For six years now, Hunt: Showdown has been delighting players with intense and action-packed bounty hunting gameplay. Thousands of players have entered Stillwater Bayou and the other locations to hunt down the big bosses and collect that sweet hunter’s fee. Now, Crytek is taking the hunt even further with Hunt: Showdown 1896, which brings a new map, new look, and new features to the game on August 15.
1896 shifts the story forward one year–into, you guessed it, 1896–while also moving the action west, leaving the Louisiana bayou behind for the crisp, clean air of the Rockies in Colorado. The new locale does not mean the feeling of the hunt will change, as 1896 will still provide the “supernatural-meets-dark-realism” aesthetic players have grown to love.
Take 1896’s first map, Mammon’s Gulch, as a prime example. The Gulch adds literal layers of ground to work with during each hunt, as it will take you over the massive mountains of the Rockies, as well as into the depths of the earth in mines dug deep below the mountaintops. Whether you’re deep below the ground or climbing the highest peak, be careful: you never know who, or what, is lurking in the shadows.
Enter the Hellborn, one of 1896’s new major enemies. This fiery creep stalks Mammon’s Gulch silently, though its movements can be heard by listening in Dark Sight–a bounty hunter’s primary mechanic for finding clues. When startled, the Hellborn explodes with molten menace and attacks, and while that’s bad enough, the noise it makes can call enemy hunters to your location to take one less competitor out of the game.
1896 still provides the first-person gunslinging PvPvE gameplay of the original Showdown, but it immerses you in the world of the hunt better than ever. That’s thanks to CryEngine 5.11, which offers heightened visual fidelity and a crisp 60 FPS frame rate on consoles, along with reduced loading times and more responsive input.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 begins with the Scorched Earth event, which runs from August 15 to October 7. Three Pacts will be available to players during this event, and details on each one are below:
- The Wilderness Pact offers Surefoot, which allows you to sprint while using a First Aid Kit or priming a throwable weapon; Beastface, which negates broken branches and animal triggers; and Frontiersman, which offers an extra Pledge Mark for the first 30 Event Points collected in a mission.
- The Lawful Pact unlocks two traits which enhance looting: Peacekeeper restores health after looting a dead hunter, while Packmule finds extra ammo from the looted loser. This Pact also unlocks the Vigilant trait, which doubles Dark Sight’s range.
- The Demented Pact boosts melee damage with the Berserker trait, temporarily increases speed when at critical health with the Adrenaline trait, and restores health with every successful hit on a target with the Ghoul trail.
Despite the name change and new setting, this is still the same Hunt: Showdown experiences players have come to love. Even though there are dangerous monsters running around trying to end your hunt before it even begins, this universe still has roots in realistic human behavior. The choices you make–how to hunt, who to help, and who to betray–all hold weight, and every action will hold dire consequences for you and your team.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is out now for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. If you’re interested in the game grab yourself a copy so you can try your bounty hunting hand during the Scorched Earth event.
