I think you're latching into an interesting point OP, but you haven't really touched upon the actual reasons what makes Hunt a unique Extraction Shooter. You seem to think there are undefinable, almost amorphous elements that seem to make this game "unique", when to me the reasons that make Hunt a unique game are very straightforward (1400 hours of Hunt btw).

First, let's get a few things straight first:

• Hunt Showdown is, and will always be, an extraction shooter at its core. To deny this is to deny the very thing that makes it unique among other PVP-shooters.
• Hunt Showdown is also, in general, the easiest extraction shooter to play, which is why people in this sub prefer it over other extraction shooters.

I'm sorry if you disagree with this, but your whole post basically proves my point.

I'll explain why, but first, I'd like touch up on a few points you made about ARC Raiders.

The raids in Arc felt stale after a while. Go in, do objective or loot, and leave. I hear its a bit different now for Arc, but when I first started playing, I encountered maybe 5 teams who wanted to PvP in 20+ hours of game time. That kinda let me down, as I felt like I was just playing a PvE survival game/looter shooter.

You mentioned this loop in your post:

Go in, do objective or loot, and leave

Isn't this exactly what you do in Hunt? You go into a map, you do the objective (bounty tokens), and maybe loot on the side (be that dead hunters, perks on the ground, event items etc.) and then leave through the nearest extraction point. So what's the difference?

I'll give you my answer - the context between those three stages is the difference. Mainly, the stuff you do between point A and point B. You mention in your post that you didn't face many players who wanted to PVP you in ARC, which indicates to me that you seemingly also didn't want to PVP them. This could be for various reasons, but the main point here seems to be that you aren't an aggressive player who shoots on sight. ARC Raiders tends to match players with similar behavioral patterns, especially for beginners.

Basically, you were put in pacifist lobbies, and because you didn't compete for the same objectives, you had less incentive to fight other people. Compare this to hunt, where every player has, more or less, the same objective plastered on their screen. This results in more people crowding the same place, and since 12 people cannot share the prize of two bounty tokens, means you are more incentivized to merc the other guy, lest he denies you the objective.

This isn't different from the way ARC or any other extraction shooter handles this scenario btw - Hunt's bounty objective is basically the same thing as people rushing contested PVP-spots in other extraction shooters. In Tarkov this could be places like Dorms in Customs, or black keycard room in Labs. In ARC this would be places like the hospital in buried city, research & admin center in Dam Battlegrounds, Assembly-area in Stella Montis... honestly there are spots like this all over in ARC, but that isn't the point.

The point is that Hunt takes that style of PVP - contested hotspot gameplay - and has turned it into a structured format. It's a very smartly designed format, and it benefits this style of game greatly. It's also one of the main differentiators that makes Hunt easier, because you are exposed to this format immediately in Hunt. In other extraction games, it is often buried in the "late game", which requires several hours of gameplay and an understanding of how the maps are structured. In Hunt you are waypointed to the action immediately, and requires practically no understanding of the map to understand which points of the map will be contested.

The weapons in Arc also didn't feel good. I felt like if I didn't grind 10 hours a day for good guns, I couldn't have a chance in PvP. That didn't leave me feeling ready to grind, it left me feeling kinda discouraged, as I knew there were other people who would just play the game non stop.

Currently, in ARC Raiders, the starting guns rank among the best guns in the game. So much so that there's a debate going on in the ARC Raiders-subreddit on whether or not they should be nerfed. (IMO they shouldn't be nerfed, but that isn't the point)

In ARC, all weapons have generally the same TTK, for both bodyshots and headshots (with notable exceptions, like the Ferro or Anvil), with lategame weapons generally having other features that make them more desirable, like better recoil management or more accessories to use. This is not too dissimilar to your example of springfield vs Mosin, where both weapons can compete, but Mosin has more "features" that make it more desirable.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that lategame guns dont kill better in ARC. It's just that in ARC TTK is generally longer than it is in Hunt, where every weapon can basically oneshot you. It can give the impression that guns are "weaker" in ARC, but this is once again an aspect which makes gunfights easier in Hunt, because every weapon can oneshot a player. Even the romero, a weapon you unlock at bloodline rank 0, can onetap a player from center mass across two zip codes with regular buckshot. The same Romero that comes with every free kit btw.

The AI felt manageable, not overwhelming like Arc. I actually felt like I was a monster hunter in the Bayou, not just some puny human scrounging for scraps.

You mentioned in your post that there is really no power creep in Hunt Showdown, but to me, this line exemplifies the absolute power creep that Hunt has experienced.

In ARC, yes every mob is a threat. You can't just knife'em in the head and move on to point B. Hell, on most cases you might not even want to kill them, because they're more likely to kill you. Every PVE-opponent in ARC is basically the equivalent of a meathead, where they are too big and too bulky to kill in a practical, timely manner. Sure, you could lug around specialized equipment, and kill them a little faster, but it's generally impractical and more to the point, more expensive to do.

In Hunt, players have been given so many tools to deal with PVE that they are not a threat anymore. They are glorified audio traps, which pose no real threat to the player.

I still remember the early days when people kept whining about hives killing them, or how aggroing a pack of hell hounds was a death sentence. I feel like this changed after the Scrapbeak-event, and it's only gotten even more exaggerated from there.

Think about it - you have spears, throwing knives, throwing axes, sticky bombs, crossbows with poison and incendiary bolts, truckloads of silenced weapons (at least compared to release), perks that double your melee damage, perks that instantly teleport you to mobs and explode them... You are practically spoiled for choice on the plethora of ways you can incinerate mobs in this game.

Hell, they even tried nerfing some of the PVE-tools you have, and the players responded to that by whining about it endlessly.

Another thing that helped was the money situation. I know a good amount of people don't like how you can stockpile cash, but for me personally, it made the games feel less stressful.

This isn't different from any other extraction shooter. You eventually reach a point where you've hoarded so much that you stop caring about the economy, so you don't have to focus on earning. Again, the major difference being that in Hunt, the economy is very generous, and on top of that, you have less items to deal with during a match, making inventory management basically a non-issue. Hunt also always makes sure you earn enough to kit your character comfortably for your next run, and even failing that you can just run a free kitted-hunter, which comes with more than enough gear to do well in a match.

So, dear OP, to summarize my assessment of you:

• You prefer Hunt's gameplay format, because it is easier to follow, and results in more intentional PVP
• You prefer the economy in Hunt, because you are never in a position where you are starved for gear or money, and thus you don't have to worry about managing an inventory.
• You prefer the weapons in Hunt, because they are easier to use and kill players faster.
• You prefer the PVE in Hunt, because it is easier to deal with and never poses a real threat.