The OG Russian cover that says "Chernaja Metka".
- Our rules are simple, and everyone knows it.
1. The Label cannot be removed because - well, you die.
2. If you can't find a safe haven, sooner or later you'll be killed.
The Hunt (Russian: Černaja Metka, also listed as Black Label in some territories) is a First-Person Survival Horror/action game developed by Orion Games, using a format loosely based on Condemned: Criminal Origins (from three years earlier; in fact it came out the same year as Condemned 2: Bloodshot) with a plot inspired by The Running Man (1987) and some occasional First-Person Shooter elements (whenever a firearm is collected... which is very few and far in-between because the game's action is 80% melee).
It's the future, Russia is facing an overpopulation crisis as rioters floods the streets with criminal activities and violent outbreaks a daily recurrence. Until eventually, the government comes up with a method of suppression, a Deadly Game called "The Hunt" where a tracking beacon is planted on an unsuspecting victim while volunteers, called "Hunters", are dispatched in large numbers to hunt down anyone with a beacon installed upon themselves unless he or she managed to remove their beacon and pass it to another unfortunate, reluctant participant, or die trying.
When the beacon is passed upon Nikolai Mikhailovich Kamolov, the player-controlled 30-year-old web designer and bachelor living alone in an apartment, with Hunters approaching the doorsteps, of course Nikolai needs to find out who marked him, and why, while facing hunters left and right.
Ladies and gentlemen, the hunt continues!
- 20 Minutes into the Future: According to Nikolai's dossier, the game is set in 2020, 12 years after its release date.
- Ambiguous Ending: Nikolai killed Frankenstein and confronts Director Vileyn, who's about to execute Nikolai via explosive device in the Black Label, but Mr. President's timely arrival puts a stop to Vileyn's plans. With Vileyn arrested, the President then offers to remove Nikolai's Black Label and offer him a chance to join the titular game show as their new lead enforcer. Nikolai responds with a "Hmmm..." but it's unknown whether he said yes or no because the credits then starts rolling.
- Amusement Park of Doom: The game's second act takes place entirely in one of these, a huge but empty amusement park cleared of people so the hunt can continue. Nikolai infiltrates the funhouse, freakshow, arcades, gift shops, roller-coasters and other attractions while fighting enemies dressed as clowns.
- Apocalyptic Log: The dossiers Nikolai recovers of previous hunts serves as this.[Dmitry's dossier] Dmitry was pretty sure there was a broken window in the stairwell between the first and second floor. He quickly found it and crawled through, cutting his face and hands and jumping off the entrance canopy.
Dmitry landed in the bushes and ran... and ran... as fast as he could, the air cutting his lungs like a hot knife. Behind him, the hunters mounted their bikes, chains and wheels spinning, and they quickly caught up with him...
He twitched one last time and froze. Above him stood a hunter with a massive spiked knuckle-duster in his hand, which still had traces of blood on it from his last battle.
Dear viewers, you've just witnessed the dramatic end of another hunting season of the show Black Label! It was a long hunt, and we saw a lot of original ways - and failed attempts - to force the Black label onto unsuspecting victims.
Watch for releases of the Black Label epilogue airing soon! See you then! - Back Stab: Nikolai can pull this off if he managed to sneak upon an unassuming Hunter whose back is facing him. Press the attack button and depending on the weapon equipped, Nikolai will either choke the Hunter, perform a Neck Snap, slit the jugular or whack the guy out with a firearm's butt.
- Badass Bookworm: Apparently Russian web designers are trained in using firearms, kicking all sorts of ass, and can take names aplenty even when facing legions and legions of armed thugs. Obviously.
- Batter Up!: Most of the amusement park's clown mooks are armed with baseball bats (those weren't uses colourful axes or hammers instead). Nikolai can collect their weapons for himself, and turns out there's a smiley face painted on the front of all their bats.
- Blackout Basement: Occurs in several stages where the lights are out, either in sewers, subways, warehouses, dimly-lit offices or abandoned power plants. Nikolai's flashlight illuminates only a single circle and he can only attack enemies he can see.
