Hunt the Night review

Extermination missions, Game Boy Advance-era visuals, and Soulslike tests of reflexes await.

Counting the sheer number of influences found in Hunt the Night could be daunting. Visually, the game employs the same kind of gothic pixel art found in the trio of Castlevania titles for the Game Boy Advance. Here, dilapidated castles are filled with decaying statues of hooded figures. Tiled floors have become inundated with moss and pools of swampy water. Bosses like wolves with tattered hides and sorceresses able to control giant snakes fill the land of Medhram. All are rendered with detailed, hand-drawn spritework. Only an onscreen user interface drawn in a higher resolution disrupts the appearance of playing a 16-bit game.

Hunt the Night’s plot imagines a centuries-old standoff between the factions of Day and Night. On one side of the equation is humanity, who enjoyed the safety of enduring sunshine initiated by a blood oath. But now, twilight has tipped the balance, and hordes of nocturnal monstrosities are responsible for the land’s dilapidated appearance. You play as Vesper, a Stalker tasked with pushing back the Night. Mercifully, you have a fairly versatile arsenal for use on the game’s collection of hunts.

Slash and Dash

Not only can Vesper wield different types of melee weapons, but she can use three different guns, as well as a regenerating Dark Art ability. Initially, the protagonist is armed with “The Promise” a blade once used by her mother who vanished a quarter century ago. As with most inaugural game arms, it generates a meager amount of damage. However, you’re able to switch it out with claws, daggers, and other swords when you discover them. Each accommodates a slightly different play style by offering a different blend of strength, speed, and range.

Vesper’s various firearms have a limited amount of ammo. Fortunately, you regenerate bullets by successfully dishing out combos or visiting areas that restock your guns. Along with the constrained number of grenades that Vesper carries, bullets can be used to injure subordinates and bosses, but you’ll also need them to activate triggers that make fragments of the ground traversable. These sections undoubtedly recall the dungoneering of The Legend of Zelda series, as you rapidly shoot and scramble across temporary platforms. But unlike the Nintendo series, it’s quite possible to become stuck in an area without enough ammo and no way to earn additional bullets.

Instead of mimicking the simplistic attacks of yesteryear, Hunt the Night follows the meticulousness found in a modern Soulslike. It might be possible to combo some basic enemies right out of existence, but you’ll have to approach tougher foes more prudently. There’s usually (but not always) some kind of fleeting tell that communicates the need to dash away from imminent danger. But the Night’s adversaries are flagrantly fast, inciting cycles of successive hits and i-frames. Expectedly, bosses require a near-perfect mastery of your entire toolset.

An Uneven Expedition

With little tolerance for mistakes, frustration will be frequent. Some of this is intentional. Hunt the Night’s journey will take you through labyrinthine areas without any kind of map for navigation. As such, you’ll probably play the game like your standard Metroidvania- deliberately exploring areas that are adjacent to the security of save points. But other irritations could have been prevented. Vesper’s peculiar collision detection can make crossing gaps needlessly hazardous. Similarly, you’ll probably take far too much damage from dashing into hazards. Animation canceling would have been a welcome addition since injury sporadically occurs from the game’s lightning-fast foes. Smaller oversights range from opponents that can strike you when facing the opposite direction to hiccups when shifting to a new part of the map. Additionally, the game crashed twice, although I wasn’t able to duplicate the error.

The Night Holds Potential

Hopefully, developer Moonlight Games can fix most of these inconveniences. Leading right up to Hunt the Night’s full release, the studio was releasing bug-squashing patches that mended some earlier issues. Undoubtedly, the game demonstrates moments of aptitude. Occasionally, a boss battle extends a consummate test of control. In other moments, a Zelda-like switch puzzle assesses reflexes as well as your reasoning skills. And unlike many modern games, death doesn’t feel punitive. You’ll forfeit nothing and probably gain just enough currency to give you a slight edge on your next attempt.

As such, you might want to wait on Night to see if Moonlight truly makes good on their objectives. Undoubtedly, it’s an ambitious title, drawing on a multitude of inspirations, yet it still feels distinctive enough to stand on its own. If the studio can eradicate this annoyance with the same intensity that Vesper uses to push back the Night, things could turn out OK.

Hunt the Night was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.