Hunt the Night
The main storyline in Hunt the Night revolves around Vesper, an agent of a group known as the Stalkers. There are some clear Bloodborne inspirations to the story including a strong theme of crows and the fact that all of humanity is trapped in the ‘night’, an eternal nighttime where monsters roam and hunt the remaining humans.
It’s down to you to collect several shards so that this nightmare can finally be over. Unlike Bloodborne, Vesper is aided by a whole holdout of humanity watched over and protected by the Stalkers. This area acts as a hub world of sorts can you can find various useful NPCs there or just chat with everyone to get some supplemental story information and world lore.
Whilst environmental storytelling is a little absent, Hunt the Night fills you in on the story with various letters and notes you can find between characters, however, there’s quite a lot of reading in these notes and Hunt the Night would benefit from having voice acting for some of these segments to keep the player engaged.
The opening hour or so of Hunt the Night made me feel like I was headed into a linear action game with a few interesting mechanics. After getting a grasp of the controls and defeating the first boss I was delighted to realize I was in an opened ended hub world. Each direction has something new to find and explore and it reminded me of exploring the map in the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I didn’t want to make such a cliché comparison, but unfortunately it feels the best fitting.
Exploration progression is blocked in several ways, a switch or an ability will be needed to progress further along many of the paths you can take. In true Metroidvania style, the game is open yet secretly funnels you down a set path through breadcrumbing and smaller quests. It’s quite expertly crafted.
Hunt the Night features a variety of weapons types each with their own move set. Most weapons have an added effect such as a plus 10% plague which can inflict a poison ailment or a similar ability that can inflict bleeding. These weapons can be found in chests across the whole game and are usually in slightly harder-to-reach areas or being guarded by several enemies.
To complement your standard weapon, Vesper has access to three types of projectile weapons, a pistol, a shotgun and a crossbow each of which can be used to deal ranged damage attacking enemies from a safer distance. Ammunition is limited to 6 rounds but does automatically regenerate over time as well as being refiled via certain pickups.
Shooting in Hunt the Night is aimed using the right analogue stick and operates a little like the game Enter the Gungeon except you’ll be firmed planted in place, so you need to find somewhere safe or get ready to dodge an enemy or projectile at a moment’s notice. As well as messing up enemies, the projectiles aid in exploration with certain platforms needing to be shot to expand and locks gates can be blasted to gain entry.
There are three levels of upgrades you can get towards your firearms which make them stronger and also add additional effects such as poison.
Speaking of upgrades, Health upgrades are found either via exploration, found in chapels marked with a blood drop or via the hunting system. Hunts can be picked up at the Tavern and have you heading off to slay a particular beast. The mechanic is almost similar to the hunt board from Final Fantasy XII and upon defeating a target, you’ll be rewarded with some currency and a permanent health upgrade. I highly recommend getting these upgrades as early as possible as Hunt the Night can be pretty challenging at times and you’ll most likely die often, I know I did.
Thankfully, checkpoints are abundant throughout the game world and there’s no real penalty for death, you’ll respawn back there pretty quickly ready for another attempt at that boss or section of enemies you found tricky. This is great as it eliminates some of the frustrations of slogging back to boss fight or area in games such as Dark Souls.
Each enemy you defeat will net us some currency which can be spent to upgrade our guns or the amount of healing we can perform. You’ll constantly be collecting money from killing enemies and I have to admit, I did use that opportunity to farm a little during my playthrough while half-watching something on Youtube thanks to playing on the Steam Deck. This is a great feature as although Hunt the Night doesn’t feature an RPG experience bar or traditional levelling up, it does mean you are always slowly improving Vesper’s ability, even if you are defeated.
On the subject of defeat, The bosses in Hunt the Night are quite the spectacle. Most are massive creatures dwarfing poor Vesper and you will most likely die often. Luckily, most of the bosses have attack patterns that are telegraphed and predictable, so you should be able to adapt after a few (or more) attempts.
Learning the boss attack patterns is a lot of fun and you do get a nice sense of accomplishment when you best a particularly troublesome boss that has made life difficult for you for the past 30 mins straight.
Visually, Hunt the Night is very appealing. It may seem a little dark at times but that fits in very well with the theming and setting of the games world. Character animations are complex and charming and really add to the sense of immersion. The enemy design is great, with a couple of what I assume are homages to enemies from Resident Evil and Bloodborne. There’s quite a lot of variety in enemy type also which is great, as I tend to find fighting the same enemy over and over grates on me if it’s through the whole duration of the game.
Paired with the great art direction is some stellar sound design, subtle melodies play throughout the world reflecting and encapsulation the dark and sombre atmosphere. The term ‘less is more’ comes to mind and I think it’s very well done here in Hunt the Night.
Conclusion
Hunt the Night is a fantastic action-adventure game that I would highly recommend picking up. It can be punishing at times, but you are always making progress and getting better. The addictive gameplay loop kept me going back for ‘just one more’ attempt at a few of the bosses and the sense of achievement upon beating said bosses hit all the right dopamine receptors in my brain. In terms of length, Hunt the Night will take you about 13 hours to complete the main campaign which I think is great value for a game priced this low and there are still plenty of secrets and upgrades that I could go back for. I really hope DANGEN Entertainment have plans to make a sequel.
8
Steam review code kindly provided by PR Hound