After months of anticipation, Hunt: Showdown finally released its graphics update. With the sunsetting of support on previous generation consoles, Hunt: Showdown 1896 should have given us a good look at the future of this extraction shooter, but all players received so far is pain.
While not perfect before, the User Interface for Hunt: Showdown was perfectly serviceable and something that players had grown accustomed to using for hundreds if not thousands of hours. Wouldn’t it be a shame if Crytek looked to Call of Duty and said, “This is the perfect user interface, let’s copy it and put a spooky spin on it”.
For those unaware, the current Call of Duty UI is a terrifyingly cluttered mess that most fans do not enjoy using, let alone want to inflict upon someone else.
Introducing the new UI for Hunt: Showdown 1896, which feels like a carbon copy of the most recent Call of Duty titles. Alongside this dramatically changed UI, graphical upgrades that make the game look more akin to current-generation titles, bullet drop, and a plethora of other additions have been added. The problem is, that most of the stuff isn’t working as expected. Fans have been awaiting the changeover to a new version of CryEngine for quite some time, and the result hasn’t been pretty.
As of the time of this writing, 34% of the over 7,000 reviews in the past 30 days are positive, dropping Hunt: Showdown 1896 to a Mostly Negative on Steam, rather than its Mostly Positive all-time rating. The r/HuntShowdown subreddit is also not a fan of the most recent update, with many of the most current posts being related to the UI and graphical glitches that they’re currently experiencing.
It isn’t all doom and gloom, at least at this point. Players who have gotten a chance to experience some of the new graphical changes, as well as the new map seem to be quite impressed overall. Players such as u/Glad_Ad8023 praise the new map and engine for looking “spectacular”, alongside the addition of DLSS being a game changer for the game.
Crytek has seemingly heard the cries of desperation coming from their fanbase and has offered a look at upcoming changes they’re planning on implementing in the future, as per the Hunt: Showdown 1896 Steam forums. It is currently unclear as to when any updates will be going out to address concerns.
I have to admit, I was a bit shocked when I first booted up Hunt: Showdown 1896 and saw how drastically things had changed. It’s cumbersome and bloated, but after the muscle memory of the old UI fades away, maybe I won’t be as opposed to this change. Until then, I’ll see you all in the Bayou — and in Colorado now, too.