- Blocking Stops All Damage: There's a block button that lets Nikolai raise his equipped weapon and somehow block off all incoming damage (save for bullets), even if he's getting pounded, hammered or knifed left and right. Unfortunately he can't attack anyone else or even move while blocking, and needs to drop cover and retreat a bit before fighting back.
- Bounty Hunter: Basically, all the game's enemies who calls themselves "Hunters". They're trying to earn a cash prize, and the bounty is Nikolai's head.
- Camera Abuse: Getting Nikolai hit will result in the screen splattered with blood. Lose a life and the game freezes with a red smear on the lens before the game asks to reload last save.
- Close-Range Combatant: Despite the existence of firearms, most of the human mooks prefers carrying melee weapons. Some of them - like the scythe-gauntlet equipped enemies - are even trained to attack via close-range by default.
- Crowbar Combatant: Nikolai's first melee weapon is a crowbar, which besides breaking skulls, also comes in handy when prying open locked doors.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Cutscenes and loading screens are depicted as comic panels in black-and-white, though depiction of blood is in red.
- Elite Mooks:
- In the later stages, after Nikolai killed loads and loads of Hunters, remaining alive for too long, the game will start throwing in Censors - well-trained, fast-moving mooks wearing scythe-like gauntlets in both hands. They're far more competent than the early enemies, of course.
- The paramilitary troops in the last stage. They carry automatic firearms, and knows how to use them. Though at least then Nikolai can gain an ample supply of spare magazines making the whole thing feel more like a FPS than a survival game.
- Explosive Leash: After Nikolai defeats the Final Boss, Frankenstein, he confronts Vileyn, director and organizer of The Hunt, who reveals the Black Mark beacon implanted in Nikolai to be an explosive device and he has the detonator. To silent Nikolai once and for all after making this far, Vileyn then prepares to activate the device, but he was stopped right on time by the arriving President.
- Fire Alarm Distraction: In the parking lot, Nikolai needs to trigger an alarm as a distraction. Which he does so by shoving a rag into a parked car's fuel tank and setting it alight, and the resulting explosion activating all the area's sprinklers.
- His Name Is...: B's last words when Nikolai found him isn't too concise, leaving behind bits and pieces of random clues and details just enough for Nikolai to continue investigating all by himself.B: You're... late... Kolya... the... b-bums... But... other route... tunnel... nearby... the factory... our men where... waiting... T-they will... help... You must.. survive! The system... destroy... it... we... must... [succumbs]
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The game's titular program and entire premise runs on this. A random victim gets a Black label beacon implanted into him/herself, and must fend off the legions and legions of assassins that inevitably follows.
- Jumping Out of a Cake: How clown mooks in the amusement park stage introduces himself, as Nikolai enters a decorated room with a giant cake in its center. A clown invites him in, a second clown suddenly jumps out, and then they grab bats trying to bash Nikolai's skull into bits.Clown mook: Dear friend, let me congratulate you on this special day, your birthday! Here's a humble gift from us! Cake! Don't forget to share a slice. A cake with meat!
- Land Mine Goes "Click!": One of the backup weapons Nikolai can collect are proximity mines that detonates a decent radius, though the difficult part is getting mooks close enough to trigger them off.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the Condemned series, which this one's a loose remake of. Nikolai doesn't have a depressing backstory unlike Ethan Thomas, the setting isn't as crapsack as Metro City and lacks the horrifying hallucinations Ethan frequently experiences in the other game. The amusement park stage is also rather brightly-lit and provides some comical moments in an otherwise serious game.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Most of the titular event's participants are clad in creepy, sinister-looking masks to highlight them as the bad guys.[Vorona's dossier] I was surrounded by masked people. I couldn't see their eyes, but I was sure they expected something of me. They assessed me. Alien and foreign. That's what emanated from these masks. They were my enemies...
