Hunt: Showdown 1896 Review (Aurokin)
Truth be told I got my money's worth out of this game. Roughly 1600 Hours and 86 Prestige Levels at time of writing. However I just cannot bring myself to recommend this game to new players. There are a myriad of reasons this game is simply not worth investing time into as a new player, and as a long time existing one, few reasons to play this game when it is not actively running an event.
To start with, this game has cheaters. You will be told by the community at large that people exploiting 3rd party programs are fine and that there are no cheaters. You will be told it is a skill issue when you are walled and then headshot from 100+ meters because someone de-rendered the building you were in with an exploit. This only gets *worse* the more time you invest into the game as players abusing this tend to rise in MMR.
Secondly the players in this game are a mixed bag. I have had tons of fun over VOIP with strangers, sure. I have also had 40 minute stand-offs with a team refusing to peek or fight at all even if it means the match will time out. There are clans of players dedicated to abusing every exploit and 3rd party program, literally. These players will tell you that you suck and should "kill yourself" on the regular and will not be banned no matter how many times you report them after spending afternoon after afternoon with them infesting your lobby. For each good interaction in Hunt: Showdown, there is a good chance you spend 2 or 3 more getting flamed, and then kill-farmed by a 6 star with 3-4 KDA. I have had friends who were 3 star quit the game over this harassment and skill gap that they are forced to endure if they want to play the game as even 3 star lobbies have de-rankers (necro abuse) and solo 6 stars there to farm content.
The bugs and connectivity issues are insane. Each patch has a different variation on a bug that will see you struggling to connect to a game. The current patch will disconnect you before you fully load in, and give you a pop up saying you are banned. You are *not* banned, but can *try* to reconnect. This puts your team behind as it takes time for you to re-connect. Or your team leaves you, and then dies before you can catch up to them. Players from other regions will infest your games to abuse ping limit to give themselves an advantage. You will kill a player and then turn around only to have had that player kill you from the grave. I have personally been killed by a player with a knife from 3 meters away. Thats how bad desync will get. Previous patches have included ghost bullets among other game breaking issues.
The Developers made a change a few patches ago that widened the MMR groupings. This means as a new player- that once your new player protection falls off you will be subjected to sweaty campers and exploit abusers. If you manage to stick with this game through all of the downsides it does have a pretty and detailed 3 maps. It has great music in the loading screen. The lore, art, and trailers are top tier. The Gunplay isn't bad when you're fighting people who belong on your region server. The events for Hunt: Showdown are awfully samey, but the influx of players helps dilute the number of sweaty, swearing, try hards. It is for this reason that I will be retiring from my daily Hunt. I will play this game during the events and in smaller doses.
If you read all of this I appreciate it. It's just like, my opinion man. If you were my friend and you asked me if you should spend money on this game right now in 2023? I'd say save it. There are plenty of other great games out there. Hunt: Showdown is a learning curve cliff for a new player and I just don't ever see that improving.
For those of us already invested in the game? See you in the Bayou next event, cowboys.