Crytek’s remaster and expansion for horror shooter Hunt: Showdown, called Hunt: Showdown 1896, has been pummeled with negative reviews on Steam.
Most of the new complaints stem from the revamped user interface and what the players claim as aggressive advertising of paid content.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 has significant changes, including renewed graphics, upgrades to DirectX 12, a new light cache system, and specular tracing for graphics, as well as the addition of DLSS and FSR for higher frame rates and sharper graphics. The game engine was also upgraded to CryEngine 5.11.
In addition, a new map named Mammon’s Gulch was included, with a new level boss named Hellborn, who spews fire on people. The negative reviews on Steam and in Reddit, however, have something to do with the new user interface.
The interface has been revamped for new users, but the old playerbase have criticized the new interface as confusing even to newcomers. One Reddit user also bemoaned the aggressive pushing of new paid weapons, saying that these new weapons are advertised between weapons they already own and in a manner that suggest that they did not purchase the previous weapons.
Crytek’s developers have been replying that they will make changes, such as in this comment in the Steam reviews: “Our design team has been hard at work on the long-requested UI overhaul, which is a crucial improvement that’s been needed for some time. We’re focused on balancing simplicity with functionality, which was the whole idea behind the new design. We will keep gathering player feedback and refine the UI going forward as well.”
Hunt: Showdown 1896 was just released for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 on August 15th.