Crytek Announces HUNT: Horrors Of The Gilded Age

There is an evil that lurks beyond the edges of your vision. People speak of them in stories and fables, not knowing the truth. However, a group of hunters will face that truth head on in HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age.

HUNT is a third-person action game revolving around four players fighting off hoards of enemies that hail from your general nightmares: zombies, werewolves, the regular gamut. In the process they’ll also track down and defeat massive bosses.

The CEO of Crytek, David Adams, claims “In HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age, players will be counting their bullets and crying out for help as they delve deeper into the shadowy world we’ve created. From the outset of the development process, we’ve poured our imaginations into the game so that everyone who plays HUNT will discover a challenging experience that feels fresh, captivating and rich in possibilities.”

It would be really awesome to see a game like this that really captures the feeling of a mortal man fighting extraordinary beings. Much as I hate to broach the subject in such a way, but the idea behind this game is nothing new. I myself enjoyed rather a lot of Hunter: The Reckoning back in the day: a four player co-op action game in which you fight hordes of enemies that only you know the truth of. Sounds familiar, right?

Really, HUNT is the World of Darkness universe, if you rewind things a century or so, and add a pretty coat of modern paint. Adams’s comments do give me a glimmer of hope that they might take a more conservative take on the whole idea of hunting mythical creatures.

A co-operative game like this has so much potential to really engage the players in tactics befitting of us as a weaker species. Sure, pound for pound, I could see a trained hunter easily taking out a group of shambling zombies, but going to-to-toe with a hulking werewolf or some kind of demon sounds considerably less likely. It would be great to see a game where real coordination between players is rewarded with success, rather than making the same tired action game time and time again.

The game does have one feature mentioned so far of real interest: a procedural generation system. The game’s special system ensures that the players won’t encounter the same environment twice. When things get hot, not knowing what’s around the corner can really drive the sense of hopelessness and fear that I feel these games have a good chance to embody. Basically taking the best parts of games like Hunter and the PDLs and roguelikes (think FTL) and puts them together to provide a more compelling experience.

For the moment, there’s not a boatload of information handy, save for the new teaser trailer that just released. No platforms have been announced, save for PC, which will see a closed beta for the game later this year. The game will be on display at E3 next week, so stand by for more. For now, check out this trailer, and let us know what you think.