Hunt: Showdown 1896

1. Summary

Hunt: Showdown 1896 splits its players more than its lifetime Steam score suggests. Positive and negative reviews alike praise the bayou and mountain maps, sound design that lets you track a hunter by the floor he walks on, and slow, lethal gunfights where one headshot ends a fight. Fans say nothing else plays like it, and some long-time players who edited their reviews say the game has recovered from its rough 1896 relaunch. Cheating is the complaint raised most often (12% of reviews). Matchmaking is another frequent grievance: after a short run of bot matches, new players say they land in lobbies with veterans. Reviewers also complain about servers and reconnects, players connecting from distant regions for a latency edge, and paid extras such as the story challenges and player cards that reviewers say arrived in December 2025.

Many positive reviews list the same flaws as negative ones and recommend the game anyway, and some negative reviews still call the gunplay or the core loop the best they have played. Reading across the reviews, a player's situation seems to matter a great deal: those who play with friends in mid-ranked lobbies tend to describe the game they hoped for, while solo newcomers and high-rank veterans describe a rougher one.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Atmosphere, art and a setting nothing else copiesHigh

Reviewers praise the world: a grim southern gothic bayou, the Colorado mountain map, monsters that players describe as both gross and memorable, and the soundtrack, which one reviewer says has made its way into their daily playlists. 5% of reviews call the game unique or say nothing else plays like it, from newcomers and long-time veterans alike. Long-time players add one caveat: some feel newer skins and crossover characters (Post Malone, Ghostface) dilute the tone, and a few miss the Book of Weapons and Book of Monsters, which reviewers say were removed from the game.

Sound design that doubles as a weaponHigh

Players describe identifying guns and distance by gunshot alone, tracking footsteps through walls, and fearing crows, horses and broken glass that give positions away. One reviewer put it as "Distances and effects on sound are tuned so that echolocation is not only possible, but a primary method of survival". Some reviewers add two qualifiers. A smaller group says audio has become less reliable after updates (vertical direction, missing footsteps, rain drowning everything out), and a hearing-impaired player who does not recommend the game warned "The game relies mostly on the sound system which is delicate as the only way to obtain information."

Slow, lethal gunplay where every shot countsMedium

Period guns with long reloads, scarce ammo and one-shot headshots draw steady praise. Players like that a cheap rifle can still kill an expensive loadout and that fights reward positioning and patience over spraying. One reviewer who also lists plenty of complaints wrote "Best gunplay of any shooter. Period." Tarkov and Arc Raiders come up as comparisons, with mixed verdicts; a handful of reviewers like that Hunt has no loot to sort or inventory to manage, just a loadout and a fight.

Best played with friendsMedium

Reviewers who bring up friends or a regular squad mostly say the game shines in a coordinated duo or trio. "Fun with friends" is a common short review, and some describe solo play or random teammates as far more frustrating.

Runs well on LinuxLow

A small group of Linux and Steam Deck players report that the game works through Proton with its anti-cheat enabled.

Where players are split

Monetization: cosmetic-only to some, nickel-and-diming to othersHigh

Defenders stress that nothing is pay-to-win, that the battle pass can pay for the next one, and that the base game is cheap on sale ("Very fair monetization, no need to spend a dime if you don't want to."). Critics describe a paid game run like a free-to-play one: a long list of DLC packs, a constant battle pass, FOMO skins, and fewer ways to earn Blood Bonds through play. Reviewers say the December 2025 event added story challenges that cost nearly twice as much as a battle pass and had to be completed to unlock the cosmetics they paid for, plus paid player-card items. One long, much-edited review lays this out and sums up the objection as "Players are now paying for access to chores, not content." The same reviewer reports that the price was later reduced and the time limit to complete the challenges removed, while the limited purchase window stayed, and says the changes don't fix the underlying problem.

