Official PlayStation Magazine - 04.2020

086

INFO

FORMATPS4

ETAOUTNOW

PUBKOCHMEDIA

DEVCRYTEK

HUNT: SHOWDOWN

Stealth shooting goes multiplayer in atmospheric fashion

T

he voice booms through the floorboards

beneath my feet. “I gotta fix my car.

My car broke down.” It’s an American

accent, but it doesn’t belong to

Louisiana, and certainly not to the 1890s,

where you find yourself in Hunt: Showdown.

That means there are two players, at least, feet

away – and they can hear me just as easily.

The groan of a bracket or creak of a lantern

can mean death in the attic, an end so pathetic

Agatha Christie never bothered to write a novel

on the subject. It’s hard not to think about – I

can still see the body of Barbara Bunzler through

a nearby window, lying prone in the courtyard.

We were colleagues, fellow hunters, and during

our time together she didn’t speak a word to me.

The first sound I heard coming out of her head

was the crack of a bullet from a Winchester rifle.

Eventually, the killers slink off – assuming,

perhaps, that Barbara was operating alone. A few

minutes later I leave the house in the opposite

direction, sticking to the swamps until I spot

the orange glow of a horse-drawn carriage. Other

hunters will take the bounty today, but in Hunt,

survival is its own victory.

DEAD FOREVER

Out in the bayou, permadeath doesn’t just

mean no respawns, it means the loss of the

weapons and traits tied to

your character. It means you

have to start again with a new

recruit in a different hat. So

you either tread softly, taking

opportunities where they

emerge, or storm into the fray

knowing a mistake could cost

you everything.

It’s one of several quirks that

make Hunt a strange relative

of the competitive shooters it

shares a console with. There

are echoes of battle royale, sure,

in the way you narrow down

the field of play – searching

settlements for clues until you

pinpoint the location of a boss

monster, the lair where players

will clash over the spoils. But

spiritually, it’s closer to Modern

Warfare’s Gunfight than Black

Ops4’sBlackout,anintimate

The monsters

aren’t your

real problem –

watch out for

other people.

game of close listening and

intelligence gathering.

There isn’t a huge amount

of intelligent life kicking

about this highly fictionalised,

demon-infested take on the

historical Deep South. Crytek’s

two enormous maps are

populated by former locals –

like the Hive, a rotting woman

whose top half has popped

open like a gone-off packet

of Pringles, spraying bees

everywhere. Or the Meathead,

blind but for the huge slippery

leeches that patrol its vicinity,

screaming for dad once they

sense a player.

RADAR PING

Horrible though these mobs

are (it’s best not to play during

lunch,asa rule)they’reeasily

BAYOU PIGS @jeremy_peel

“HER TOP HALF HAS POPPED

OPEN LIKE A GONE-OFF

PACKET OF PRINGLES.”