We checked out a developer-led, prerecorded gameplay segment of Crytek's upcoming game, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, a four-player, cooperative third-person shooter.  The game is set in the late 1800s with a squad of four men fighting back against mythical beasts. It's a group of otherwise ordinary people set up against extraordinary circumstances.  Though the video was noted to be representative of an early version of the game, it was a supercut from the four players' perspectives and served to show what the game is all about.

Starting off, the four hunters had a simple task: assassinate the witch found in a desolate bayou village in the middle of a Louisiana swamp.  The four players made their way into the village, fighting off the inhabitants with a mix of firearms and melee weapons, such as fire axes.  Player mobility is important, as players can leap over railings or through windows to get away from a lopsided fight, and they can dodge to the side to avoid attacks.  The gameplay is very similar to the Left 4 Dead series, just in the third-person perspective with a more Victorian tilt and a lot more bowler hats.

The players faced off against a variety of enemies, from fast and agile crawling monsters to large and lumbering thugs that wielded sledgehammers.  Monsters can grab onto careless players, and if the player does not mash the left mouse button fast enough, it results in their untimely death.  Players who have died can later be rescued further in the level, such as being released from chained-up coffins or shot down from being tied upside-down in a tree.  This presumably lets players who have been killed get back into the action, but only if their team can progress far enough without them.

During the areas where the game gets briefly quieter, the players searched through the houses for additional weapons and supplies.  This was made more important as the four made their way to the boss fight, a witch who floated around a cemetery and used a ranged attack and a deadly grapple to inflict harm upon the four hunters.  The fight seemed to go on for a significant amount of time, but in true teaser fashion, the prerecorded footage ended before we got to see who came out on top.

Without being able to play the game, it is difficult to get a feel for it, but the impression I get is that Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age plays clever homage to games like Left 4 Dead while striving to make its own mark on the genre.  The game will release this fall on PC and consoles, though it was impossible to learn which digital distribution platform for the former and which actual platforms for the latter.  We'll learn more details as the game progresses in its development.