Skinwalker Hunt vs Witch Hunt. (Long post.)

[pokeemrld]

I just wanted to draw some comparisons between these 2 game entries by this same dev, I hope someone else has also experienced Witch Hunt before they played Skinwalker.

Does anyone feel that this title improves upon or succeeds more than it's predecessor ? I know that this game is still undergoing development, as we've been seeing more updates such as different mechanics, enemies, and a change to the skill system. However.. I am just a slight bit worried about the direction it seems to be headed. I really loved Witch Hunt and I know it's silly to expect a copy and paste for this game, but some retention of the unique mechanics it had would have been nice.

Witch Hunt, in case you haven't played it yet (really recommend it if you like this title! :D) had multiple targets you hunted down in it's story. I won't spoil anything so I shall be vague, but each target got progressively harder and the map would get spookier and more hostile while you progressed. The single map had more flavour and detail then the 2 maps we have currently in Skinwalker, and there was even a hub zone to purchase items or just relax and take in the atmosphere. A town with people that you felt compelled to protect since if you didn't slay the beasts, you knew they would be overrun eventually.

The lesser enemies as well seemed to provide more interesting gameplay. There were basic zombies, fast tiny enemies, and something that would hurt you if you looked at it so you had to find ways to fight it whilst minimizing your exposure time. The variety kept things fresh and every encounter needed a different response, compare that to the hostile animals we have right now. Do you think they offer anything unique in terms of their presentation ? Strip away the visual differences between them all, and try to find a gameplay difference between a hostile deer or boar. At least the zombies preemptively made noises so you could predict when you might walk into something up ahead, vs just being blindsided from an animal in a bush chunking your health.

There are also cultists and I believe a new ghost enemy, which are nice and I am happy to see new variety. The cultists being a mini boss of sorts is neat, and it's always funny seeing them jump around.

The greatest missing features however were core to why I believed Witch Hunt is more engaging than other supernatural hunting games, and their absence is very felt and missed. Witch Hunt had 2 different primary ways of tracking the targets, one was an ability like the watcher totems and how they detect the creature within a radius, except the radius was centered on the PLAYER, meaning as you walked around you would get a heartbeat sound to say the enemy was close by. The second feature actually let you SEE from the target's eyes for a few seconds, and if you learned the map well enough, that was amazing for letting you find it via landmarks on the map.

These 2 features separated Witch Hunt from every other supernatural hunting game I had played. Folklore Hunter, Bigfoot, The Rake etc, etc.. Where you do not actually HUNT the creature. You can just place cameras that send a notification when it passes by, and every once in a while the creature's aggression meter fills and it hunts YOU until you shoot it a bit to repel it, then walk around aimlessly until it happens again and again and again.
Sadly, Skinwalker Hunt seems to have fallen into that style of play. Just like the extra maps and animal designs, so far it feels like the dev has chosen quantity over quality. Speaking of extra maps, does the skinwalker change at all between USA and Chernobyl ? Maybe that's unreasonable to ask for though, I am not sure.

I do wish the best for this game and eagerly await the updates, maybe it'll all be amazing when it's finished! But for now, I see little that separates this from the other average monster hunting games, apart from maybe the skill system.

Tell me your thoughts, have you played both and have opinions on the changes ? And if you haven't played Witch Hunt, please pick it up! Support the dev who made both of these nice games. Thank you for your time.

[oogalord]

I played Witch Hunt, I even got all the cheevos and I never do that.

I agree with you about the enemy design being stronger in Witch Hunt. You made your points clearly so I won't belabor the subject. I like the idea of possessed animals but you're right, they all basically function as zombies.

I don't agree with your thoughts on the hunting mechanics. I think Skinwalker Hunt is a big improvement for the most part. In Witch Hunt I spent the majority of my time running through different regions of the map hoping I'd eventually hear a heartbeat; there simply was not a good way to reliably track the prey. Looking through the monster's eyes is a fantastic idea but in practice I rarely could figure out their location using that, as they were usually traversing some generic forest and not near any recognizable landscapes.

