One of my favorite games of all time, period.

At one point in this game's lifespan, it defined an entire niche. Nothing else has ever, or probably will ever play like it did. Extremely slow paced shooter where you felt like more of a detective than a mercenary. You used to walk up to a compound and find trails of where other hunters had been and figure out where they're going. Rolling up slowly and getting into position for a perfect angle of attack. Once you were locked into the fight your shots were slow and metered. The game felt like more of a strategy game than a traditional FPS.

Over the past couple of years the game has devolved into progressively faster shooting guns that hit harder and cost more money. This is because Crytek just... Keeps adding better and better guns. And giving you more and more money to play with. There's absolutely no reason to run cheaper loadouts because you're constantly flush with cash. You'll never really experience a rootin' tootin' Winfield fight again, you're just going to get blown over by a Karabiner Cyclone shooting at 9x the firerate of your gun.

Update after update has gradually torn this game down from where it once was. You don't get to be slow and methodical in a fight. You don't get to those tense moments of skulking around a wheat field while two guys hunt you down. You don't get to make long flanks and reposition after your partner went down.

One of the more egregious changes they've made to speed up gameplay is the insane speed that a dead hunter's health burns away via fire. You have MAYBE 30-45 seconds to extinguish your teammate before all of their health is burned away and they're dead. Even with Salveskin, it's MAYBE 60 seconds. You basically have to bull rush to your dead team mate as soon as they go down because with Flare pistols, every single hunter in the game has the option to burn you the second you go down. You CANNOT be strategic with your approach, you have to get to your downed teammate immediately, basically dooming you to run straight into whatever line of sight their team had on your partner. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrible.

The UI problems are annoying but sure to be fixed before too long. The state of the gameplay is the real issue.

Our old-timey cowboy weapons lose their thematic luster when you're mostly getting pegged down by nearly automatic rifles and stalker beetles.

All in all, Hunt: Showdown has lost its one-of-a-kind identity and its niche.

We live to die another day.