People came to this game because it was unique.

The technology of the time period, 1895, meant that action could only be deliberate and methodical. Speed was not an option. The setting built on the tension. The gentle hum of the wilderness ever present, making the groans, hacking, and wailing of the afflicted creatures dotting the landscape stand out as obstacles to your plans. Not to mention the occasional punctuation of distant gunfire (getting closer?) and panicked sounds of startled wildlife as rival hunters near. You pay close attention to the sounds of your environment with the hope that you will be more prepared for the inevitable clash with your rivals than they will be. Hearing them vault out a window for a noisy shortcut, you follow the faint sounds of their footfalls, raise your 1865 Spencer carbine, look down the sights...

... and see Ghost Face from the 1996 film "Scream". His buddy has been tracking you with his beetle drone and he has led you into his trap, a magical C4 that he sets off with his new sawn-off grenade launcher.

The character of the game is being overwritten to be more like shooters with modern-day settings. The story and setting of "Hunt" are being erased. Sometimes even literally. The lore books in the game were entirely deleted earlier this year.

The most generous I can be to the developers is to say that they must have been having trouble making the money to maintain "Hunt" as a thoroughly niche gaming experience. Didn't sustain enough income off the occasional skins to pay for salaries, maintenance, and server fees. So they had to broaden their consumer base somehow, appeal to a larger audience, if they wanted to make a profit for once. They took a lot of cues from "Call of Duty". They upped the pace of game-play, cut down the cycle times on guns, and added the kind of high-tech gear you would see in "Rainbow Six: Siege" to make the game look more exciting for a younger audience instead of limiting themselves to their small dad-game fan-base.

But you can't succeed as a live-service game by trying to take an audience away from an existing live-service game. Ask all the "WoW-killers" in the graveyard of dead gaming studios how well that plan worked out for them.

This isn't even including the persisting technical issues. For example: lag is still severe and a regular occurrence. At least once every match you are going to have about 10 seconds of standing still waiting for the server to reconnect with you while you hope you don't come back to find your hunter already killed and gone forever.

There is a lot more that can be said, but as someone who has loved this game for years and had confidence that Crytek would pull through in all their challenges, I am just terribly disheartened with the changes made to the world of "Hunt: Showdown" this year. I was already feeling like the game I first became fascinated with was changing, trying to be something it wasn't. Still, I was recommending this game just a few months ago.

Now the Ghost Face trailer dropped. Not only has the pace of the game been changed, but now the character of the game as well.

I'm out.

People came to this game because it was unique. The technology of the time period, 1895, meant that action could only be deliberate and methodical. Speed was not an option. The setting built on the tension. The gentle hum of the wilderness ever present, making the groans, hacking, and wailing of the afflicted creatures dotting the landscape stand out as obstacles to your plans. Not to mention the occasional punctuation of distant gunfire (getting closer?) and panicked sounds of startled wildlife as rival hunters near. You pay close attention to the sounds of your environment with the hope that you will be more prepared for the inevitable clash with your rivals than they will be. Hearing them vault out a window for a noisy shortcut, you follow the faint sounds of their footfalls, raise your 1865 Spencer carbine, look down the sights... ... and see Ghost Face from the 1996 film "Scream". His buddy has been tracking you with his beetle drone and he has led you into his trap, a magical C4 that he sets off with his new sawn-off grenade launcher. The character of the game is being overwritten to be more like shooters with modern-day settings. The story and setting of "Hunt" are being erased. Sometimes even literally. The lore books in the game were entirely deleted earlier this year. The most generous I can be to the developers is to say that they must have been having trouble making the money to maintain "Hunt" as a thoroughly niche gaming experience. Didn't sustain enough income off the occasional skins to pay for salaries, maintenance, and server fees. So they had to broaden their consumer base somehow, appeal to a larger audience, if they wanted to make a profit for once. They took a lot of cues from "Call of Duty". They upped the pace of game-play, cut down the cycle times on guns, and added the kind of high-tech gear you would see in "Rainbow Six: Siege" to make the game look more exciting for a younger audience instead of limiting themselves to their small dad-game fan-base. But you can't succeed as a live-service game by trying to take an audience away from an existing live-service game. Ask all the "WoW-killers" in the graveyard of dead gaming studios how well that plan worked out for them. This isn't even including the persisting technical issues. For example: lag is still severe and a regular occurrence. At least once every match you are going to have about 10 seconds of standing still waiting for the server to reconnect with you while you hope you don't come back to find your hunter already killed and gone forever. There is a lot more that can be said, but as someone who has loved this game for years and had confidence that Crytek would pull through in all their challenges, I am just terribly disheartened with the changes made to the world of "Hunt: Showdown" this year. I was already feeling like the game I first became fascinated with was changing, trying to be something it wasn't. Still, I was recommending this game just a few months ago. Now the Ghost Face trailer dropped. Not only has the pace of the game been changed, but now the character of the game as well. I'm out.