Most people don't believe in the supernatural, but my people always knew that some Native American legends are based on the truth. From my early childhood, I was trained to deal with the dark side of the supernatural and I've seen things you wouldn't believe.
A couple weeks ago, mutilated bodies of tourists were found in Longwind Valley. There are also reports that local animals became very aggressive and some people say they hear strange animal roars at night. Those are clear signs of skinwalker presence.
Owners of that land became desperate and hired me to hunt it down. Skinwalkers usually avoid direct sunlight, so I will try to hunt it down during the night. Fortunately, I do have appropriate training and equipment to deal with it.
— Opening Text
Skinwalker Hunt is an Action Survival Horror Video Game by Andrii Vintsevych, the creator of Witch Hunt.
You take the role of a Native American hunter who's been hired to deal with a skinwalker that's been killing people and somehow influencing the animals. To that end, you've gone into areas where the skinwalker has been sighted with the intent of hunting down and killing it.
So, you've set up a camp site, got your equipment, and are now lurking about the woods at night, waiting to bag the monster. Just be careful, though. Skinwalkers are not easy to deal with, and neither are the animals.
The game was introduced on Steam's Early Access program on June 4th, 2021. It received a full release on August 19th, 2022.
Skinwalker Hunt contains examples of:
- Bears Are Bad News: Bears will run at you and attack if they see you. They're tougher than wolves and require at least a couple shots to bring down. You can harvest more meat from them than from other animals, though.
- Bear Trap: One of the pieces of equipment you carry is a bear trap. Baiting it with meat will attract the Skinwalker if it comes close enough, which will damage the Skinwalker, alert you to its location, and cause it to leave behind a bloodtrail you can follow.
- Bullet Time: You receive a couple seconds of slow motion when you're critically injured, which typically gives you enough time to get off one death-or-glory shot or toss a flare to scare off whatever is about to kill you.
- Checkpoint Starvation: The final, bonus level, the map from Witch Hunt, has to be completed in one sitting without dying, with no saving allowed.
- Crouch and Prone: You can crouch down, which causes you to move a little more slowly.
- Cult: Hatchet-wielding cultists who worship the Skinwalker can be found in the forest, and will attack you. They're a lot tougher than animals and are essentially mini-boss fights.
- Don't Go in the Woods: In this case, because there's Skinwalkers in them.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Because of the Skinwalker's influence, every animal in the forest except for dogs is trying to kill you, including snakes, crows, boars, deer, wolves, and bears. The black goat on the French castle map is also unaffected and not hostile to you, but that might be because he's Black Phillip aka the Devil from Witch Hunt.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Not only are dogs immune to the Hate Plague effect of the Skinwalker's presence, they'll also help you track it down. However, the Skinwalker can also disguise itself as a dog and ambush you when you try to get close.
- Fluorescent Footprints: If your cursor's over a Skinwalker footprint, it glows orange-ish yellow.
- Heal Thyself: You can heal yourself from damage taken by using Medkits or eating food.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: You can eat food to restore a significant amount of health.
- Infinite Flashlight: Your flashlight can be turned on and off, but never seems to need any new batteries.
- Life Meter: In the bottom left corner of the screen.
- No Ending: Unlike Witch Hunt, this game has no overarching plot or real ending, being more of a set of individual levels. The closest thing to an ending is the A Winner Is You message you get for beating each level, and the Steam Achievement you get for beating all the levels.
- Nostalgia Level: The map from Witch Hunt appears as a hidden level, added in a Summer 2022 patch. It can be unlocked by drinking a dream potion near the evil tree on the French castle map. You cannot save on this map, so you must defeat the Skinwalker in one sitting without dying.
- Notice This: Whenever there's a mysterious thing detective, a question mark inside a circle pointing at it appears.
- P.O.V. Cam: The game is viewed from a first-person perspective.
- Ring Menu: Your inventory if items is presented in a circle.
- Savage Wolf: Wolves are an enemy that attack you in the game.
- Save Token: Totems serve as this, in addition to detecting the Skinwalker within a 200 meter radius.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: You can find a double-barrel shotgun; it does a bit more damage than the bolt-action rifle, and more importantly you can fire off two shots rapidly instead of having to take a second to bolt another round.
- Shout-Out: There are several references to the author's previous games found throughout the maps.
- A Grey alien skull can be found in the forest map, and once per game a UFO can be seen flying overhead on some maps, referencing the aliens that appear as the true antagonists towards the end of Shadow's Peak. The hostile spirits that appear in this and Witch Hunt also originate from Shadow's Peak.
- In the castle map, an evil-looking tree can be found in one of the old ruins that moves when you're not looking at it. This references the second boss of Witch Hunt.
- Also on the castle map is Black Phillip the black goat, also from Witch Hunt.
- Skin Walker: The titular creature you're hunting in the game. It's a tall figure with long limbs. It may also either have a deer skull for a head, or be wearing a deer skull on its head.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Snakes will bite and poison you if you get close to them.
- Sniper Rifle: You start a hunt with this as your on-hand weapon.
- Thematic Series: The gameplay is very similar to that of Witch Hunt, only taking place in modern times and being more of a stand-alone hunting experience rather than a plot-driven campaign.
- Visible Invisibility: A Predator-like cloaking effect is one of the Skinwalker's powers.
