The latest unit to come to Hunt: Showdown’s swamp is a fiery corpse-walker from, called the Immolator
Many Hunt: Showdown players will tell you how dangerous fire is in the game. Now, Hunt: Showdown developers Crytek are leaning into this premise by adding a brand new firey unit called The Immolator.
This fiery creature rushes after Hunters, eager to get to them quickly and release a wave of death and destruction. Because the environment in Hunt makes it difficult for players and NPCs to traverse in a straight line at times, the development team had to get creative with the unit.
“For example, if he can’t reach your Hunter, he will blow up a barrel or kill other AI. That behavior really adds a lot to the game, though at the time, the technology we had wasn’t quite ready for it,” said Bence Kovacs, the team’s junior technical designer, in a recent blog post about creating the creature.
Initially, the Immolator looks like any other undead creature wandering the Louisiana swamplands, until players shoot him. At this point he ignites, rushing after them in hopes of bringing them down with him.
What makes fire so dangerous? When players go into a co-op Hunt: Showdown match and a player is downed, enemy players can ensure the down player’s partner cannot revive them by lighting them on fire. Because an NPC now can do this, this raises the difficulty of casual engagements.
Players can expect to see the Immolator wandering the infested Louisiana swamps in Hunt: Showdown right now, as it releasd with the game’s 5.0 update. You can also check out the video below to get a taste of the NPC’s gameplay mechanics in action.
Also, if you haven’t heard, Hunt: Showdown is coming to the Xbox One this spring.
