While there is no shortage of soulslikes for those waiting on FromSoftware’s next hit, and there are plenty of extraction shooters for those burnt out on Arc Raiders, finding a Monster Hunter-like is a bit more difficult (especially after Dauntless’ shutdown). There’s just something undeniably cool about tracking a monster, doing real battle damage to it by chopping off limbs to remove options from its attack pool, and chasing it down to finally secure the kill. Monster Hunter is essentially a series of drawn-out, grueling boss fights, and it’s immensely satisfying at every turn because of that. Fortunately, come 2027, a true Hunter alternative is on the way in the form of Steam’s Elderfeast.
Like this Steam game’s name suggests, it hones in on a side feature of the Monster Hunter series: cooking. Instead of players using bits and pieces of the creatures they kill to create armor sets and upgrade their weaponry, they’re cooking food with the tentacles, carapaces, and other otherworldly limbs they’ve collected. Monster Hunter fans will know all about food — eating before a hunt is second only to sharpening weaponry in terms of the boosts it provides — but players actually becoming chefs and making unsettling meals from scratch adds an extra layer. And, on top of that, Elderfeast’s focus on Cthulu-like creatures, sci-fi gear, and alien planets should help it forge its own path.
Currently, Elderfeast’s Steam page only provides a vague 2027 release date, suggesting that there may be a bit of a wait before the game fully launches.
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Elderfeast Features at a Glance
- DISMEMBER lovecraftian monsters solo or in co-op.
- COOK meals via a grid system to buff your chef/monster hunter and prepare for the next encounter.
- HUNT with various sci-fi weaponry, from giant blades to harpoon guns.
- TRAVERSE a galaxy full of different biomes and creatures.
- TRICK monsters into eating poisoned wildlife or distract them using other characters roaming around the environment.
Elderfeast is a co-op action game where the monsters are the menu. Hunt Lovecraftian horrors across the galaxy and slice them apart for ingredients to make your next meal. The better you cook, the stronger you become, but there’s always something more terrifying to hunt next.
Elderfeast is 70% Hunting Elder Gods, 30% Cooking Them
Obviously, as a co-op game about hunting monsters, the main gameplay loop is all about satisfying encounters with giant squids, anglerfish, and so on. Here, the influence of Monster Hunter is very clear to see, as players will be chopping tails, tentacles, organs, and more off of the creatures they face. Players can wield different weapons that offer distinct gameplay styles, in a way that once again resembles the Monster Hunter franchise. For instance, the Harpoon Gun can be comparable to that series’ bowguns, while the heavy Butcher Knife is most like a Great Sword.
What’s That Weapon?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
The comparisons extend to the fight preparation as well. As players traverse different planets, they’ll encounter different wildlife, and they can expect their target to interact with it. Perhaps they’ll have an aversion to certain small critters that forces them to flee right into your guns and blades. Or, more likely, the lovecraftian horrors will eat these smaller aliens, opening them up to attack. Players can poison the smaller creatures to give their target a nasty stomach ache and a debuff, or even trick it into eating dangerous ingredients outright. From there, the game of cat and mouse plays out just like one would expect. And with a clean HUD attached to the character, just like in the Dead Space games, tracking the action should be fairly simple.
However, Elderfeast’s focus on cooking is what helps it stand out and makes it more than a Monster Hunter game with a sci-fi coat of paint. Unlike Monster Hunter, where a cute palico will cook players up a tasty meal in a humorous-yet-repetitive cutscene that players will be skipping sooner rather than later, players have a direct hand in the actual cooking of their meals. They’ll see tentacles wiggling around alongside hearts and alien plants, with a grid system used to determine what they actually get. Think Minecraft’s crafting; if players place the ingredients in a certain order, they’ll get one meal, while a different positioning creates another dish. Experimenting to figure out the best recipes and buffs should prove to be extremely rewarding, and it looks like players will have an in-game cookbook (which doubles as a bestiary) that serves as an immersive way to track their discoveries.
Early Interest in Elderfeast is a Promising Sign
Despite having just been revealed, this Monster Hunter-like game has managed to be wishlisted over 10,000 times, with its trailer making the rounds on social media platforms like TikTok and bringing attention to the game fast. Whether it’s the game’s impressive graphics, fluid-looking combat, entertaining cooking mechanics, the lovecraftian vibe, or all of the above, something is clearly clicking with gamers. Hopefully, this early hype is met with a release that lives up to players’ rapidly growing expectations, because what’s been shown this far looks hugely appealing — even if the dishes Elderfeast players are cooking up won’t.