The 1896 menus and UIMedium

The August 2024 relaunch interface was the main complaint in that launch window: 33% of reviews written in the following three weeks mention the UI or menus, citing console-style horizontal menus, extra clicks to hire and equip a hunter, and store ads on the home screen. Some reviewers later edited to say the menus got better, but others report that menus and keybinds change again with each major update, that game modes switch themselves, and that loadout management still needs too many steps. One reviewer called it "the worst UI I've experienced in any game, ever" while still recommending the game; another wrote simply "Game keeps getting better but the UI keeps getting worse."

Has it recovered since 1896, or lost its identity?Medium

Some reviews say the game improved, often edits that flip a negative review back to positive after performance, menus and maps were restored: "As of the end of 2025 most of the issues with the 1896 update has been addressed." Others argue the game has lost its slow, hardcore identity: faster-firing weapons, special ammo on everything, self-revives, burning that ends fights quickly, nonstop events and crossover skins. "I wish 2.0 was a sequel so we didn't lose 1.0" captures that side. Plenty on both sides still praise the core loop.

Steep learning curve: rewarding or a wall?Medium

Most reviews that mention the learning curve treat it as worth the effort: "If you're patient and don't mind losing a lot while you learn, Hunt is incredibly rewarding and nothing else plays quite like it." A few call it brutal, and the newcomers who bounce off the game tend to describe the same wall as a matchmaking failure (see below).

Solo play and self-reviveMedium

Solo players say the main mode has no solo-only queue, so they always face duos and trios. Team players say the opposite: the Necromancer trait and other solo buffs let a downed solo stand back up behind them, and some want solos removed from team queues. Players in both camps ask for separate queues.

Performance after the engine upgradeMedium

Some reviews say the 1896 engine upgrade crushed frame rates at launch and that later patches made the game run well again. Others still report stutter while running between compounds, texture pop-in even on high-end cards, frame drops in rain, and crashes on some AMD setups. A few lost access entirely when the game began requiring AVX2 CPUs.

Recent rule changes: loadout points and bigger lobbiesLow

Reviewers describe two experiments. A test of 15-player matches drew both "reinvigorated my love of this game" and complaints of spawn fights and chaos. The 2026 loadout rework that reviewers describe as a point and slot system drew praise for shaking up the meta and complaints that every build became a rifle plus a short shotgun with less special ammo.

Weather, night and visibilityLow

Some like rain and night maps for tension; others say rain noise drowns out the audio the game depends on, night is too dark without changing monitor gamma, and players cannot choose conditions.

What frustrates players

Cheaters and reports that seem to go nowhereHigh

Reviewers describe wallhacks, aimbots and impossible shots, especially at five- and six-star ranks and on European and Asian servers, plus opponents with VAC bans on their Steam profiles and fresh accounts. Reviewers who mention the in-game report button describe it as useless and say real action requires recording footage and filing a support ticket. "Reports feel like they vanish into a void." A high-rank player who quit wrote "There's no point grinding to high rank when matches feel compromised." A handful of reviewers, some of them long-time six-star players, say the cheating complaints are overblown and that many "cheaters" are good players using sound and wallbangs.

Matchmaking that feeds newcomers to veteransHigh

Two groups complain about different things. New players, often with only a few hours, describe a few easy matches against bots up to level 11, then lobbies full of prestiged veterans, often just after Steam's two-hour refund window has passed: "It makes learning the game feel less like a progression and more like being thrown in as target practice." Veterans describe a six-star ceiling that lumps very different skill levels together, rankings that are hard to drop, and mixed lobbies where a five- or six-star solo lands among two- and three-star teams. Both groups say low population in some regions makes it worse.

Ping abuse, no region lock and unreliable hitsHigh

The reviewers who raise ping or region locking are among the most experienced in the slice. They say players from distant regions join European and North American servers because high latency helps them win trades, producing deaths behind cover, shots that register for the other side, and frequent mutual kills. "What I do mind is feeling like the outcome of a gunfight was determined by connection quality rather than by who played the situation better." Several recall that a ping limit was briefly tested and then pulled: "There was a week where region lock was being tested, it was great! Then they reverted it back." Players in Oceania and other thinly populated regions report the opposite problem: few nearby players or servers.

