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Huntdown (Easy Mode) Review

**Spoiler Free**
Quick Overview: Huntdown is a side-scroller retro arcade shooter and platformer that takes place in a cyberpunk dystopia. The game leans heavily into the pixelated arcade-aesthetic with simple but very difficult gameplay. While this is not a game I would personally recommend to the general audience for anything over $5, I do think it accomplishes what it set out to do successfully, and I might recommend it at full price to a specific niche audience that likes to replay these types of games over and over. Otherwise, the $20 price tag is hard for me to justify.
Gameplay: Huntdown is adequality described by it’s labels as a side-scroller, platformer, and arcade shooter. It doesn’t do anything too novel within this genre that needs to be explained. It’s pretty straight forward, and is exactly what I thought this game would be from the trailer and descriptions. And I get the feeling that was exactly what they were trying to go for: a nostalgic trip down a pixelated retro-arcade lane. The thing that sets this game apart, in my eyes, is the difficulty.
You are a bounty hunter trying to kill 4 gang leaders, and levels are divided accordingly. There are 4 gangs to defeat, each with 5 levels that end with a boss (the bosses are all fairly unique). Each level has 3 optional side objectives: kill x number of enemies, find 3 collectables, and complete the level without dying. There are frequent checkpoints in each level, and there is no respawn limit. So if you die, you respawn before that section and get to try again. This makes the game much more accessibly if you are simply trying to play through it and have some light-hearted fun. Dying doesn’t force you to restart the whole level or anything.
There are 3 bounty hunters to choose from. Each has their own primary weapon with unlimited ammo and a unique throwable item. During the levels, you can pick up a variety of secondary weapons and alternate throwables (each with limited ammo). These add some fun variety, but could be strategically saved for bosses. (Note: You can only carry one additional secondary at a time.) Also, the gunplay is just shooting in front of you. There is no manual aiming with the mouse/stick or even firing up or down. You fight enemies head on.
The platforming is straight forward. Think something like Metal Slug. There are usually a couple of floor tiers to side-scroll on as you fight your way through. So you jump onto and drop down from floor tiers. You can also crouch behind cover, and take cover in doorways. Cover only protects you from ranged attacks. Melee attacks and explosions will damage you even while in cover. But aside from this kind of “platforming” and maneuvering, it’s all pretty linear. This isn’t a Metroidvania where you’re exploring a map. You go from left to right. There is little in terms of timing jumps to not fall to your death or anything like that.
Overall, the game is a linear side-scroller shoot’em up, and it’s very simple to engage with.
Controls:
The controls are simple and straight forward (I played on keyboard, but they recommend playing with a gamepad). For my setup, I used the following:

Move Left = A
Move Right = D
Crouch = S
Take cover = W
Jump = I (you should probably use spacebar, I’m just weird like that)
Shoot = J
Throw = K
Dash = L
Action/Switch weapon = E

As you can see, the controls are simple. There are a few quirks, like dropping down a floor tier is “hold down + jump”. But otherwise, it’s all very straight forward. Your primary pistol weapon is semi-automatic, and can require you to spam click to shoot. But most weapons you pick up are fully automatic.
Difficulty: I would say there are two ways to play this game: Casual or Hard-Core. For the casual player, playing on Easy (like I did) is a reasonable challenge. There are difficult sections, but with enough persistence and coordination, you can learn how to get past these sections. I probably died 1-2x per level on average. There were a couple of bosses that ticked that number up to 5 or so. (Apparently I only died 9 times on the final boss. But it felt like much more than that). So on easy, the game is challenging, but not unreasonable. There’s no way to lose, unless you give up.
If you want to play this game Hard-Core by 100 precenting every level on Easy, Normal, Hard, and Badass (which is necessary to get 100% achievements) it will probably be one of the hardest games I’ve ever seen. I don’t actually know what the skill level would be that you would need to just beat the game on those difficulties. But since you would need to have a No Death Run on each level to 100% the game, it is my belief that 100 precenting the game on Brutal is not humanly possible. I can’t even fathom the skill you would need to have to accomplish this. It feels like you would need to “Main” this game, learning every spawn event and attack pattern, and acquiring precise muscle memory if you ever hope to accomplish this. So, you have been warned…
As a casual experience, it can be challenging enough. It’s not very mentally stimulating, because it’s just a lot of action and chaos where you die, respawn, and try again. But I imagine as a game you try to master, it would require every moment of your focus and concentration over the course of your training as you attempt to do the impossible.
Atmosphere: The world of Huntdown is a dystopic one, where a cyberpunk reality has made for a depressing existence for the average citizen. Thankfully, you’re not an average citizen, but a bounty hunter. And your bounty hunting contracts require a ton of action, shooting, explosions, and fast-paced mayhem. This game doesn’t take itself too seriously. There is an obvious tongue-and-cheek satire to this game and how it presents itself. Things like the pixel artstyle and animations are very polished and made with care. But the tropes laden throughout and quippy remarks can be quite humorous.
Personally, I found the character designs of the enemies and gangs to be the most amusing. For example, having a gang based around ice hockey is kind of absurd. I appreciated the humor baked into the title. The locations are also quite visually varied, even though they stick to the same world and aesthetic. Each gang has their territory, and it shows.
The game also has a fair amount of gore. Explosions will blow people up into chunks of blood. I found that you don’t really notice this too much because it can be so chaotic, and you are largely looking at your own character since you are concerned with dodging incoming projectiles and trying to survive.
Overall, the game has a fun retro vibe with humor and chaos imbedded throughout. It didn’t really get me immersed in the world, but it was entertaining in a surfacy kind of way.
Conclusion: Huntdown really plays into it’s genre, and is a polished addition to it. It is a short linear experience that can be a mindlessly-entertaining romp. In the end, it wasn’t really my type of game, but that doesn’t make it a bad game.
If you plan on playing this as a casual experience, I wouldn’t pay more than $5 for this, so wait for a sale. There’s not enough content, and I didn’t find it entertaining enough to feel like my time was well spent. But if you plan on trying to master this game, you will need to replay it to a degree that I suspect is well worth the $20. So unless you are a hard-core gamer that likes to chase record-breaking performances, I would wait for a sale. Even then, I wouldn’t really “recommend” this game. But I’m giving it a recommend because I feel like the game succeeds in what it is trying to do. And if that speaks to you, you’ll probably have a good time.