One week after launching into Early Access, Battlegrounds sells over a million copies on steam. It currently shows no signs of slowing down with it’s pull of over 100 concurrent players a day. With the Battle Royale sub genre gaining popularity, Battlegrounds’ future looks bright despite the rough edges of its Early Access form.
A Brief History Lesson
While many survival stories have been told, It was Japan’s hit film, Battle Royale (2000) that influenced Brendan Greene (PLAYERUNKOWN).
The BR act was passed to combat the rise in delinquency of Japan’s Youth. Students would be sent to an island and given 3 days to eliminate their classmates or perish. The last student standing would be declared the winner.
Greene’s inspiration initially started as a mod on the Zombie Apocalypse Sim, DayZ. This had been running on Bohemia Interactive’s military sim Arma 2. The premise of the movie was translated over minus the exploding collars. The start of each match was similar to Hunger Games with a ring of players surrounding a cornucopia of weapons. Greene would later port the mod over to the Arma 3 engine but would now have players skydive onto the playable island.
PLAYERUNKNOWN’s passion projects eventually caught the eyes of Sony Online Entertainment (now Daybreak). This brought about H1Z1’s split into two games, Just Survive and King of the Kill. Greene would then leave Daybreak and later find Korean developer Bluehole to finally bring Battle Royale’s true standalone to the table.
One common description of Battlegrounds is it’s place between H1Z1’s Arcade-like gameplay and the complexity of Arma’s military simulations. Players parachute onto a playable island with an encroaching circular barrier that shrinks in set intervals. Like most survival games, knowing how, when, and where to loot becomes necessary skills essential on finishing at higher placements. Battlegrounds can be intense as any other competitive title because of how it makes players execute heat of the moment decisions. Even fairly attuned FPS players can lose to the unpredictability of any given match. The customization of Battlegrounds’ arsenal is what makes it shine a bit more than other titles. With roughly 28 different weapons and 23 attachments, it expands the possibilities for every encounter.
Battlegrounds’ current weakness lies in its performance, especially for low end machines. Developers have been receiving praise for their transparency and attention to the community. But the future of the game has many hopeful because of the Road Map that’s been laid out. Their ambitious goal is to leave Early Access after a 6 month time frame. Greene’s King of the Kill is the similar competitor and has yet to leave Early Access after launching in February last year.
For a rough early access title, PUBG shows a lot of potential and room for improvement. If you don’t mind it’s incompleteness, PUBG will definitely tend to your FPS fix with it’s adrenaline pumping moments. All while forcing you to fear a quick death and another long queue time in the lobby. If there’s anything I can guarantee, the stress will all be worth it when you finally win a match and read those words across the screen.
“WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!”
Recap
+ Well sized arsenal keeping every round different.
+ Intense moments/firefights.
+ Attentive to the community and timely with updates and news.
- Poor performance on low end rigs.
[3/5]
Edited by Jonathan Geneza