The year is 18… something. Not that years matter anymore. Not since the End. What’s left of Napoleonic Europe is ravaged by the Hunger; people twisted by the Bacterium disease into foul, zombie-like creatures. All anyone can do in these plagued lands is survive. And complete quests. And find amazing loot. And escape to live another day. That’s life in Hunger, the next game from the developers behind Hell Let Loose. Launching in early access on PC in 2025, Hunger is a grimdark take on the extraction shooter. If you’ve seen the debut trailer we exclusively revealed recently, you may have already drawn parallels between it and Hunt: Showdown – both share a filthy, earthy aesthetic that ground their fantastical ideas in historic reality. But Hunger is mechanically very different from many extraction shooters you may have played. “We think players will probably feel that the most unique aspect of Hunger is our replacement of the usual gear progression gameplay loop with something more akin to an RPG like Skyrim or Cyberpunk 2077, where you build a character over time and specialise them towards a certain playstyle,” explains Maximilian Rea, CEO at developer Good Fun Corporation. Using Hunger’s progression systems you’ll take a character (chosen from a pool of heroes, each with their own backstory) on a journey from level one to 100, with each milestone unlocking abilities from a variety of ‘Mastery trees’. Each is devoted to a particular specialisation, from combat and stealth to skills that aid teammates. “We’ve found that these allow players to really build into a certain way of playing that ends up keeping the experience fresh and allows very extreme build variety,” says Rea.One of Hunger’s many Mastery trees, designed to allow specialisation in unique playstyles.Rea discusses an exciting array of potential character builds and playstyles: “Some players will grab a gun and hunt other players. Some will lie in ambush and rely on stealth to surprise their enemies with an axe blow to the head, or they’ll build a character that is an escape artist. Others will spend most of their time trying to find the best loot by cracking locks. Some players will focus only on questing, or later on pursuing a profession to make money and craft useful items, and some players will focus solely on sustaining their group.” Many extraction shooters already allow players to choose how they’ll navigate each match, but Hunger’s ambition to provide deeper specialisation that evolves over time makes its RPG systems sound more than just tacked-on numerical stats. Rea tells me that going all-in on the stealth Mastery tree morphs the play experience into something akin to the Thief games, particularly when played solo. That’s something I really like the sound of – smart gear choices in other extraction games allow you to somewhat tailor yourself to solo, competitive, or cooperative tactics, but it seems like Hunger’s potential playstyles will instead be driven by those extensive character build options.The most unique aspect of Hunger is our replacement of the usual gear progression gameplay loop with something more akin to an RPG.While my own preferences draw me to be curious about stealth, the brief snippet of gameplay in the trailer promises massive, loud guns. That’s unsurprising; before setting up Good Fun Corporation to develop Hunger, Rea and his team were known as Black Matter and created the intense WW2 shooter Hell Let Loose. “We learned a lot about creating solid gunplay when we worked on Hell Let Loose, focusing on punchy animations, satisfying recoil, and impactful sound effects,” says Rea. “Fans of our previous title will be reassured to find that we’ve improved on what we’ve learned while building an entirely new system.”Being set in the early 1800s means Hunger can’t benefit from the chattering MG 42s that Hell Let Loose provides. But the project is not aiming to be historically accurate, and that means a wilder arsenal than history could ever provide. Yes, there’s crude flintlocks complete with slow reloads, but also a variety of “experimental jury-rigged mechanical semi automatics and automatics.” Hunger’s arsenal includes a variety of fictional weapons that provide a bigger bang than period-accurate flintlocks.The most significant difference between the team’s projects, though, is that Hunger also has a full melee combat system inspired by games like Chivalry and Mordhau. “When you swap from your rifle and draw your sabre, you’ll have a powerful and all-new combat system to learn,” says Rea. “Players may wonder how melee will be viable against ranged weapons, and we’re excited to show how that works in the future.”Weapons and mechanics are only individual parts of combat, though – you need enemies to make it whole. As an extraction shooter the toughest foes are naturally other players, but between you and them are the Hunger. “They range from weaker, fast-moving, and fast-attacking Waif that scuttle across the floor like beetles, to the Brute—a blind behemoth who chases you around while groping at the air,” Rea reveals. The Hunger are zombie-like humans who have fallen prey to the Bacterium. These NPCs are more than just cannon fodder and distractions from your main objectives. “It’s critical to understand that killing the Hunger rewards both experience and loot,” emphasises Rea. “You can, of course, decide to avoid fights, but we want to ensure there are incentives to engage.”With each Hunger variant having its own strengths, weaknesses, and attack patterns, they will hopefully prove formidable opponents. The best extraction shooters use their AI enemies to inject tension, panic, and stress into encounters, and I’m looking forward to seeing how an unexpected Brute can throw a spanner into an otherwise well-planned extraction. But before the extraction is the match itself, which in Hunger is built around completing quests. Each player in an up-to-three-person team is assigned their own quest, and once they have been completed the group can either run for the exit with the equipment they’ve secured or risk pushing on and attempting a new quest. Rea also notes that the map contains a number of other non-quest objectives and secrets that are worth seeking out: “You may decide to deal with a more challenging mini-boss style Hunger on the map. They drop great loot if you can take them down. Or you may choose to ambush other players in a certain location, or head to a small cave nearby where you know there are specific resources to gather for your profession.”Working together to complete quests and hunt other players is key to each match of Hunger.After successfully escaping a match with all your spoils, you’ll return to the Chateau; Hunger’s home base and player hub. Rea says it “functions much like a capital city in a roleplaying game,” and is home to vendors that allow you to craft new items, access new orders, progress your character’s professions, and more. It sounds much like Destiny’s Tower, but Rea promises that it also features “robust progression” that is “driven entirely by the story and quests.” The extraction shooter has proven an exciting genre so far because developers have interpreted its rules in such differing ways – the dungeon-crawling Dark and Darker is a stablemate with the alien-nuking Helldivers 2, and both only have base similarities with Escape from Tarkov, the accepted father of the genre. Hunger seems to be following that trend, at least as far as Rea’s descriptions of its ideas go. We’ve sadly only been able to see a few seconds of gameplay so far, but hopefully further looks and the eventual early access release will prove Hunger has what it takes to stand alongside – and, importantly, also apart – from genre titans like Hunt: Showdown.Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
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