Hunt: Showdown

There's no shortage of first-person shooters out there, and there's no shortage of survival horror games to keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for something to leap from the shadows. But Hunt: Showdown manages to take both of these genres and blend them together seamlessly into an original experience where you're always both the hunter and the prey. Silently skulking through swamps to avoid gaining the attention of everything from bloated undead corpses, pack of rabid dogs, and giant man-eating spiders is challenging enough. But knowing at any moment you might wind up in the crosshairs of fellow Hunter makes the tension so thick you might need a machete to cut through it.

Hunt: Showdown gives players a lot of tools to help out with in their hunts. The guns feel sufficiently powerful, but also show their age. These aren't modern day assault rifles you're dealing with. Ammo is also in limited supply, and enemies, both of the undead and the living varieties, can also zero in on the sounds of shooting or explosions. This encourages players to use a more tactical and sneaky method to slip past foes unnoticed. All that goes out the window, though, once you zero in on a boss. Even beating back the beast isn't enough, as you're usually at your most vulnerable here and other players are always eager to swoop in like vultures and pick at your bones if given the chance. It's usually a frantic race to escape in one piece, and it can be an adrenaline-fueled way to finish a match. If there's one gripe to be had, it's that matches quickly can get a bit repetitive. There's a very limited selection of maps available, with day and night variants, and they all take place deep in the swamps. These aren't small plots of land by any means, but an occasional change in the scenery could definitely help. But if you're looking to dive into the shadows and track down monsters, you can't go wrong joining this hunt.