In our new game 'The Hunted' you will have the choice of nine unique characters to take into the arena. Each of these hunters have their own strengths and weaknesses and it will be up to you, the intrepid player, to determine which character best fits your play style. To help you make that determination we're going to highlight each hunter over the next couple weeks so you can get an idea about what character you want to start with.
A little background
Before we can really get into the details about each character we need to go over how 'The Hunted' plays so that everything makes sense. 'The Hunted' is a dual-stick shooter, which means that there is a virtual joystick on the left which controls movement and another on the right that controls where your characters shoots.
The right stick controls the direction your character faces and also shoots their primary weapon. Each hunter has a unique primary weapon, which we'll explore in the following posts, but these weapons get dropped on the battlefield when a player is killed during a match. That means that, for a limited time, any character can pick up and use the primary weapon of another character which can create some really interesting 'player builds' and give you a temporary edge.
The right joystick also has two buttons, one to trigger your character's secondary weapon and another to use their special ability. As you can probably guess, each special ability is unique to the Hunter and gives them each a different play style and personality. As we explore each of the hunters over the next few posts you'll get a good look at each of these abilities and how they can be used to full effect on the battlefield.
The Hunter
The Hunter is a 'medium' build character in the game. This means that he has an average level of speed and durability to damage compared to the other hunters. He is also the starting character that every player will have access to right after downloading the game so he's a hunter that you'll more than likely spend some time with.
His main weapon is a double barrel shotgun, and it packs a punch! As you would expect from a shotgun it does tremendous damage when you are up close and personal with your target, but its long range effectiveness is limited. In 'The Hunted' we decided to go old-school and model every projectile fired from a weapon as it moves across the screen. This means that the farther away from your target you are the more you'll need to lead them if you want to score a hit. Also, when you are the target, it gives you an opportunity to dodge bullets, if you see them coming. The gif below gives you an idea of the spread on the shotgun blast over a couple different distances.
Tracking Dart
The Hunter's special ability ties into his history as an animal tracker and gives you the ability to stalk other players around the map. When you use his special ability the Hunter shoots out a tracking dart that will relay a target's location to you even if they are outside your normal field of view. Check out the gif below to see what I mean.
Once you've tagged a target they will continually give off a 'ping' until they die and respawn. This means that if you can tag your target with the tracking dart they won't be able to hide from you again until you take them down. As you can probably expect, knowing your enemy's location can be a huge advantage during a tough battle.
The final addition to the Hunter's arsenal is explosive grenades. These are really useful for clearing out space around a control point, forcing an enemy out of their cover, or giving you the time you need to escape and patch yourself up.
Between the double barrel shotgun, grenades, and tracking dart the Hunter definitely gives you everything you needs to put the hurt on your enemies. If you have any questions about the Hunter, or the game in general, let me know on Twitter ( @Readmore ) or you can join the discussion about The Hunted on the Touch Arcade forums here: TA Forums.