PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a survival multiplayer “battle royale” game, is being created by Bluehole Studio. The game went into early-access on March 23, 2017 with surprising popularity, and backing behind it. Brendan Greene (the lead developer) started his project as mods for Arma 2 and 3, and quickly went on to help develop the mode for H1Z1. Currently PUBG is still holding a third place position on steamcharts, this Hunger Games-esque shooter is keeping a steady population of players. With my interest engaged, I decided to accept the challenge of slogging through what I was sure would be another typical, buggy early-access title.
I’d say that I’m fairly experienced when it comes to games like DayZ and Rust, but I quickly realized that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ gameplay is a different beast. The goal of the game is to be the last person alive on a large island filled with other hostile players trying to accomplish the same goal. You have one life. There is no respawn. Players start with nothing, parachute out of a plane, and must loot structures and towns scattered across the map to get weapons and valuable gear.
To make matters even more unforgiving, as the game progresses, the island is slowly filled with a deadly static field that shrinks the player’s area in order to push players closer to one another and promote combat. The gameplay is realistic, and can quite often become merciless for the careless and unaware. A few well-placed enemy shots can quickly be the end of you if you aren’t alert, watching, and listening. Here’s an early tip: Listening is key. Enemy players (and yourself) can find vehicles randomly placed along the map, and nothing is as startling as the sound of a buggy pulling up outside of the building you’re currently looting.
My first couple of games ended in my death sooner than I would have liked. Careless looting was to blame. I started getting the hang of things after my third or fourth game (after I had learned about the almighty double-barreled shotgun, a powerhouse at the start of the game.) Stealth is a necessity and I found myself shrinking away from the loud booms of gunshots over the hills. I thought that if I could only get an m16 with a scope and a silencer, that would be the ticket to victory.
Alas I never actually finished first, but I came close a few times! Over and over I found myself cursing after a death, and immediately re-queuing for the next game. By the time I decided to take a break I was shocked by how much time I’d actually spent playing. It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game that elicits that kind of intense feeling and adrenaline. This was genuine fun.
“…But, David?” you ask. “Where were those crippling bugs you foresaw?”… Ok, I’ll admit I may have jumped the gun. Although I won’t say PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is perfectly bugless, near the beginning of my time with the game there were particular sound bugs that caused sounds to be reversed (which could be very frustrating in-game). Fortunately this near game-breaking bug was patched quickly. Other than poor optimization (which Bluehole says they’re currently working on) I really didn’t run into anything else that stood out to me as game-breaking or terribly frustrating. There seems to be some lag at the start of the game when all 100 players are still alive but it diminishes as players die. The lag can be the difference between life and death if the player finds himself in a sticky situation at the start of a game.
Long story short: I was surprised. Although PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds certainly has some alpha bugs, network issues, and optimization troubles, I didn’t actually find these faults as overwhelming as I expected. This was not like the mess that was the DayZ Standalone early-access (where you could literally break your in-game legs by merely walking through doorways). The minor issues I encountered during my time with the game (sound issues, network issues, and certainly framerate issues) were easily eclipsed by the intensely fun gameplay. I look forward to covering more of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as development progresses. I recommend this to anyone who appreciates a good competitive shooter. You might end up just as surprised as I was.
RSS