oblivious to the state of their game and the cheaters destroying it. Weird behavior to say the least, yet Crytek does nothing and caters to to all the cheaters. If you are actually considering purchasing this game, keep in mind that this game is practically unplayable from 3-6 star. if you are looking for a true and fair experience, not riddled by cheating fruitcakes every game (no exaggeration), you may want to look into another game. If this post can save some random potential new players from being tricked into buying this game, great, if not, you were warned. Welcome to Hunt: Cheatdown.

The gameplay loop is fun and engaging, offering an experience that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s enjoyable whether you’re playing solo or teaming up with others. There’s a good variety of playstyles, each supported by a selection of weapons that suit different approaches.

Multiplayer issues. Party with friends is not working.

The company doesn't care or doesn't have the competence to fix/prevent absurd things from happening in a competitive game, examples: - Usability is horrible, it was after 1.5 - Inconsistent damage, especially in sholt bolt, I don't know if they fixed it but it lasted a long time, unacceptable - They keep adding silent weapons to the game, encouraging camping. Not to mention that they prioritize releasing skins instead of fixing critical bugs and always with the promise that they will fix it, but here's a skin while that doesn't happen.

After the engine update, some features are lacking, but devs are improving over time

Ever since the release of 1896, the game has had trouble with performance and other questionable decisions (like the terrible UI). Now, with 2.4 released, Hunt is in a great spot. It's an amazing game, probably the best FPS of the last few years. If you have any interest in good gameplay and even better atmosphere, do yourself a favor and play it.

Fixing fps drops - 👎 Launching new twitch drops - 👍 If you decide to buy this game - make sure your processor supports AVX 2.0. Without it game wont launch

The developers don't care about the performance of the game. Bugs are not fixed for years, with the registration of damage is a complete random. There is almost no fight with cheats. The network code of the game is written by completely incompetent people. Sound in the game broke finally for several years. The only ones who work in the company are designers to them there are no questions, the guys work very cool. In general, the game has turned for several years from a very cool and unique project to a complete dump.

When I log in to play the game it says error. Is my firewall blocking the game it asks? Make sure to check if these ports that are always open are open now! Do some other work? No. I paid you for a game and I am here to play it. Over and over I pay you and you keep breaking it. I resent this error message suggesting that I take any action whatsoever. We know what is happening because this happens frequently. Crytek, you should be embarrassed for breaking your game again and you should be ashamed for suggesting that your players are in any way responsible for it. After you fix it I strongly suggest you do a pass for language in the error messages. You are pissing people off. EDIT : The event is up and running now only a little more than a day late! Turns out it wasn't anything wrong with my router settings.

What a shame. It has been one of my favourite games ever, and I watched it fall apart over the years. The only focus of the studio since at least 3 years has been skins only. The rare changes they make to the game are just making it worst and worst over time. Bugs and balancing are in a shamefull state today, and 2.4 is just another exemple of it... If you don't have it, don't buy it, it's not going to be any better. I waited several years before posting this, hoping for a positive change. It did not happen.

The game is in a broken state, there are new game breaking bugs every update. They can't fix the game, re-releasing old content. and the only new thing they add is skins. They don't care about this game at all.