When they opened fire the combat was bloody, hand-to-hand and intense.

They crept stealthily, heads down in a skirmish line, through low weeds toward a ramshackle village.

Through a pre-recorded section of gameplay, played behind closed doors at this year’s E3, Crytek USA showed a group of hunters assaulting an encampment deep in the Louisiana bayou. In Hunt’s lore, players are part of a loose association of international monster hunters in the late 1800s. 'Other than being 4-player co-op,' says game director David Adams, 'it’s actually a drastically different game. But if everything goes according to the developer's plan, Austin-based Crytek USA hopes to create a multilayered RPG with persistent, evolving and unique characters. On the surface, the game seems to be modeled on Left 4 Dead. Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age is Crytek's attempt to break into the North American free-to-play games market in a big way.