An E3 demonstration of Hunt: Showdown has showcased exactly how the game is played, some of the weapons players can expect to encounter, what the bosses are like, and how the PvP works.

So first up, during the beginning of each new round you can pick and choose what gear you bring with you into the map just before the match starts. However, the trick is that if you die with the equipment you have, you lose it all.

The game utilizes permadeath, so you have to be careful with what you do. You can also loot new gear by checking out ammo caches and attempting to resupply before moving forward through the map.

The goal is to move through the map, search for clues and find out how to discover where the main boss is in the map.

The tricky element here is that there are other players roaming around the map as well. Each team is also trying to kill the boss and collect the loot.

You can see how the game plays out with an entire round on display in the video below, courtesy of MathChief.

So players can use their supernatural powers to hunt down the boss and navigate through the maps. Players will have to tap into a hell source in order to see where the boss is exactly, but these sources are entrenched in random locations so it requires a bit of exploration and investigation.

As they explain in the video above, other teams are also attempting to investigate, track down and kill the hell spawn as well. Whoever kills and loots it first will have to attempt to get the loot and make a dash for the exit. The real challenge is that other teams might be out there attempting to kill you and take your loot and then get to the exit.

It’s a completely different take on the whole PvP genre given that it’s PvPvE.

The thing is, you don’t necessarily have to kill other players. Heck, everyone in the map could technically work together if they wanted to, but that greed factor might come into play and it could completely throw everything on its head.

Hunt: Showdown actually looks like a really solid game, and I was thoroughly impressed with Crytek’s new concept on objective driven gameplay. If it had a real story mode that would just make it that much better, but at least it’s not just another rip-off of DayZ or H1Z1 or all those other Battle Royale clones.

In fact, the atmosphere and NPC behavior reminds me a lot of Resident Evil 4, especially when you see some of the enemies huddled around bodies feeding, or carrying on about their business in the forest.

According to Crytek, you can actually utilize a lot of stealth throughout the game because the less likely other people know that you’re there, the more likely you and your team will be able to get in and get out without getting gunned down.