A few weeks ago, I heard rumblings of a Hunter: The Reckoning video game. The game was accidentally leaked when gamers tried to access an update for Robocop: Rogue City. Instead, gamers were given access to a completely new game. Oops. The trailer for Hunter: The Reckoning Deathwish dropped on March 26th, and while this trailer doesn’t feature any gameplay, I think there’s a lot to look forward to. White Wolf and Paradox Interactive had their hands full with Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, and their track record hasn’t been great. Is this game doomed? or is there potential for a fresh start?

Before getting into the game, let’s talk about Hunter. Hunter: The Reckoning is a TTRPG set in the same World of Darkness universe. Instead of playing vampires or werewolves, players take on the role of hunters, those who dedicate their lives to tracking and eliminating supernatural creatures. The mechanics of Hunter are similar to Vampire when it comes to skills and attributes, with, of course, a few differences in character creation. I have personally never played Hunter. I’m not opposed to it at all; I simply haven’t found a group to try this game out with. When I find World of Darkness games, they are almost always Vampire: The Masquerade, which makes sense. When this game trailer dropped, I was curious if White Wolf would see an increase in sales of Hunter: The Reckoning merchandise.

The game trailer doesn’t feature any gameplay; instead, it sets the stage for the tone of the game. The trailer opens with a police officer walking into a building. As he searches, he finds someone tied up. He radios in that there’s no one here, which is followed by the police officer’s fangs coming out. The game then flashes to a bulletin board with the police officer’s photo, along with the suspected vampire clan he belongs to. Hunters are shown with stakes going up to his office, presumably to take him out.

I have higher hopes for Hunter: The Reckoning Deathwish than I did for Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. I won’t rehash everything about Bloodlines 2 since I wrote about this already. To summarize, Bloodlines 2 was in developmental hell and was named as a sequel, which didn’t help the game upon release. With Hunter, there’s more of a clean slate to start something new. I feel optimistic, or at least I’d like to feel optimistic that this game won’t be delayed for years. If it is, then I think it shows how Paradox and White Wolf learned nothing regarding Bloodlines 2, which would be a shame.

I have said this before, so I will say it again and probably three times after that. I’d like to see White Wolf putting out Hunter: The Reckoning live plays. If this game is based on the TTRPG, why not promote both simultaneously? If the game is good, it might lead to more people purchasing and learning the TTRPG. If you have live plays of Hunter and they help generate enough interest, more people might play the video game. It feels like a win-win to me. While I think it’s interesting to see the development of World of Darkness video games, I don’t think it should supersede the TTRPG.

I am curious to see how this pans out. I’d like to think that there was a lesson learned in Bloodlines 2 that won’t get repeated here. It’s still too early to say more than this, but I’ll remain hopeful that this game will be a good launching point for White Wolf and Paradox to promote Hunter: The Reckoning.