Last week, developer Crytek announced that their upcoming co-op shooter Hunt: Showdown is coming to Early Access on Steam. The monster-hunting survival game will be on Early Access for at least a year according to Crytek, while development continues with feedback from its community of players. To accompany the news of Hunt‘s journey to Steam, Crytek has also released a new trailer, which you can check out below.
On Hunt‘s Steam page, Crytek states that the decision to release the game on Early Access comes from their goal for an open development process going forward, and community feedback with have a large impact on the direction their development takes. “We also want Hunt: Showdown’s development to be community-driven, and an Early Access release allows us to base further development work on community feedback as we test and refine new features, equipment, cast, and settings. The dialogue between the Hunt community and Hunt developers will be crucial in creating a fun experience—so you can help us define what Hunt: Showdown, ultimately, is going to be,” Crytek wrote. “Initially, we will spend a couple of months collecting player feedback and in-game data, and then we should be able to share a more detailed development roadmap. …You can submit your feedback and ideas to us on the Hunt: Showdown Steam Community Hub and on all of our social media channels.”
Hunt: Showdown is a competitive multiplayer game where players assume the role of bounty-hunters in a world overrun by monsters. The first-person shooter takes on a match-based format, and other players and groups of hunters pose as much of a threat as the monsters they hunt. Describing the current state of the game’s Early Access version, Crytek added, “As it stands, Hunt contains a 1km² map packed with hand-crafted locations for you to explore, hoards of gruesome monsters for you to fight on your way to even more savage bosses, and more than 40 weapons, tools, and other equipment. Each player will also have a Bloodline, which is a pool of Hunter characters and is also where experience from Hunters that are killed will be saved.”
Hunt: Showdown does not currently have a date for Early Access release – its Steam page simply reads “coming soon.” In the meantime, you can get a better idea of what Hunt is like in the video below: a twelve-minute gameplay demonstration from IGN and two of the game’s developers.