Recently (October 10), the domestic Furry (meaning anthropomorphic animal) shooting game "Beast Hunting Raid" opened the "Pro Test".
The game was developed by Armed Cat Studios, and the team size is only more than 20 people. From the public interview information, the game news found that Lantin, the producer of "Beast Hunting Raid", has participated in the research and development of the FPS terminal games "Anti-Terrorist Operation" and "Hot Blood Team", and also served as the producer of the FPS mobile game "Xiaomi Shootout", and has considerable experience in the shooting game track.
Even if you don't look at the background of the team, Beast Hunt Raid seems to be a relatively interesting game at the moment.
Start with the "Fury" element to build a new way to play
"Beast Hunt Raid" has actually not been around for a long time. The game will only be revealed in January 2024, and the official positioning itself as the "first Furry hero shooter" at first.
"Fury" is the core selling point of "Beast Hunt Raid", and the heroes and even the gameplay in the game are based on this element.
The character design is determined by the "Fury" element. First of all, the appearance is the most intuitive feature of the character of "Beast Hunting Raid", the game adopts a realistic style + animal-themed character design, and the role is roughly unfolded according to the proportion of seven heads.
The character's positioning can be directly seen based on the appearance, for example, the cow character Ryan has a muscular torso and well-developed upper limbs, and in the middle of the team, he is positioned as a tank.
In addition, the game gives traits and skills to the characters based on the ecological habits of their archetypes.
For example, wolves have some characteristics: they have a strong endurance, a keen sense of smell, and usually live in groups. Combining these qualities, Beast Hunt Strike features Jack the Wolf as a sniper, starting with a passive skill for long-distance runs (with a relatively long dash duration), an active ability that can capture the real-time location of enemies through his sense of smell, and an ultimate ability that allows him to send out a wolf howl and bombard an area.
Wolf character Jack skill showcase
Animal traits also affect the player's gun choice.
In Beast Hunt Raid, players can carry a primary weapon and a secondary weapon at the same time, and there are six types of primary weapons (assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, light machine guns, marksman rifles, and sniper rifles), but not all characters can use all types of firearms.
For example, the prototype rabbit character Rainbow Shadow lacks strength and cannot use assault rifles and light machine guns, and can only use relatively light submachine guns (and double-barreled shotguns), which directly limits the hero's fighting style.
Rainbow Shadow cannot use assault rifles
Fury Hero has a unique personality and skills, so how do you build a stage that is enough to showcase these elements? The answer from Armed Cat Studios is: "Great Battlefield + Hero Skills + Tactical Shooting".
The game adopts a 20vs20 battlefield point capture gameplay. Players are divided into two factions, each with a certain number of points. Players need to participate in a squad of four and occupy the tactical hub for a set amount of time, killing enemies and occupying points will cost the opponent's points, and when one side runs out of points, it will be considered a defeat.
However, it won't be a snowball game - the game will spawn two neutral resources in the mid-to-late game, and if the loot is successful, it will provide a large supply of points, which retains the hope of the underdog to turn the tables.
Schematic diagram of the location of the Mojave operation map
Successfully compete for neutral resources and receive a large amount of points
There is a certain restraint relationship between the skills between the characters, for example, the fox character can throw a smoke bomb and become invisible when entering it, while the wolf character's perception skill can accurately mark its location, so the Great Battlefield gameplay can make each animal character with different positioning have a certain appearance rate.
Also, despite the large size of the map and the lack of a vehicle system in this test, it didn't affect the combat very much, as each character had a four-legged running motion called "Tactical Rush", which provided considerable mobility.
Tactical Rush!
In order to show off the characters, the game also uses a third-person perspective. Except for the wolf character, who can turn on the scope, the other characters basically only have two aiming states: "shoulder shot" and "waist shot", which basically ensures that the animal character is always in the player's field of vision.
Over the course of the game, individual abilities can affect the outcome of skirmishes, but they can't change the overall trend of the battle.
How to reasonably match the squad lineup and even the overall lineup of the camp, and even how to plan the offensive route and defensive position will become an important part. The player can change characters at any time after they die, which provides the possibility to change tactics. In this process, each character has enough stage to give full play.
The overall framework has potential, but not enough content
I have to mention that "Beast Hunt Raid" is indeed very good at choosing tracks.
The "Fury" theme of "Beast Hunt Raid" provides the heat and audience. Since the beginning of this year, Beast Hunt Raid has been tested several times. During the beta test in August, the game received the attention of a number of overseas streamers, including the top streamer Asmongold (3.54 million Twitch followers). According to official data, the peak number of Twitch streams about "Beast Hunt Raid" reached 55,000 at one point. In addition, the game has also gained some attention on other platforms, with TikTok, for example, having three million views on related videos posted by user doryuuz.
TikTok "Animal Hunt Raid" related videos
The track is unique, but looking at "Beast Hunt Raid" with the idea of being prepared for danger in times of peace, it is not completely without competitors. The "Battlefield" series and the "Call of Duty" series both have battlefield gameplay, while "Overwatch 2", "Valorant" and the upcoming "Marvel Vanguard" are competitors to the hero shooter category, and these opponents are not idle.
Marvel Brawl
In addition, the framework of "Great Battlefield + Tactical Shooting + Hero Skills" is novel, but at the same time, it also aggravates the chaos of the battlefield, and the overall balance adjustment of the game will actually be more difficult. As a game that focuses on PVP mode, Armed Cat Studio is a small team, and the development pressure of the game will be relatively greater.
The gameplay framework of "Beast Hunt Raid" is distinctive enough, but the content details still need to be optimized. Overall, the amount of content in this test is still not sufficient - only one map is available, and there is only one way to play. There are four types of animal characters, but there is only one for both the Scout and the Support role.
In this test, the official gun attachment system was added, but this did not make the game content qualitatively changed, and the gameplay experience was still relatively repetitive.
Beast Hunt Assault character interface
In addition to the problem of the amount of content, there are several places that affect the experience after the actual gameplay of the new knowledge of the game.
First of all, there is the sound effect, the footsteps of the player and his teammates are very loud, which can interfere with the judgment of the situation. There are moments when you are not on the battlefield, but you can clearly hear the sound of bullets grazing the edges.
Secondly, the climbing action is so elusive that I can't remember how many times I was killed by a wall because I couldn't trigger the climb; Finally, the liver of the weapon accessory system in this test is very high, and it is difficult to collect and experience all of them during the test time.
Weapon attachment system
Fortunately, at present, the official is very "persuasive", after all, not every game can let players use planning as a french fries to catch (bushi).
"Beast Hunt Raid" had only four characters (wolf, rabbit, tiger, skunk) when it was first revealed in January, and now the number has doubled. Regarding the high-profile points (such as training ground mode, neutral resource points), as well as various large and small questions, the official will announce the recent optimizations in the form of "Beast Hunting Weekly", and will answer and reply to the questions fed back by players one by one, at least this attitude will make the game newcomers look at the game with anticipation.
Official: The map is being done
A comparison chart of an update
epilogue
Based on the Fury element, Armed Cat Studios has made a tactical competitive shooter game that is distinctive enough. With a team of more than 20 people, it can reach the current level of "Beast Hunt Raid", which is quite good.
According to public interviews, the game will not be too long away from official launch. Although there are still many problems in this test, the gameplay framework has potential, and with careful polishing of the details, "Beast Hunt Raid" may be able to eat a piece of its own cake in the future shooting game market.