Marking the game’s biggest upgrade since its launch, Crytek’s online FPS, Hunt: Showdown 1896 is retooled and even retitled for today’s hardware. Fundamentally the game migrates to CryEngine 5.11, complete with a suite of visual upgrades, DirectX 12 support, and most crucially, a release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S. At last, this means that consoles receive real time lighting via SVOGI – Sparse Voxel Octree Global Illumination – in an enhanced form that allows both diffuse lighting and a simulation of light across rougher, specular materials. There’s improved hair rendering, noticeably in the game’s loadout menu. We have support for upscaling technologies like AMD’s FSR and Nvidia’s DLSS – where FSR2 in particular is used on consoles. Plus, there’s a 60 frames per second target this time, double that of the 30fps on all last-gen PS4 and Xbox One machines. So the questions here are simple: what’s the state of this latest CryEngine effort on today’s best consoles? How do the three versions compare? And how successfully does each hit a stable 60fps?
In terms of the basics, PS5 and Series console owners get a free upgrade much like PC and this keeps all progress from last-gen machines. Much of its winning PvPvE design stays intact as well. As a bounty hunter, you’re unleashed in an alternate USA with a supernatural twist. From Louisiana’s bayou to the rocky mountains of Colorado, eldritch horrors fill out a large, desolate landscape; each mine, mill and pit teeming with zombies and giant spiders. The goal? To track down your target monster, defeat it, and collect a bounty token from its corpse – all while avoiding other online clans of up to three players.
Hunt: Showdown effectively uses CryEngine to sculpt a photorealistic landscape, built on accurately lit materials – while its horror aspect adds genuine tension as you scan for clues, or avoid enemy players. It’s earned something of a cult following for good reason. Playing today, I will admit there are rough spots on consoles though: texture and enemy pop-in are still noticeable. Also, the brightness level on PS5 is much too dark by default, and did need adjusting to be able to see anything at night. It has a few visual bugs in AI pathfinding as well, but the high points of CryEngine still shine through overall.
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