Hunt: Showdown 1896

About Hunt: Showdown 1896

Crytek put Hunt: Showdown into early access on Steam in 2018 and released it in full on PC in August 2019. In August 2024 it was relaunched as Hunt: Showdown 1896, with an upgraded engine, a new map in the mountains of Colorado and versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were taken down.

In a Bounty Hunt, up to twelve players enter one of four large maps, alone or in teams of two or three. Three maps are swamp country in Louisiana, such as Lawson Delta; the fourth, Mammon's Gulch, is a Colorado valley of cliffs, a mining town and dark mines. The Corruption has seeped into everything: the dead walk, and somewhere waits a boss monster such as the Butcher, the Spider, the Assassin or Scrapbeak. You search compounds for clues that glow in Dark Sight, each one narrowing down where the boss is. Kill it, banish it, take its bounty, then run for an exit while every other team can see on the map who is carrying it. A match lasts up to 45 minutes.

The tension comes from sound and from other people. Monsters cry out in warning, dogs bark at hunters on your trail, crows scatter, and a reload clicks in the next room. Weather and wildfire change the maps, and the store's own line sums up the stakes: die with nothing or get out with everything. A hunter who dies is gone for good, with the gear they carried.

Besides Bounty Hunt there is Soul Survivor, a 15-minute mode where each player starts with a poor weapon and scavenges, and Bounty Clash, a shorter fight over a boss already killed in a single compound.

It suits players who want horror atmosphere with tense, slow-burning gunfights against other people. Those after a story or a game they can play alone offline should look elsewhere: there is no single-player campaign, and the monsters are the setting more than the main opponent.

How to play Hunt: Showdown 1896

1. Recruit a hunter and choose a loadout of weapons, tools and consumables.
2. Enter a Bounty Hunt alone, as a duo or as a trio.
3. Find clues across the map to narrow down where the boss monster is.
4. Kill the boss, banish it and pick up the bounty.
5. Reach an extraction point with the bounty while other teams try to take it from you.

Tips

• Watch where you step; barking dogs, creaking floorboards and snapping twigs give your position away to other players.
• Use headphones; gunshots and monster cries tell you where the fights are.
• Do not fire at every grunt; a gunshot carries across the map.
• Bring a cheap hunter while you learn, since a dead hunter and their gear can be lost.
• Bounty carriers are marked on everyone's map, so plan your route to an exit before you pick up the bounty.

Questions