Summary
Hunt: Showdownhas received a humongous update, including changing the name to Hunt: Showdown 1896. With this update came a novel’s worth of patch notes, detailing every change in the update, along with the reasoning why.
While all of the core elements that make Hunt such a unique game are all still present, there are a lot of things that have changed pretty dramatically. This ranges from environmental issues to how the meta-game is structured, down to the minutiae of the gunplay.
1New Map: Mammon’s Gulch
One of the headliners of this update is the new map, Mammon’s Gulch. A new, quite large map set in an entirely new biome to Hunt: the mountains.Maps in Hunt have quite a lot of intricaciesto them, and take quite a long time to fully get a grasp on everything in it; Mammon’s Gulch is no exception.
With it being in the mountains, there are quite a lot of entirely new things to see in Hunt’s mountains, like new trees, ambient creatures like bats and cows, and a ton of verticality compared to previous maps. It has some of the most unique flavor of any map in Hunt and rewards some moves that might not work on other maps.
2Updated Game Engine
The CryEngine has beenupdated to 5.11 for this update, and with it, an increase to gameplay smoothness, particularly on consoles. While there were some performance problems on PC following the launch of the update, the game engine upgrade should provide significantly better improvements and more options for the developers of Hunt going forward.
On console, this means Hunt runs at 60 frames-per-second at 4K with consistency, making a huge difference in how smooth the game feels. It offers a seriously upgraded look and feel, especially compared to the older PS4 version, which has been dropped to accommodate this update.
3There Are New Animals
As mentioned before, the new map, Mammon’s Gulch, includes some new animal types: bats and cows. While neither of these animals are going to be out for your blood, they are going to make a huge racket if disturbed and bring other things that might, in fact, be out for your blood.
Behavior-wise, these two new animals react to you similarly to animals that previously existed in Hunt react; bats react to players similarly to birds, flying directly away from you if you get too close, while cows lie on the ground and moo if you stumble into their vicinity.
4New Weapons And Ammo
A slew of new weapons and weapon variants have been added with the update, coming with plenty of different attachment and ammo options, shaking up Hunt’s meta. A few new lever-action weapons have entered the fray, like the Infantry 73L and its Sniper variant.
The 1865 Carbine has been added as well, making for a lever-action that has some viability at closer ranges. A new shotgun variant and crossbow variant round out the weapon addition, and with this big of a mix of new weapons added, loadouts are going to look quite a bit different all at once.
5A New Tool
While bear traps have been in Hunt for quite some time, they’ve never been available to bring with you in your loadout until now. Previously, they’d been scattered around the map, usually in or around buildings, and you could set them up if you happened across them.
Now, since you’re able to bring them with you on every adventure into the dark unknown, you can bet there are going to be quite a few more bear traps scattered around. These have a very different look than tripwires, meaning they could be ideal for setting up in situations where a tripwire might be more visible.
6Bullet Drop And Damage Multiplier Changes
Hunt has never had bullet drop, only drop for weapons like crossbows and regular bows. That’s changing with the 1896 update, with every weapon coming with bullet drop, varying significantly by weapon and ammo type.
With this change, some of the damage multipliers are changing, too. For instance, headshots are now lethal across the board, regardless of weapon, against other players, as well as against every monster other than those than are larger or have some kind of armor.
7Updated UI
One of the more controversial changes has been the UI. Some players are not fans of the UI introduced with the update. Regardless of feelings on the UI, it’s given Hunt’s menus an entirely new look, changing how setting loadouts, checking progression, and queuing for matches works.
Some of the distaste for the UI is certainly the resistance to change, and over time, people will get used to it. That being said, some of the new UI can be confusing or outright not work, making navigating the changes a little bit frustrating.
8Speed Of Sound
One of the more immersive changes, sound now travels at the speed of sound in Hunt as opposed to traveling instantly. This means you might have less warning that a sniper is firing at you from a hefty distance. You might hear a bullet impact into the ground (or into your body) before you hear the gunshot, meaning you’re going to have to be even more on your toes when moving anywhere in a long sightline.
This gives you a very slight advantage as a sniper compared to before; now, if you fire and take cover quickly after firing at an enemy from deep, you’ll be back in cover before the enemy even hears the gunshot. It’ll make it that much harder for an enemy to triangulate your position, because they’ll need to place the sound and place you visually separately instead of seeing you and hearing you fire the shot at the same time.
9Downed Hunters Changes
Bleedout and burnout timers on Hunters in downed and burning states have been dramatically lowered, which will dramatically change your options when teammates are downed, and you’re looking to finish the enemy off and/or revive teammates.
Previously, you could stay in a prolonged fight with enemies while your teammates are down, because they could still be revived for quite a long time. You could dance around, get a new position, and take your time to get into a more advantageous fight. Now, if you’re looking to revive your friends, you’re going to have to move with some real intention.
10New Wild Target
There’s a newwild target to hunt, and they can be a real problem. The Hellborn can now be found out and about on the Colorado map, being tracked down differently than traditional bounty targets. Resembling a giant Immolator, the Hellborn hurls fire, yells, and is generally quite upsetting to fight.
There’s likely no taking down the Hellborn in a quiet manner, meaning be prepared to fight other teams of Hunters during or after the Hellborn fight on your way to extraction. That said, the Hellborn does not have a banishing phase like every other target, meaning you can escape relatively quickly once he’s been dropped, possibly getting you out of dodge in time.
