Update as of October 2024:

Well, they sold out. I no longer recommend this game. They managed to take all of the immersion and worldbuilding and wipe their butt with it by violating their crossover policy and introducing Ghost Face® Rampage. (Yes, the registered trademark is part of the title. Of course it is.)

Maybe they'll realize the error of their ways. Doubt it. I haven't been this mad since Microsoft unceremoniously shut down the Freelancer servers. I love(d) this game. Ugh.

Original Review:

Hunt...

Wow, I slept on this game, hard. I had it wishlisted and never got it since its release. That was absolutely my mistake. This game is a unique experience that can technically be classified as a Battle Royale, but with none of the problematic game design elements that I loathe about Battle Royale games.

I received Hunt as a gift over the holidays in December 2022, finally playing it for the first time around the turn of the year. I now have more than 250 hours put into it, and anticipate that I'll likely put five times that many into it before I even start to slow down. I would've gladly bought it at full price on release if I'd known what I was missing out on.

The setting takes place in a late 1800's alternate-reality post-apocalyptic Louisiana Bayou. You have access to an absolute myriad of firearms that are faithful to the time period, in addition to wacky traps and tools that don't break immersion but may not have been quite so commonly available. The enemies are stereotypical (though still creative) takes on zombies, and the three huge maps each have around 7 atmospheric conditions, such as dense fog, nighttime, and broad daylight, among others.

The game's advancement is comprised of weapon/equipment tech trees that unlock tool or weapon variants and ammunition types based on experience gained from use, as well as two separate tiers of "leveling", the Hunter and the Bloodline. Unlocking an equipment, consumable, or weapon via advancement will make that available to you for "Hunt Dollars" (easily earned in-game currency) moving forward up to the point when/if you choose to Prestige your Bloodline.

You can bring four equipment items (such as a knife, healing kit, trip mines, holdout Derringer gun, throwing axes, etc.) with you into a match. While they have a number of usable charges before being exhausted, these are not "used up" in the match, so if your Hunter survives they will still have these equipment items for their next foray into the Bayou.
You also bring four consumables into the match. These can be throwable items like molotov cocktails, dynamite, poison bombs, or flash bombs. This gear category also includes hypodermic shots (sorry, trypanophobes!) that provide buffs or rapid application of instantaneous healing. You can buff your stamina, regenerate your health bar, or provide yourself with immunity to poison for ten or even twenty minutes at a time. Using these items "uses them up", meaning they will no longer be in your inventory once used, even if you survive your foray into the Bayou.

The equipment and consumable items unlock in categories, so to unlock Poison Trip Mines, you need to use a poison item (by default a 10-minute poison immunity buff booster shot) in-game enough times to unlock the next tier of that equipment and/or consumable. Concertina (razor wire) bomb throwables are unlocked by using Concertina Trip Mines. Regeneration shots are unlocked through the use of healing items. Flare guns are unlocked by extracting with the electric lamp or "Fusees" (road flare type items) a few times.

You get to carry a total of four weapon slots worth of weaponry into each Hunt. A typical rifle or shotgun will be a 3-slot weapon, though variants such as "shorties" will be unlocked through use. Shorties are 2-slot sawed-off versions of the guns. Pistols and hand crossbows take one slot to use one of, though you can dual-wield any pistol with a matched pair as a two-slot weapon choice. The bow takes two slots, the full-size crossbow takes three.

Guns, bows, and crossbows start with a base form, and as they're used on monsters and rival Hunters in-game, they unlock variant types of the gun and/or ammunition to use for it. Silencers, up to three different scope types, (four if you count the horrendous Aperture sight,) bayoneted versions, utility ammunition, and more will unlock for your favorite rifle, revolver, shotgun, or handgun.

After your first 10 or so Bloodline levels are achieved, (at least 5 successful matches, by my casual reckoning) your Hunters suffer permadeath. If your Hunter dies on a mission, they're dead. Traits earned are gone, the equipment they carried is lost forever. This is just inconvenient enough that it's an undesirable outcome, without being so troublesome that it's going to piss you off. I've been far more frustrated at my poor positioning or unlucky trap triggers in-game than at the death of my level-capped (level 50) Hunter.

The balance of this game is pretty divine. There's one major point of contention for folks, and let's just say if you know Necromancy you know what I'm saying... but even if you fall on the hater side of that fence, you're still gonna love this game overall.

"Premium" currency and DLCs get a lot of hate and discontent, but there's very little pay-to-win aspect here. The only P2W you see is that when a new Legendary (cosmetic, not statistical changes to the weapons, Hunters start with three random traits which has pros and cons) is purchased, one copy of it (remember, permadeath = loss of hunter and gear!) is added to your inventory, regardless of capacity, advancement, and/or unlock status. Of course, if you survive several Hunts with your skinned Mosin-Nagant Avtomat rifle, you probably earned it.

While the game is fun enough solo, it really shines when played with a team of one or two of your friends. I can't recommend it enough! Thanks for reading.
If you have questions about the game or my take on something in it, please feel free to comment them here!