Servers, crashes and broken reconnectsHigh

The specific complaints repeat: rubber-banding and packet loss, reviewers' claims of a 30-tick server rate, disconnects that cost a leveled hunter, and a reconnect that sends players through splash screens and often fails. One short review asks "can you at least make reconnecting to the game possible?" Others report launch failures after updates (some tied to the anti-cheat), settings reset by patches, and a Telekom connection problem that a few reviewers report.

Camping and bush playMedium

Reviewers complain about players who sit in bushes, corners or trapped buildings for half a match, especially in high-rank lobbies. "Entire matches feel like a nature documentary where everyone is pretending to be a shrub." Some defend it as valid tactics or joke about becoming bush campers themselves.

Not enough new maps and bossesMedium

Long-time players ask for real content: few maps and bosses after years of support, events that recycle earlier mechanics, and weapons or features added and later removed. They contrast this with the steady flow of skins.

Unexplained bansLow

A small group reports bans they consider false, from anti-cheat flags they could not get explained to suspensions over chat, and describes appeals as a dead end.

No crossplay or cross-progression with consoleLow

Players moving from Xbox regret starting their progression over, others want to play with friends on console, and a few PC players on Game Pass say they cannot queue with Steam friends.

Missing accessibility optionsLow

A few reviewers ask for a colorblind mode for the brown-and-green palette and for aids for players who cannot rely on directional hearing.

No practice or PvE modeLow

Newer players in particular ask for bot matches, a PvE mode or a way to explore maps without losing a hunter, so they can learn before facing veterans.

3. The player conversation

The tone is unusually personal. The phrase "Hunt giveth, Hunt taketh" or a variant appears in 51 reviews, and others describe a love-hate relationship with the game. Some of the longest reviews are multi-year edit logs that flip between thumbs up and down with each major update, and some negative reviews admit the author will keep playing.

Who raises what is clear. Players with a few hours to a few dozen talk about the jump out of bot matches, losing hunters and gear, and the refund window. Players with hundreds or thousands of hours drive the cheating, ping, server, monetization and lost-identity complaints. Several reports that the game is better again come from edited reviews by players who disliked the August 2024 relaunch.

Reviews written in the weeks after the August 2024 relaunch focus on the UI and performance, and some of those were later edited. Reviews written in December 2025 object to the paid story challenges and player cards. Newcomer complaints about the end of the bot matches run through 2026, mid-2026 reviews argue over the loadout rework, and the September 2026 update drew mixed reactions to its new boss and look.

4. What the developers could do

1. Add a real ping limit or region lock. Veterans ask for it by name, and several recall the short-lived ping limit test as the best stretch of play they had.
2. Make anti-cheat enforcement visible. Reviewers want report feedback, more frequent ban waves and a killcam or other way to review deaths, because the report button feels "like decoration" and cheating is the complaint raised most often.
3. Protect new players after the bot matches. Newcomers say level 11 drops them straight into veteran lobbies just after the refund window, so a longer newcomer bracket, finer MMR tiers and a practice mode would address their main complaint.
4. Fix reconnects and server stability. Disconnects that cost a leveled hunter, packet loss and long trade windows recur across years of reviews, and some reviewers say reliable reconnects would make up for a lot.
5. Keep paid extras clearly optional. Story content behind a paywall, time-limited paid challenges and paid player-card items drew some of the angriest reviews, while defenders accept cosmetic-only skins.
6. Stop reshuffling the UI and finish the PC basics. Players ask for stable menus and keybinds between updates, loadouts that include traits, an owned-items filter, and fewer clicks to hire and equip a hunter.
7. Add solo-only and team-only queue options. Solo players and team players both describe the mixed queues and self-revive as unfair to their side.
8. Ship new maps and bosses, plus accessibility settings. Veterans want content beyond recycled events and skins, and colorblind and weather options would help players the current design shuts out.