To be fair, I never used totems in Witch Hunt, I just didn't wanna spend the money on them and saved for abilities instead.

In Skinwalker Hunt the totems are good for reliably giving you a rough idea of what region the monster is in. The traps do the same, less consistent, but they work eventually. Lots of dogs hanging around that take you directly to it, worshipper totems you can break that bring it to you, and sometimes it just comes at you all by itself. There's generally always a way to have at least a vague idea of where it is, which was the one thing that was really missing from Witch Hunt. I would love to see Monster Vision come back in Skinwalker Hunt, even if it's not buffed; it's just too cool.

[pokeemrld]

Ah, thank you oogalord! Your input has helped me reconsider my original viewpoint slightly.

Upon further consideration, yeah, you're right with the amount of ways to track the skinwalker is more plentiful than in WH, I guess I just missed those cool unique extra things and expected them to return due to the naming of the 2 games. Change isn't always bad though.

Maybe there's just the fact that when I played WH, it was finished completely. And that is not yet the case with skinwalker, I shall patiently wait because I do love what this dev is capable of, and in time may appreciate this game more :D

[Σηη]

you know if you'd like to hear more opinions....maybe to validate that of your own? - you should consider taking into account both the positive and negative steam reviews! - you could also look into the amount of hrs played, achievements gained, types of games played and that players reviews for other games!

it'll probably give you a better understanding of what players actually like and dislike with the general census being on the focus of the majority!

i myself much prefer Skinwalker Hunt over Witch Hunt and see it as a vast improvement in comparison! (but that's just my take and although i didn't complete it - i played it for some 30+ hrs besides the 1.2 shown on my account!)

Also, if a game is worthy of my time...i'll do all i can to support it and show how great it truly is! :)

[pokeemrld]

^ That's good advice, to sift through the reviews and see why people click with this game - or otherwise.

Also I have noticed that you post a bunch of cool screenshots for Skinwalker Hunt :D I'm glad the community has people highlighting content for it.

[All Strippers go to Heaven]

They're both good and I thoroughly enjoyed Witch Hunt. I think the fact the two games have a lot in common is why the parallels keep being drawn, but I don't find they play into the same mood for me, or really make me wish I was playing "the other".

Witch Hunt is a personal favourite for a lot of reasons. I liked Skinwalker Hunt and I'm stoked for the next map.

[Haru]

In my opinion Witch Hunt is better solely because it has a form of progression. After a hunt is over, there is a sense of expectation of what will happen next. What I will hunt next?, how it will look?, will the map change? These things made the game 100 times more interesting for me. In Skinwalker Hunt there are no surprises whatsoever. You go, hunt the Skinwalker and that's it. Yes, the mechanics are more polished and there are more maps but the magic is not there.

[pokeemrld]

Rodri, I am glad you also share the same opinions towards progression. To me, hunting additional targets made it seem like there was so much more content :D Having to learn what the new enemies did and how they behaved- it was always refreshing to me.

[IdioticShark]

I think a game that divides the fan-base is always a good game. I think Witch Hunt is harder but Skinwalker Hunt is more re-playable because of the randomization mechanic. I like that every other update there's something that makes the game harder, I think most of the people playing it and complaining about the difficulty are people who want to play it once and get it over with. The developers games are known for being on the line of normal and hard where you can play it casually but be careful at certain parts because they can sneak up on you.

[Σηη]

i don't know about adding missions/tasks or a perk/class based structure as a main part of progression - but i do think the game needs to focus on many more "jump-scare" techniques and "exploration" type aspects to make it more fun! - together with added variety in the type of enemies available!

sure, the Skinwalker should always be your main focus and the game should revolve around him - but before hunting him down and taking care of business - give us much more to see and do!

the maps are expansive, and more content is needed to fill in those voids!

i'm sure this can happen and will change things for the better, but as always - stuff like this takes time and will not happen overnight or anytime soon!