You Can't Play Hunt: Showdown
A brief history of a live service game
I’ve spoken positively about Hunt: Showdown, but you can’t play the game I was talking about. Hunt is a live service game, in a constant state of flux. As of June ‘24 we’re on Update 1.16, a number that hides over six years of active development. The biggest recent change is the swap to a new game engine and the rebrand to Hunt: Showdown 1886, with the addition of the first new map since ‘21 and a major update to the game’s user-interface (UI). I can get caught up in the small details of each change too easily, bellyaching over changes that I don’t like (removal of generators – never forget Update 1.15) and forgetting too quickly the ones that I do. With this in mind, I decided to look back over the history of Hunt: Showdown and see how it’s developed since its release.
The technical details of Hunt’s history have been well documented via developer blogs and update release notes. If you want to find out when they added models for female hunters (Update 1.0) [1] or when the Headsman hunter skin started plaguing the bayou (November 26th ‘21) [2] you can, with a little effort. There is also a glut of player reactions to each change to the game in the form of Steam threads, Reddit discussions, YouTube videos, Twitch streams, that can be used to get an insight into the community reaction to changes.
I will be assuming familiarity with the mechanics and gameplay of Hunt throughout. I’ve discussed the game at length previously, but the gist was that I think Hunt is comprised of several systems that work together to give a unique experience. [3] The vital things that make Hunt what it is are the huge maps containing few players, excellent audio, and the interplay between intense PvP and tense PvE during matches. With this in mind, I looked to see when the game first took a recognisable shape.
The pre-history of Hunt is the murky stretch from Early Access release on February 22nd ‘18 to the full Steam release on August 27th ‘19. I wasn’t aware the game existed in this period, knowledge coming to me in fragments washed up from blog posts and patch notes. The eighteen-odd months of Early Access seem to have been formative for creating the recognisable bedrock that Hunt still stands on, many of the core mechanics and design choices being firmed up in this period – and a strong vision for how Hunt should play. From the early access release notes: “Feel the tension of the unknown – you can never be sure how many players are on the map with you or wha [sic] might be lurking around the next corner.”[4] An early blog is devoted to the audio design, stressing “the goal remains to have a living and breathing world you can read by audio” [5] while describing the unique audio tells of different mobs and sound traps like dogs or ravens. A notable example is Dark Sight Boost, the mechanic that gives Bounty carriers the ability to see foes through walls. This was added in Patch 2 in an effort to make the game more fun for players by reducing camping around the boss lair: in the words of Creative Director Magnus Larbrant, “It tends to create more of a “who dares, wins” scenario, which is something we support.” [6] It’s also illustrative to note that Dark Sight Boost wasn’t nailed first time, with tweaking eventually bringing the timer down from 20 seconds to the modern 5 seconds. It’s clear that tweaking and refining elements in response to how players use them was important for developing the game at this early stage. A developer blog from the one year anniversary of Hunt lays out what had been added to the game by that time, including the two release maps and the majority of the mobs. [7]
The Early Access era was closed out by a server wipe one week before Hunt was released to Steam (August 27th ‘19), [8] and at this point the core features of the game seem to have been shockingly similar to the modern iteration. Looking at the notes for Update 1.0, we find much of the gameplay we’d expect to see in Hunt: teams of three, 12 players per match, being unable to loot burned hunters, the ping system... [1] It seems that the two launch maps were essentially codified, barring balance changes down the line like the removal of some bushes between Port Reeker and Darrow Livestock in Update 1.12. [9] Judging by the available information, Hunt had all of the elements I’d consider definitional – a strong emphasis on soundscape, PvE acting as a buffer between PvP, and the large maps/few players dictating a slower pace.
From this gameplay core, Hunt has developed at a steady pace through the addition of new content. As my own time playing Hunt did not start until April ‘22, I’ve never known the game without some of these features. Big additions like the third map, DeSalle, and the fourth boss, Scrapbeak, were added in ‘21. [10, 11] They’ve now been part of the game for most of its lifetime, essentially making them a core feature despite not being present at launch. The slow accumulation of changes is present in smaller additions – I’ve never known the game without Choke Bombs or Custom Ammo, added in Update 1.1 and Update 1.5. [12, 13] These two additions likely fundamentally changed how the game was played at the time, and are a huge part of the current landscape, with tweaks to their stats over the years in an attempt to maintain balance.
