Never has a game captured the world with such intensity than PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG.) Although still part of Steam’s Early Access program, PUBG has already gained a healthy following, hitting over one million players at its peak. PUBG also surpassed other popular Valve titles like Dota 2 and CS:GO so you know it’s good.
After hearing about all the hype PUBG has gained and through various friends and streamers, I decided to give PUBG a go, even against my better judgment (I hate games that are over-hyped.)
In a Nutshell
PUBG is much like your typical multiplayer online battle arena game, but with an added twist. A survival game without any horror but a lot of stress and pressure added, PUBG consists of a 100-player limit battle arena where you and 99 other players are fighting to be the last man standing.
You can either play it solo or in a team of four, which could or could not work out in your favour. Set in a dystopian island where all 100 players will parachute down from to scavenge the land for weapons, armour and supplies, the objective of PUBG is simple: kill or be killed.
With the number of weapons scattered around the map (which varies each round), I can’t help but wonder if the island is located somewhere in America with its ultra-lax gun laws (too soon?)
As the entire map is playable and explored, this gives off a false sense of security. Every few minutes, the playable area of the map will shrink, which means you must get yourself into the zone or die a slow and annoying death outsize the zone. This also increases your chances of encountering other players in the game.
Loot drops will also appear every now and then during the duration of the game with red smoke billowing from it. The good thing about loot drops is the items you will get from them as you can’t find them anywhere else in the game. The bad part: it increases your chances of encountering other players or getting shot to death while running to it in an open area.
Be Anyone You Want
Much like many other online multiplayer games, PUBG comes with its own in-game currency that can be used to purchase cosmetic items for player customisation. This has no advantage to your gameplay; all it does is make you look either cool or stupid, depending on how you want to dress yourself.
In-game currency is earned every end of the round and the amount depends on how long you survived, the number of players you killed and the amount of damage you managed to inflict.
Anarchy
PUBG’s gameplay is simple: survive. The entire objective of PUBG is about survivability. In a first-person shooter setting, PUBG encourages players to camp because that is the safest way for you to stay alive.
Of course, you’re more than welcomed to just wander around in the open; but, that puts your fate in the hands of the 99 other players.
My previous few experiences with PUBG has taught me a few lessons.
Lesson One: Friends are the best/worst people to play with, depending on how much of a troll they are. I can’t count the number of times my friends and I found a car to reach the shrinking playable area of the map, only to have one idiot flip the car on the way there. What followed was all four of us slowly dying out in the dead zone.
Lesson Two: Never run straight. If possible, run in a completely random pattern; throw in some zig-zags, circles and jumps in your running to make sure the other players can’t aim down on you. Unfortunately, I learned this a little too late; following in Rickon Stark’s footsteps (literally), I died with a crossbow arrow to the chest.
Lesson Three: Level three gear is the best. Anything else isn’t worth your time and weight in gold.
Where do we go from Here?
While games like Dota 2, LoL, CS:GO and CoD were the breeding grounds for today’s top eSports athletes, it was also the place where the birth of salty, raging gamers were born.
If that’s the case, PUBG should be where gamers from around the world compete to see who is the biggest troll of them all. With the ability to kill enemies with crossbows, frying pans and even running them over with a car, there’s no end to the amount of trolling one can accomplish on PUBG.
Be warned though, while other top online games may give you cancer, PUBG will probably ruin your sanity for good.
