Hunt: Showdown Video Diary Shows Off Interactive Level Designs

A new dev diary for Hunt: Showdown detailed the sandbox-style levels that players can interact with while hunting monsters and humans alike.

An upcoming game from Crytek, the game creators behind Crysis and other hits, Hunt: Showdown tasks players to work alongside a partner while hunting grotesque creatures like massive spiders and other prizes. While working to take down the monsters in pairs, other teams will also be working to accomplish the same task, so the PvP element will likely be just as threatening as the PvE.

The latest video from Hunt: Showdown's devs that was uploaded to the game's YouTube channel on Friday focuses more on the game's levels, areas that seem to offer quite a bit of potential for interactions and decision-making. Described as a "very sandbox environment" by the developers, the decisions that hunters make in Hunt: Showdown will play directly into how they navigate through environmental obstacles while avoiding or eliminating the other players.

Whether it's a ladder or a nearby sledgehammer, each part of the game's levels seems to be taken into consideration when creating innovative ways for players to progress. Locked doors that can only be open from the inside can be smashed through with a nearby sledgehammer or axe, but players can also shoot the lock through gaps in a buildings walls, all of which will come with their own corresponding sounds to alert other players of actions. Birds fly away and dogs bark when players draw near, so even if you can't see your enemy, you can keep track of them through a range of tools.

Regarding their previous games, Hunt: Showdown's creative director Magnus Larbrant says that they're keeping the tactical elements of Crysis in mind when creating the levels of their upcoming game.

"What made this company is open world, sandbox, you're walking around in a cool environment and you're approaching compounds—you're doing this in Crysis, right?" Larbrant said. "And if you take a look at Hunt, you're in an open world, a sandbox world, you're moving around compounds, you're trying to infiltrate them. You have some special powers and stuff like this. A lot of gun play, a first person shooter. This is why we're doing this game: we're playing to the strength of what we know."

Hunt: Showdown doesn't have a release date yet, but an early access or beta period is expected prior to its full release.