It's fair to say the response to Hunt Showdown 1896 has been a mixed one. Five years after it first launched, the backwater extraction shooter from legendary PC developer Crytek – who previously brought us Crysis and the original Far Cry – has kicked off a brand new era acting as a soft relaunch for the FPS game. Combined with a free weekend to celebrate, the change has seen Hunt Showdown reach all-new Steam player count highs, but it's also been met with a 'mostly negative' review score. In response, Crytek delivers a special developer update.
FPS game has seen its recent review score on Steam plummet to just 33%. The overall score remains 'mostly positive,' but it's similarly been dragged down to 78% thanks to the negative .
In response, design director Dennis Schwarz delivers a concise developer update "to address a series of improvements around key pain points in the interface and experience shipped with our recent launch. Launching a new interface for Hunt Showdown 1896 has been a major undertaking," he explains, "and, to be clear, we are continuing to refine and redesign the interface in several key areas."
Schwarz states that "Hunter and gear selection, presentation of inventory and loadouts, as well as memorizing filter and sorting options are clearly short of the mark and are prioritized for reworks." He says the team's focus is on the core loop and making it easier to recruit and equip hunters between matches.
First on the cards is the gear screen. "The player's current equipped gear configuration will have a new layout," Schwarz says. The rework will allow you to jump between weapons, tools, consumables, and traits without having to exit to the previous menu. You'll be able to swap between equipment details and a "paper doll view that allows interaction with the hunter's various inventory slots."
The top navigation menu will get a new 'play' button that takes you to the lobby screen more smoothly, which should allow you to jump into games quickly without having to navigate past the news page first. The lobby has also been improved, allowing you to switch modes without needing to return to the home screen. "This unifies the game mode lobbies for Bounty Hunt, Soul Survivor, and the Shooting Range for consistency and ease of use," Schwarz notes.
Elsewhere, the mission summary, team details, and last match statistics are all being combined into one single screen. The Prestige menu will be updated "to clearly show what rewards players get at each Prestige level." That's all for now, although Schwarz adds, "Please bear with us as we keep on refining menus and updating systems across the game over the next updates."
"We are extremely grateful for the largest player base the game has ever seen and are eager to keep improving the game and growing the community with each new update," Schwarz concludes. If you're curious to free Steam game until Monday August 19, when the free weekend will conclude.
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