Not as great as Witch Hunt; follows a similar recipe, but seems a bit rushed*. Still very good though, but for now I'd recommend playing only the first 2 maps (this should still give you a few hours of fun).
I played Witch Hunt 6 years ago and absolutely loved it (coincidentally, wrote my review [i]exactly[/i] 6 years ago - what are the odds...). While playing Skinwalker Hunt, I was wondering whether it's a step down from its predecessor, or whether I'm romanticizing Witch Hunt, but looking at other reviews now, they seem to share my impression that, unfortunately, it's the former.
SH relies on similar, elegant design as WH. It's not holding your hand too much (first thing I did though was to disable my location on map and the crosshair, and I highly recommend playing this way), but the UX is good, so it perfectly balances being a bit "oldschool", but not to the point where it'd be annoying.
It's less scary than WH (or maybe I got desensitized throughout the years), but the atmosphere is amazing, so no complaints there.
The problem is that SH seems to have less content than WH, and even though there are multiple maps, they follow almost the exact same scenario. The mechanics are the same (and your progress resets after each map, so it's literally the same scenario each time, with only minor changes), the animals are the same, and all cultist interactions (both within a given map, and between maps) and Skinwalker interactions are also exactly the same. The environments differ a bit and they are quite nice, but I feel like there are less secrets than in WH, or at least they are less gratifying.
The first map was very fun. In the second one, when it started becoming clear that it's the same scenario, slight disappointment started settling in, but there were some subtle changes in the mechanics (radiation areas, and not being able to cook hunted meat), plus I love Chernobyl, so it was still worth it. But halfway in the 3rd map (France) it just became tedious. Again the same mechanics as in the 1st level, and while the environment was a bit different (denser forest), and had a few small bits of interesting environmental storytelling, I don't know if the map was bigger, or had less content, or if I simply got tired, but I was just waiting for it to be over. I'm not sure if I'm gonna play the 4th map (not sure how many there are in total). Perhaps this is the perfect moment to go for a 2nd playthrough of WH instead.
My recommendations:
- I'm not gonna say "buy it on sale" because despite its shortcomings, I think it's important to support devs who make games like this
- Disable your position on map
- Disable the crosshair
- Personally I played on Normal. I then started wondering whether I maybe should've switched to Hard, but then again I don't think it would've made the game more fun; likely it would've made it more tedious.
- There's a menu with tips, but I haven't read them, and I'd recommend doing it this way, as it's always fun to gradually discover the world and its rules by yourself. Single tips are also shown in the loading screen, plus the game teaches you the main mechanics as you go, and I think that's enough.
*This is just my theory, so take it with a grain of salt, but, given when the game was released (2022), where the author comes from (Ukraine), and that it seems to be a great game (following a similar recipe as WH) that just got rushed... Well, I think you can connect the dots. I was actually starting to get worried, as there seems to be no official announcements or social media activity from the dev since 2022, but then I found a post as recent as October 2025, which is such a relief. Take care Mr. Vintsevych; I hope this messed up world calms down soon, and if you ever have the opportunity to develop your next game in peace, I'm sure it's gonna be a masterpiece.