There were 6 masks. I heard 6 shots, it felt as if all 6 bullets entered my body... - Mêlée à Trois: At one point in the amusement park level, Nikolai comes across the stage's recurring clown mooks fighting a different gang of hunters (enemies without makeup or clown outfits). They will attack him on sight, but if Nikolai keeps a distance they'll fight each other instead. This was actually foreshadowed on a news report before the stage begins, where a newscaster said she's not sure the "clowns will tolerate anyone else in their territory".
- Mission Control: Early in the game, when Nikolai realized he's been selected as the main subject of another Hunt, he's then contacted by an unseen Voice with an Internet Connection identifying himself as "B". Who informs Nikolai he's the latter's only hope to escape while relaying him objectives. He didn't survive, by the time Nikolai met B, he's bleeding from a fatal injury and Nikolai's back on his own.
- Monster Clown: All the Hunters in the amusement park stage are dressed as clowns to fit the level's theme. Given their professions, of course they're hostile and wants Nikolai's head for themselves.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: For some odd reason, all of the game's melee enemies will continue attacking Nikolai even if he's carrying a firearm, which ends as predictably as it sounds. Though on the flipside, Nikolai is at a severe disadvantage if he happens to be facing a firearm-equipped hunter while armed with only a short-range weapon - they can be really hard to kill without the Back Stab and in a direct confrontation Nikolai will suffer at least some damage.
- Night-Vision Goggles: For the dark areas (which the game has plenty), Nikolai can either obtain these goggles from vending machines or in item boxes.
- Optional Stealth: In more than one stage, where B encourages Nikolai to approach with stealth. However, a skilful enough player can forgo this option and simply barge in with a weapon, smashing craniums left and right.B: Stay where you are! Freeze! In the next room, a tramp has his back to the door. Approach quietly - kill him quietly. Try to kill as quietly as possible. Who knows how many of them are nearby? Don't turn the lights on!
- Pistol-Whipping: If Nikolai's shotgun or rifle runs out of bullets and he doesn't have a melee weapon at hand, he can use its butt as an improvised club (and somehow doesn't damage the weapon along the way - when he collects spare ammunition the reloaded weapon can fire just fine). There's also the animation when he uses a Tap on the Head via weapon.
- Pursued Protagonist: Owing to the "Black Label" beacon planted in his body, Nikolai is hunted left and right by the gameshow's participants called Hunters, and he can only kill his way out while trying to uncover the truth.
- Shooting Gallery: The amusement park stage has an unskippable Mini-Game (for some reason) requiring Nikolai to snipe at a bunch of targets using a paintball gun. Complete that game and Nikolai can keep the paintball shooter... which does nothing but decorate the clown mooks with colourful splatters.
- Shovel Strike: Another melee weapon Nikolai can obtain, a gravedigger's shovel.
- Sinister Subway: An early level is set in a near-empty Moscow Metro, where Nikolai fights off his pursuers in dank, dimly-lit subway tunnels. Don't stray too long on the tracks lest if the subway arrives.
- Stealth Sequel: There's an Easter Egg right before one of the boss fights, where Nikolai finds a crate labelled "Hacksley: The New Dawn" - a reference to Orion's earlier game, Hellforces, implying both games takes place in a Shared Universe and The Hunt could be set shortly after Alex Hacksley and his New Dawn Cult helped Baphomet instigated doomsday leading to the fall of humanity. Heck, no wonder it's a Crapsack World in here...
- Villain in a White Suit: The aptly-named Mr. Vileyn, who's the organizer of The Hunt and the cause behind all of Nikolai's problems, is revealed in the final stage as a mohawked man in a white business suit and an Eyepatch of Power. None of the game's recurring enemies wears white.
- Would Hit a Girl: At one point Nikolai comes across the dossier of one of The Hunt's past victims, a 33-year-old lady bartender named Galina Pulcini and a clear non-combatant, not that it stops the Hunters from trying to kill her. She obviously didn't make it given how the present stages revolves around Nikolai's attempts to survive as the new Hunt subject.[Galina's interview dossier] I'd do what I can do. Honestly, I'm a weak woman, so I guess I'd scream, try to escape, maybe wildly throw my fists about at the hunters. What else can I do?