Researcher's Notes
The Researcher's Notes refer to the epistolary framing device of Hunt: Showdown's lore: an unnamed researcher (later voiced as 'The Researcher' character) compiles documents decades after the events to reconstruct what happened. The story is told through letters, interview transcripts, wax audio recordings, and dime novels, with researcher commentary woven into weapon mastery stories and ammo blurbs. Players are left to decide what is fact and what is exaggerated fiction.
This device makes the lore intentionally fragmented and unreliable: the researcher's annotations frame in-game item descriptions and event chapters, but the sources themselves range from official records to sensationalized dime novels. The Researcher also appears as an in-fiction character (e.g., a main figure narrated in the Scorched Earth story). The framing reinforces the game's themes of hidden truth and the AHA's 'legacy of silence.'
Source: wiki.gg · CC BY-SA 4.0