Recent reviews by "Optional" Karmotrine

Fan-service is Customer Service, someone seems to have forgotten

Boss fights are hype enough to excuse the open world

Sell spleen, make green

Updates are slow but consistent

Hunt: Showdown is a game that I thoroughly wish i could recommend. As a strictly PvE/Co-Op game, this could be a 9/10. The setting is one of the best and most unique I've seen in a long time, and the atmosphere is spot on, with a horror element that takes a backseat to a western feel. Most guns handle great and feel really polished, with small magazines, if any, and reload times that make your arthritic grandpa look downright spry, all of which combine to add to that tense horror atmosphere. The concept of hunting bounties by tracking clues is a great conflict engine for moving combat along, and I wish this had been expanded on further. The more you play the game, however, the more cracks appear in the facade. Those bounties? There's only three unique monsters to hunt, with a max of 2 in any given match. With just three, you would at least expect those monsters to provide a decent challenge, right? Well... They don't. Even the "Assassin", the quickest and arguably deadliest, could probably be beaten by Michael J. Fox on a broken MadCatz gamepad. The idea is there, but the execution was botched. On a technical level, the servers are, to be frank, total ass. You can play one, maybe two games at a stable ping, if you're lucky. Most games you'll see pings upwards of 110 or 140, even in your preferred region. This leads to several problems, most glaring being busted hitreg and industrial size rubber-banding. Beyond that, the game is VERY unforgiving to new players. Do you enjoy queuing into a game for 15 minutes, only to be forced to roll for anal circumference by John Marston's 'roided out older brother 5 minutes into the game? He's got a Mosin Nagant modified to shoot full auto, you have a revolver that you might be able to squeeze 3 shots out in 10 seconds if you got lucky with traits. Fun Fact; Hunt: Showdown features a state of the art MMR system so advanced, it's like it doesn't exist. As is understandable for a game thats been out for over a year including betas, there is a lot of old blood in the game. Its not unusual to see prestige 34, 56, or higher. This, coupled with a $40(!) price tag, means you'll see the inverse of the standard player/skill bell curve, with low 0.5-1.5 KDR's getting blasted by 5-6 KDR's with not much in-between. In addition, the game sports several gameplay issues, with traps being very inconsistent; sometimes they can be jumped over, sometimes not. Shotguns will sometimes eviscerate hunters from 20 meters with a grazing leg shot, but other times tickle their sack with a feather duster on a direct hit, point-blank meatshot. Even some rifles may randomly decide, "that chest shot wasn't chest shot enough" and will just fail to do damage.

In short, what could've been a fantastic PvE Co-Op game has been poisoned by poor matchmaking, technical issues and gameplay issues, and no amount of antidote shots can fix that.

Gender-locked classes are cancer

The best game where your progress scales directly with the player's 'tisms.

An old man came in to sell what I was pretty sure were his dead wife's remains. I sold it back to him the next day at a 150% markup. I love this game.

All that text made it rather hard to focus on the ample plot devices; still, there's an option to turn that off. 8/10