Available on Steam since August 2019, Crytek latest first-person shooter is finally on our beloved Xbox console. You’ll find elaborate reviews on other sites from the PC version but we’re here to focus on the console version! As a side note, I wish to let Xbox players know to please use your microphone while playing Hunt: Showdown. If you don’t talk to each other in this game, you will never survive or finish a bounty. So you know what to do right? Communicate and enjoy this game (or any others)
What we liked!
- Visuals: What I like is the environment setting, a bit gritty and dark. Really setting a general mood of caution and awe. You have the option to play at night too. The Crytek engine is really doing excellent work and sets itself apart. When it’s dark, it is DARK! So be sure to carry some flares with you! It helps to survive but also to enjoy the fantastic lighting engine.
- Gameplay: It is a bit of a slow-paced game, but that is ok. Not every game needs to have quick gameplay that requires rushing, not playing smart and careful will result in death anyway. You have 1 hour to complete the bounty, in Hunt: Showdown that means being cautious for the different players that are on the map too. I completely forgot about the other players when I first started playing Hunt, and got my ass beat.
- Sound: Just as in real life, the sound is important, it can literally mean the difference between a win or defeat. Listening to the soothing atmospheric sounds makes it a more realistic experience, for your success noticing barking dogs, moving glass fragments on the floor or the typical zombie noises helps to be aware of surrounding enemy players and use that to your advantage.
Somewhere between
- Controls: A small piece of advice: when you play the game, you need to “up” the sensitivity of the thumbsticks. If not, your character moves a bit clunky and slow. Other then that, there is not much to change. Especially in the menu’s you can see it is a pc port. You need to navigate a lot with the left thumbstick. It functions as a ‘mouse’ but is so slow.
- No auto-reload: You could blame me for being a little unprepared but having no auto-reload function got me killed a couple of times. In the heat of the action and you are stuck with your single barrel shotgun, ready to shoot a zombie or opponent and it is empty…. guess what happens :’)
What we disliked
- Loading times: This is really, really annoying. Just starting the game takes ages and I play on an Xbox One X console. Starting the game takes like 4 minutes and when you are going to play with your friends, just the matchmaking and loading for the map takes another 3 minutes. I kid you not, you have the time to prepare 2 coffees and an entire five-course meal before you enter a game.
Hunt: Showdown is a great and fun game. I have been playing now for a couple of weeks and it’s still great. It doesn’t get boring. It becomes more intense, if you play it with friends and you have a good strategy. It’s all about making it out alive and collect that sweet bounty.