Featuring the single most authentic, realistic and gameplay-centric use of sound in any game I can think of, Hunt: Showdown is a PvE/PvP shooter where hunters, either solo or as a duo, must track down and slay a bounty "boss" creature while fighting through a bayou full of undead horrors. Oh, and you must kill/avoid the other groups of players trying to accompish the same goal and survive to the extraction point. The sound is extraordinary, branches and broken glass crunch underfoot, bumping a metal chain might alert others to your presence, and crows may be spooked and give away your position. Keep your ears open for the mistakes other players make and capitalize on them. The period weapons are realistic enough while still playing like a solid shooter, and the variety continues to increase with each patch. There's only one map and two boss types currently, but the game draws you in enough that coming back for more is never boring. Plus, since it's early access, more things are being added very regularly. Highly recommended for fans of tense stealth gameplay punctuated by bursts of crazed firefights, all wrapped up in the beautiful Crytek engine.

UPDATE 8-25-19: As the game is about to go 1.0, I wanted to update my review. First of all, there are ZERO pay to win mechanics in Hunt. That seems to be a misconception fueled by the addition of a "blood bond" currency which is used to purchase legendary cosmetic skins for weapons and hunters with unique appearances, but ZERO DIFFERENCE IN GAMEPLAY. They can also be used to unlock slots for additional hunters or to respec an existing hunter. Nothing that impacts gameplay. These are earned in-game each round as well as being available for purchase.

Second, the new UI is definitely inferior to the pre 1.0 UI, but not so bad to be unusable. I think they are trying to cater to a simpler crowd, and it may just be that because I have been playing since early 2018 that I find it to be a clunkier, less intuitive change.

Third, they added the ability to run as a trio of allied hunters, and it is an welcome addition. Take two buddies with you and prepare for some awesome firefights. The option can be toggled off if you prefer the solo/duo "classic" experience (which does usually play out somewhat differently) but it is definitely a lot of fun.

Fourth and finally, there are now two maps and 3 bosses. The maps are amazingly detailed and well conceived, and the bosses are all reasonably fun to engage while primarily fulfilling the role of bringing people to the same general area on the map to fight each other.

Overall, Hunt is still one of the most incredible games out there, and well worthy of a purchase. Crytek has a masterpiece on their hands!

EDIT November 2024: Unfortunately, the game is currently on a trajectory that I hope it rights from. With the 1896 update, they introduced a new engine and the 4th map. Unfortunately, they took away the original maps and most of the times of day (only daytime and night were available) and they are reworking and slowly re-releasing them with graphical updates. This process is slow, and as of this writing they have only re-released one map and a few of the alternative times of day. Rain, ash bloom, inferno and I believe at least one of the dusk times are all gone and Lawson Delta and DeSalle maps are still absent. So definite content regression. They need to speed up the process of adding back the content that was removed, and also add new things. All while making a massive bug-fix patch, the new UI and several other bugs are just in an unacceptable state right now.

They have added Ghost Face from Scream to the DLC pool, which makes zero sense in the context of the Hunt story/universe. They are about to release a collaboration with Post Malone, which at least seems to be something where they integrated him as a character (not himself) and tried to tonally match the game. This licensed property stuff is a slippery slope and it seems potentially very immersion breaking to the game's atmosphere.

Perhaps the most egregious issue now is the seeming desire for them to accelerate the pace of the game. They have included changes to speed up the burning of downed hunters (to reduce strategic options) and added many more spammy weapons than ever before. It seems to be an ill-guided attempt to appeal to people who are not Hunt's core audience, but it is losing the soul of the gameplay in the process.

Hunt is still the best multiplayer FPS I have ever played, but I fear for the future of the game if they continue down the path of speed speed speed and lose the vision of what has made Hunt so special over so many years.