Discovering HUNT at Gamescom

August 19, 2014 14:36 ( Articles ) 0

 

We had the chance to talk to the Crytek devs at Gamescom about HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age and watch a recorded play session (unfortunately we weren't allowed to film it) while they introduced us into the game. The game world is based on the Wild West era of the real world, with some steampunk technology touches here and there, and of course with all the living horrors taken from local stories and known books.

Hunt is a cooperative third person shooter which brings players together to fight off the demons of the night. All the horror stories from your childhood are now real and they’re spreading chaos and death in this cinematic experience that will give you goose bumps. It’s the latest project from Crytek, on which they’re putting most of their resources, the German company (in case you don’t know) is well-known by their top-notch graphics engine CryEngine and their flagship game titles Crysis and Far Cry.

 

   

They were excited to let us know about the weapon upgrades and the technology grade that exists in the game. Players can get new weapons and upgrade them to increase their firepower, reaching a technology beyond that associated time frame in the real world, but still with an old-fashioned look.

When we asked them about balance and the weight of the firepower compared to skill, they quickly let us know that the main focus is put on skill since the ammunition is limited and players will find themselves using melee weapons most of the times. The AI is very clever and reflects human behavior such as running away in fear, group of NPCs chasing lonely players and bosses with unique mechanics.

Being such a cooperative game where teamplay is the key to success, we had to ask about the LFG capabilities for those who have no friends to play with; looks like as of now the Looking For Group feature is still under development, to allow playersto join forces with random strangers around similar progression or strength. There also exists a respawn mechanic so when a player die they will spawn somewhere on the map, their team mates can go there and free them up, if they get there alive of course.

 

   

We were a bit worried about the game having specific maps to play in, as we know that in similar titles people get to know the good spots and what to do in each one of them, but that train of thought crashed when they told us about the randomly generated levels. The game will feature endless hours of joy, combining premade content with randomly generated maps. Players select an area, such as Louisiana swamp, and every time they get into a map the game will create a unique version of it by putting together all the assets relevant to that area in a way that makes sense.

To have a sense of progression and a cinematic feeling as in players were told stories, the team pointed out that there is a progression system, which allows players to unlock new areas, weapons, bosses and such as they complete the current ones. Still they will be able to to join an area that is currently locked to them if another player in the party has unlocked it, there are also different difficulty settings so experienced players can get to experience hellish conditions and test their skills.

Soon enough we'll be publishing a detailed profile of HUNT, so stay tuned.



 

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