Update as of October 2024: Well, they sold out. I no longer recommend this game. They managed to take all of the immersion and worldbuilding and wipe their butt with it by violating their crossover policy and introducing Ghost Face® Rampage. (Yes, the registered trademark is part of the title. Of course it is.) Maybe they'll realize the error of their ways. Doubt it. I haven't been this mad since Microsoft unceremoniously shut down the Freelancer servers. I love(d) this game. Ugh. Original Review: Hunt... Wow, I slept on this game, [i]hard[/i]. I had it wishlisted and never got it since its release. That was absolutely my mistake. This game is a unique experience that can technically be classified as a Battle Royale, but with none of the problematic game design elements that I [i]loathe[/i] about Battle Royale games. I received Hunt as a gift over the holidays in December 2022, finally playing it for the first time around the turn of the year. I now have more than 250 hours put into it, and anticipate that I'll likely put five times that many into it before I even [i]start[/i] to slow down. I would've gladly bought it at full price on release if I'd known what I was missing out on. The setting takes place in a late 1800's alternate-reality post-apocalyptic Louisiana Bayou. You have access to an absolute myriad of firearms that are faithful to the time period, in addition to wacky traps and tools that don't break immersion but may not have been quite so commonly available. The enemies are stereotypical (though still creative) takes on zombies, and the three huge maps each have around 7 atmospheric conditions, such as dense fog, nighttime, and broad daylight, among others. The game's advancement is comprised of weapon/equipment tech trees that unlock tool or weapon variants and ammunition types based on experience gained from use, as well as two separate tiers of "leveling", the Hunter and the Bloodline. Unlocking an equipment, consumable, or weapon via advancement will make that available to you for "Hunt Dollars" (easily earned in-game currency) moving forward up to the point when/if you choose to Prestige your Bloodline. You can bring four equipment items (such as a knife, healing kit, trip mines, holdout Derringer gun, throwing axes, etc.) with you into a match. While they have a number of usable charges before being exhausted, these are not "used up" in the match, so if your Hunter survives they will still have these equipment items for their next foray into the Bayou. You also bring four consumables into the match. These can be throwable items like molotov cocktails, dynamite, poison bombs, or flash bombs. This gear category also includes hypodermic shots (sorry, trypanophobes!) that provide buffs or rapid application of instantaneous healing. You can buff your stamina, regenerate your health bar, or provide yourself with immunity to poison for ten or even twenty minutes at a time. Using these items "uses them up", meaning they will no longer be in your inventory once used, even if you survive your foray into the Bayou. The equipment and consumable items unlock in categories, so to unlock Poison Trip Mines, you need to use a poison item (by default a 10-minute poison immunity buff booster shot) in-game enough times to unlock the next tier of that equipment and/or consumable. Concertina (razor wire) bomb throwables are unlocked by using Concertina Trip Mines. Regeneration shots are unlocked through the use of healing items. Flare guns are unlocked by extracting with the electric lamp or "Fusees" (road flare type items) a few times. You get to carry a total of four weapon slots worth of weaponry into each Hunt. A typical rifle or shotgun will be a 3-slot weapon, though variants such as "shorties" will be unlocked through use. Shorties are 2-slot sawed-off versions of the guns. Pistols and hand crossbows take one slot to use one of, though you can dual-wield any pistol with a matched pair as a two-slot weapon choice. The bow takes two slots, the full-size crossbow takes three. Guns, bows, and crossbows start with a base form, and as they're used on monsters and rival Hunters in-game, they unlock variant types of the gun and/or ammunition to use for it. Silencers, up to three different scope types, (four if you count the horrendous Aperture sight,) bayoneted versions, utility ammunition, and more will unlock for your favorite rifle, revolver, shotgun, or handgun. After your first 10 or so Bloodline levels are achieved, (at least 5 successful matches, by my casual reckoning) your Hunters suffer permadeath. If your Hunter dies on a mission, they're dead. Traits earned are gone, the equipment they carried is lost forever. This is just inconvenient enough that it's an undesirable outcome, without being so troublesome that it's going to piss you off. I've been far more frustrated at my poor positioning or unlucky trap triggers in-game than at the death of my level-capped (level 50) Hunter. The balance of this game is pretty divine. There's one major point of contention for folks, and let's just say if you know Necromancy you know what I'm saying... but even if you fall on the hater side of that fence, you're still gonna love this game overall. "Premium" currency and DLCs get a lot of hate and discontent, but there's very little pay-to-win aspect here. The only P2W you see is that when a new Legendary (cosmetic, not statistical changes to the weapons, Hunters start with three random traits which has pros and cons) is purchased, one copy of it (remember, permadeath = loss of hunter and gear!) is added to your inventory, regardless of capacity, advancement, and/or unlock status. Of course, if you survive several Hunts with your skinned Mosin-Nagant Avtomat rifle, you probably earned it. While the game is fun enough solo, it really shines when played with a team of one or two of your friends. I can't recommend it enough! Thanks for reading. If you have questions about the game or my take on something in it, please feel free to comment them here!