Since its legacy release as Hunt: Showdown on PS4 back in February 2020, Crytek’s superlative PvPvE extraction shooter has certainly had its fair share of post release event content. Bringing forth new weapons, skins, Hunters and objectives to complete, these events have proven to be reliably entertaining diversions from Hunt: Showdown’s core raison d’etre as they would provide additional progression hooks to keep players interested.
With Hunt: Showdown’s recent metamorphosis into the now current generation exclusive Hunt: Showdown 1896, we’ve gotten our first properly chunky event in the form of Post Malone’s Murder Circus. As if the title didn’t give it away, versatile country/grunge/hip-hop artist Post Malone is both the inspiration and a key component of this event and of course, it helps that the man himself is a legitimately gushing and long time committed fan of Hunt: Showdown 1896, too.
At a basic level, Post Malone’s Murder Circus functions similarly to other events from a progression standpoint in that you have a purchasable battle pass that contains rewards (new Hunters – including Post Malone himself as the ‘Deposed King’, new weapons, items and so on) at each level that can be obtained by simply gaining precious event XP during your hunt.
In sticking with its gothic circus theme, event XP can be accumulated by taking down murderous Circus Grunts, in whose ranks all manner of grotesque clowns, mimes and other such painted artists number, though it is a touch disappointing that many of these Circus Grunts offer nothing especially fresh in terms of their combat abilities as their clumsy melee attacks have all been seen before.
Another way to scoop up event XP is to pop the various balloons that can now be seen dotted around every map. The thing is, when you pop these balloons obviously you’re creating a whole lot of noise that can alert enemy Hunters to your location, which adds yet another vector to Hunt: Showdown 1896’s taut, stealth gameplay. So if you do see these balloons floating about, it’s important to consider whether or not you should pop it and if you decide that you do, exactly what you’re going to do afterward (hint – staying in the same area/spot generally isn’t a good plan).
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In truth, these two things are just appetisers for the core elements of Post Malone’s Murder Circus. Whilst the event is active, each map will play host to the Murder Circus itself and within a new nightmare reveals itself – Ursa Mortis. Essentially a rotting bipedal, two-headed bear driven mad and insanely strong by the Corruption, Ursa Mortis is harder than a freezer full of frozen turds because not only does this not-so care bear hit like a Mack truck, but it also alarmingly moves like one too, viciously charging after players it senses are bleeding, deepening their misery yet further still.
As you might well have already guessed, you can use this particularly vicious behaviour to your advantage if you’re shrewd enough. For example, if multiple enemy hunters are seen to be congregating around the Murder Circus and they have engaged the beast, tapping one of them with a bleed condition can result in the sort of chaos that either allows you to hang back and mop up whoever is left if you’re feeling brave enough, or, escape to safety. This is yet just one more example of how Post Malone’s Murder Circus builds upon the core tactical mechanics of Hunt: Showdown 1896. Oh and killing Ursa Mortis offers up a funky random trait to whomever lands the killing blow, too. So there’s that.
Beyond its various baddies, balloons and progression rewards however, the centrifugal aspect of Murder Circus is arguably its Pledge Mark and Troupe faction system. During the Murder Circus event players are invited to pledge their allegiance to one of three new Troupe factions that each grant a series of unique traits for Hunters willing to get their hands dirty.
With the Trickshooter Troupe players can gain traits that reduce weapon sway and allow the retrieval of blades previously launched into enemies. Next up, the Mystic Troupe has Dark Sight focused traits that allow Hunters to better track enemies and manipulate objects in the environment – such as doors – remotely, while another trait provides a visual representation whenever a loud noise has been made, allowing you to track down the source much more easily. Finally, the Ringmaster Troupe allows monsters to be damaged and killed through Dark Sight and offers up a trait that adds extra Dark Sight time when looting Hunters regardless if you’re carrying a Bounty Token or not.
For my money, the Ringmaster Troupe gives the most useful bang for your buck, as it not only allows you to murder certain enemy mobs at range, but the additional Dark Sight time when looting enemy Hunters becomes especially useful when it comes to tracking down their teammates – who are often not very far behind. There’s also a progression system in place regulating all of this too, where you’ll need Pledge Marks to unlock each tier within your chosen Troupe. Pledge Marks can be earned the old fashioned way by using 25 event XP to purchase a single mark, or, you can simply murder another Hunter and steal theirs which more often than not, I ended up doing anyway.
Finally, should you find yourself not wanting to invest your precious Pledge Marks into a given Troupe, you can use five of them to purchase Murder Circus’ new weapon, the Shredder. A ranged weapon that can fire off ricocheting saw blades that explode on impact, this extremely powerful weapon is an absolute game changer if you can get your hands on it – but be quick, there’s only one available in each Bounty Hunt mission.
Certainly the biggest and most rewarding event yet for Hunt: Showdown 1896, Post Malone’s Murder Circus not only succeeds in freshening up the base experience duly with its new enemies and progression rewards, but so too does it expand each Hunter’s tactical arsenal by virtue of its risk/reward driven Troupe faction system. Brash and entertaining like the man whose name it carries, Post Malone’s Murder Circus is a great addition to Hunt: Showdown 1896 and sets down a lofty blueprint for other events to follow in the future.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is out now on PS5.