Hunt: Showdown's finally adding the roaming bosses fans have been clamouring for
Otherwise, 2023 is all about setting the game up for a long time to come.
Crytek has released a new video in which Hunt: Showdown top brass discuss what's coming over the next year to one of the best and most interesting shooters on PC. The video also acts as the Hunt community's introduction to David Fifield, who's now Hunt: Showdown's general manager, and brings over 25 years of experience across various multiplayer series, including MechWarrior, Call of Duty, and Halo. It doesn't hurt that Fifield also sports a tremendous beard and wouldn't look out of place skulking around the Bayou with a shotgun.
At just under an hour long, the video covers lots of topics that might be interesting for dedicated players, like monetization, player numbers, and future events, but the headline news by far is the announcement of "wild targets", new boss creatures that will roam outside of compounds. More bosses is always the number one request among Hunt players, but a boss that exists outside of confined boss arenas is a totally new concept for the game. The game's rhythm is such that stumbling across one of these is going to force big decisions on teams, and hopefully only add to the dynamism with which a typical Hunt match plays out.
Alongside this there will be new pacts, new events, a change to the current Blood Bonds currency system to a new one that's about cosmetic items only, a shooting range to practice on with teammates (and play 1v1), and an ongoing cadence of four big updates per year. The roaming bosses and a new trilogy event are expected to arrive in summer and, because gator traps feature in certain questlines, some folk are convinced that there's gonna be a big ol' alligator out to feed on the unwary.
Fifield also says that while the team are working on a new map and biome, it sadly won't hit this year. It's currently planned for "early 2024" which, says Fifield, is because they want to launch it as close to perfect as possible. The wider context though is that 2023 is going to see the Hunt team focused on more backend priorities such as better servers, squashing a persistent reload bug at the root, and migrating the game to the current version of CryEngine alongside delivering current-gen console versions before the end of the year.
The reaction to this among the Hunt: Showdown community has been almost universally enthusiastic. This is a game absolutely beloved by its devotees, and when Fifield is talking about all this infrastructure stuff as a priority, they're onboard, not least because this focus shows an unmistakeable long-term commitment to the game on Crytek's part: You don't strengthen the foundations unless you're planning to be around for some time to come.