The deeper truth is that each update to Hunt has affected the balance of the game, every change bleeding through to shape the future. My smoking gun is the Necromancer trait. Added in Update 1.4.4 (October ‘20) it allowed hunters to revive downed team mates from a distance. [15] This constituted a major twist on the formula, letting players interact with the revive mechanic in a new way and being present in the game ever since. During the Devil’s Moon event at the tail end of ‘22, a small change was made to Necromancer that allowed a solo player (without team mates) to self-revive at the cost of a health bar. [15] This was later added to the regular game in Update 1.12 (March ‘23), [9] and goes by the moniker Solo Necro. This has been an ongoing source of contention in the Hunt playerbase, and has had a strong effect on the tactics employed by players ever since. An extreme example are the “Rat Strategies” of YouTuber Sayler, where they discovered an advantage in intentionally killing yourself in a boss lair, only to revive yourself and kill a team who think they are safe. [16] While Rat Strat’s are at least partially a joke, in my own experience I’ve seen the threat of Solo Necro cause players to aggressively camp bodies to prevent a player getting back up and devote minutes of game time to ensuring bodies burn out. In response to this the latest update made Necromancer a Burn Trait that is lost on reviving, continuing the attempt to balance the game while keeping the core experience viable. [17] The past of Hunt is shaping its present at every turn.
Which brings me to Hunt Showdown: 1886. [8] The timeline of the setting has advanced by a year, the trouble in the bayou giving way to a new hunting ground in Colorado. I’m broadly positive on the new map Mammon’s Gulch, if only because I love not knowing it like the back of my hand. I can navigate Lawson Delta blindfolded in an Ashbloom, but I can go around a corner of the Gulch and not know what to expect. It reminds me of when I was first playing Hunt, spinning off balance and uncertain if I’d survive the trek to the next compound. I also like the relocation to Colorado, as the mountainous pine woodlands are a breath of fresh air compared to swamplands. I do have a bone to pick with the new UI, as I find it less information-dense and that it requires more button presses to complete actions. I’ll acknowledge the old UI was so venerable it took shape in early access, [19] but I’m still not sure the sweeping changes to it were positive.
So, you can’t play the exact Hunt: Showdown I played because the game is forever changing in response to the players behaviour and the developers plans – each update is a new epoch of the game, and very rarely can we go backwards. The natural state of Hunt has always been one of flux, since it’s very early development. I think this has been broadly positive, adding new ways to interact with the game that keep it interesting to play. That said, I feel strongly that the core of Hunt that makes it special has remained intact throughout the six-year existence of the project. There will never be a single Hunt: Showdown while the game is under active development, but it remains a unique gaming experience I’ve yet to see elsewhere.
Sources
All sources accessed August 2024:
[1] Update 1.0, Hunt: Showdown Wiki, 2024. URL: https://huntshowdown.fandom.com/wiki/Update_1.0
[2] The Harvest, Hunt: Showdown Wiki. URL: https://huntshowdown.fandom.com/wiki/The_Harvest#The_Headsman
[3] Rising Tension in Hunt: Showdown, Benjamin Weare, Signal Decay, 2024.
[4] Hunt: Showdown Early Access Release Notes, Hunt: Showdown, 2018. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/hunt-showdown-early-access-release-notes
[5] Hunt Audio: Readability, Realism, and Consistency, Hunt: Showdown, 2018. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/hunt-audio-readability-realism-and-consistency
[6] Point Blank: A look at the Dark Sight Boost mechanic from Patch 2, Hunt: Showdown, 2018. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/point-blank-a-look-at-the-dark-sight-boost-mechanic-from-patch-2
[7] Hunt’s One Year Anniversary is Today!, Hunt: Showdown, 2019. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/hunt-s-one-year-anniversary-is-today
[8] How to Earn Rewards Before the Server Wipe on August 19th, Hunt: Showdown, 2019. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/how-to-earn-rewards-before-the-server-wipe-on-august-19th
[9] Update 1.12 Live Now!, Steam Community, 2023. URL: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/594650/view/3694679839304793167
[10] Update 1.6, Hunt: Showdown Wiki, 2024. URL: https://huntshowdown.fandom.com/wiki/Update_1.6
[11] As the Crow Flies: The Hunt Anniversary Event is ON, Hunt: Showdown, 2021. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/as-the-crow-flies-the-hunt-anniversary-event-is-on
[12] Update 1.1, Steam Community, 2019. URL: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/594650/view/1580126850048047882
[13] Update 1.5, Steam Community, 2021. URL: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/594650/view/3014568991996526402
[14] Update 1.4.4, Steam Community, 2020. URL: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/594650/view/2922233151850931967
[15] Devil’s Moon is Live, Steam Community, 2022. URL: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/594650/view/3653012651444144266
[16] Maximum Rat Strategy (Hunt: Showdown), Sayler, Youtube, 2023.
[17] Hunt: Showdown 1896 Begins Now - Part 2, Steam Community, 2024. URL: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/594650?emclan=103582791460418881&emgid=4326355263805137162
[18] Introducing Hunt: Showdown 1896 - Out Now on PC, PS5, & Xbox Series X|S, Hunt: Showdown, 2024. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/introducing-hunt-showdown-1896-out-now-on-pc-ps5-xbox-series-x-s
[19] Hunt’s UI reborn, Hunt: Showdown, 2019. URL: https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/hunt-s-ui-reborn
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