The extraction shooter is at this point a dozen. And for my money, you really have to do something different that stands out in an increasingly crowded genre. That’s why I met up with a few developers from the Good Fun Corporation team and showed them their upcoming zombies and tastic first-person action RPGs with Unreal Engine 5, using the extraction loop.
Yes, the developers have stated that in particular as it appears to be considered simply another extraction shooter game. And to be fair to them, based on what I saw about the impressive early build (the team’s early access launch was still far enough, and they gave me an on-the-record release window so I wasn’t quite comfortable yet), the hunger would be anything other than another common extraction shooter of steam piles.
Two things about hunger quickly piqued my interest: its visual aesthetic and its actual vision. Starting with the former, game director Maximilian Leah described the look of the hanger as “renaissance gothic.” As you can see in the video and screenshots in this article, Hunger mixes first-generation firearms with brutal melee weapons in the towns and illustrious castles of Filthy Lived In In. And from a raw graphics perspective, the details of the leaves, lighting and texture are all absolutely fantastic. This is one of the best uses for Unreal Engine 5 I’ve seen so far.
But you might ask, what about that actually? play? Sadly, my demo was just the first look of a handoff so I still can’t answer that, but it seems to be built to continue. In short, the team told me, they aim to simplicity of the Ark Raiders with the complexity of escape from Tarkov. You start with the outer walls, a social and violence-free hub within the chateau where other players and NPCs roam around likewise. Like Destiny, you can switch to the third person perspective here if you want (but in proper combat it always goes first person). Here you can shop with Piro, a quirky shopkeeper who wears a strange metal mask and offers items for sale in trays worn around the neck as if they were a cigarette girl from the 1920s. Alternatively, you can add or remove items from the stash by checking in with Louis, the stash master who occasionally kicks out quests. Meanwhile, Reynauld is the expedition master. He is missing some of his fingers, indicating that he is at least once in a zombie contest, and telling him will line you up on the expedition (i.e., raid).
The first early access release includes three maps: Jack Bridge, Songle Forest and Salrat Farm. Each one is 1 square kilometre, and each has a large dungeon below it. Expect six weather varieties per map, including noon (transparent), noon (fog), sunset and sunrise. Something more dynamic will be added after release. Rea explained that she is aiming for 50-60 hours of content here, unlocking Cauldron, the new area of the Chateau. You will learn your profession there. There are six occupations. Three gatherings (including cleaning, you are a provider of metals and materials, and the guardian who found the mechanisms and trinkets that make tools and guns, and the naturalist who gathers herbs and spices to make food, drinks and medicines) and three crafts. You can have two professions at once.
The story of this map is that there was a civil conflict when bacteria that led to hunger began. When you play, there is a lore to find and extract. As an example of this, mischief and maps are common, rare, or legendary. And if you extract it in Missib you can get XP worth reading it at the Chateau. Once you find everything, you can read the entire story of the game. The developers also plan to tell the story through NPC dialogs. “We’re trying to inject a story into every aspect of the game,” Rea told me.
Hunger all have different qualities and aspects. That means only the brawl will silence you. Meanwhile, filming causes a stir and leads to more hunger. Bloody is like a mass exploding into a cloud of toxic gases, an example of such a hunger. Shambler hits, on the other hand, cause bleeding injuries.
There are a whopping 33 weapons between melee and long distances, from daggers, pistols and rifles to maces and primitive machine guns. You can find exotic ammunition for your gun and add damage effects to your bullets. And yes, if you need to scratch that itch, there is a dedicated PVP experience. Additionally, there is a master tree, and when you level up from 10-100, you will see the master points. This includes four trees: physiology, survival, martial arts and unning. Developers hope there are multiple ways to advance the game beyond PVP.
In fact, you can play solo or duo if you like. “Being a solo or a duo player is not a death sentence,” Leah said. “It’s actually one of the quickest ways to advance in the game.” It also unlocks progress cosmetics, such as leveling up or killing bosses. Yes, all weapons and bags have cosmetics.
Hangers are not available for free to play. I hope this will help ensure that its design principles are not compromised by favorable nonsense. And there is definitely no battle pass. They mentioned the “Support the Developers” edition, which includes additional cosmetics for those priced at $30 or more, the team aims to be in the standard edition.
As for how long the session lasts, Rea suggested that the low end of the expedition could be between 30 and 35 minutes. If you die, everything you do contributes to XP’s profits, so the goal is that you never have a meaningless session. “If they play for an hour, I want them to feel like they’ve moved the ball forward meaningfully for the character,” Rhea said.
The hunger may still be apart, but from what I have already seen, the team (unleashed hell) appears to be cooking something unique and worthy of attention. As development progresses, hunger for Passthecontroller increases.
Ryan McCaffrey is the executive editor of Passthecontroller previews and is a host of both Passthecontroller’s Weekly Xbox Show. Unlock podcastsand our monthly (-ish) interview show, Passthecontroller is not filtered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so he’s “Taylorham” rather than “pork roll.” Discuss it with him on Twitter @dmc_ryan.
