Hunter: The Reckoning – Wayward

2003 hack and slash video game

Hunter: The Reckoning – Wayward is a 2003 hack and slash shooter video game developed by High Voltage Software and published by Vivendi Universal Games for the PlayStation 2. It is based on the tabletop role playing game Hunter: The Reckoning, and is part of the larger World of Darkness series. It is a sequel to the 2002 video game Hunter: The Reckoning, and was followed by Redeemer in 2003. Players control hunters, progressing through missions and areas non linearly while fighting enemies with physical and magical attacks. The story is set two years after the previous game, and sees the hunters returning to the town of Ashcroft following the appearance of a witch's cult and supernatural beings. The game was announced in early 2003 as a port of the previous Hunter: The Reckoning game, but with a new story, and with gameplay changes made based on player feedback. It was released to "mixed or average" reception, with reviewers frequently criticizing how the game's multiplayer mode only supports two concurrent players, compared to the previous game's four, but praising the controls and gameplay improvements.

Hunter: The Reckoning – Wayward is a hack and slash third person shooter game in which 1–2 players take the roles of hunters while fighting large amounts of enemies, including undead and cultists, using melee and ranged attacks, and magical abilities called "edges". Each character has a set of statistics, such as strength and speed, which slowly rise as players fight enemies. Characters that are not in use still gain experience, but less than the actively used characters. Progression is non linear: players have access to an open ended hub area, from which they can choose which stages and missions to go to. Since the siege by darkness there in the previous game, the town has been rebuilt, and two hunters have arrived there. Before going on a hunt, one of them emails the hunters from the previous game – Deuce, Samantha, Father Cortez, and Kassandra – telling them that the battle is not over: an all female cult led by a witch has entered Ashcroft, and with them large amounts of supernatural creatures that the hunters must return to quell. The four go to meet up with the Ashcroft hunters in a hotel, but the room is empty without signs of any struggle; searching the room, they find a map with marked locations, and use it to search for the hunters. Eventually they find one of them, Joshua, being attacked by a werewolf from the cult in the graveyard; they defeat the werewolf, and take Joshua back to the hotel, where he tells the rest how he and his partner Devin had been captured by the cult and taken to the Ashcroft prison; Joshua was freed by the risen wraith Carpenter. The hunters steal a school bus and crash it through the prison gates to get inside, and set up a new base of operations in the security room. Aware of their arrival, the witch sends her cultists after them, but they manage to overpower her and save Devin while she escapes. The hunters learn that the witch is planning to perform a ritual which requires the sacrifice of innocent life. Devin breaks off from the rest of the group, intending to kill everyone in Ashcroft to prevent the completion of the ritual. The other hunters strongly oppose this, and set off to save innocents, and eventually confront Devin, who has retreated on the hospital roof, from which he tries to shoot innocents. After they take down Devin, however, the witch uses Devin as her sacrifice, and a large tower materializes as the town starts to warp and beings from the Shadowlands appear. Atop the tower, the witch is used as an anchor for a Nephwrack – an ancient spirit from the Shadowlands – and is confronted by Carpenter, who opposes her, saying that Ashcroft is his town, and that she will be his when she is returned to the Shadowlands. The hunters climb the tower and fight the Nephwrack, destroying its material form and causing the tower to crumble. Back in safety, the hunters leave the town.

Wayward was developed by High Voltage Software, It was produced by Chad Kent, designed by Warren Capps, and programmed by Anthony Glueck, with art by Joe Hamell. The game's score includes two songs by Forty Foot Echo, and five by No One. The developers relied heavily on visuals and audio in creating the horror, with dank and dark environments for the player to visit. The game was announced in January 2003 as a PlayStation 2 version of the previous Hunter: The Reckoning video game, although with a new story, new gameplay features and an additional playable character. The core gameplay was tweaked based on issues players had had with the previous game. It was released for the PlayStation 2 on September 8, 2003 in North America, and on October 17 in Europe. A sequel, Hunter: The Reckoning – Redeemer, was released the following month for the Xbox.