Run And Gun Fun Under The Sun – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Review

This game is addicting. I almost put this as just the entirety of the article and felt that Blackatron would likely hunt me down and end me. There is little else needed to say about this game. We have a beautiful game with quick and addictive gameplay that encourages anything from solo to duo to team play. Capitalizing on the DayZ and H1Z1 (and later King of the Kill) style gameplay of large scale PVP games we have a grand game cultivated by the creator of the BattleRoyal mod for DayZ and H1Z1, Brendan Greene A.K.A. PlayerUnknown.

The gameplay premise itself is simple. You (and your teammates if applicable) are sent via randomly chosen air route into a USSR-esque island. You are given literally nothing but the clothes on your back and have to scrounge around for weapons, armour, ammo, medical supplies, and vehicles. The game has a realistic amount of combat ala DayZ and its ARMA origins as a MilSim. Running around in this massive island gets you dead surprisingly quick and the game is a single elimination style so its one death then you are out. With the other 96-99 players fighting it out, its funny how this game is radically different play by play. Sometimes its a matter of optics (being able to see someone clear as day 300 meters out is amazing when they can’t see past 50 feet) other times optics don’t matter and it becomes a close quarters brawl. In addition to the random drop routes, we also have random “safe areas” which are denoted by a white zone on the map with a constricting blue zone of death, which does considerably more damage on and on as the game goes longer. To top it off are air drops full of awesome goodies such as amazingly powerful armour, weapons, and 15x scopes and the “red zone” which is a large zone that randomly appears to bomb out a section of the map. This leads to players having to adapt and overcome in a dynamic and tactical fashion each time.

Beyond that, I’m left addressing that secret sauce/component that keeps me hooked. In 2 weeks of owning the game I’ve thrown in just shy of 30 hours and keep playing it with friends. While it gets stressful at times, I love the tension and even after dying I have little to no issue or remaining salt and can’t wait to get into the next map. I love playing it with other BAYOG players or friends from the old EOD days. Comically the game has taken a step backwards to its roots, but added a twist. While there are private servers and private server unique zombie modes, they are not the build and survive games of DayZ nor H1Z1. In these private games, 6 or so players take on 90+ zombies who are effectively naked people who have to hunt down the humans in a great recreation of 28 Days Later. You have fast, smart zombies who don’t come back to life fighting to beat survivors/uninfected to death. The map continues to constrict resulting in players being trapped and cornered and the times I’ve watched, the humans tend to die out and never have enough ammo or get swarmed far too fast. There are a few ways to tweek the map by adding zombie damage, lowering their speed, or removing the “down” aspect resulting in auto kills. I have yet to try it out but I can’t wait to give it a shot.

Aesthetically this game is fantastic. The graphics are really quite beautiful in this game with distances being amazing and almost too distracting when trying to scan the horizon or a cityscape for a sniper in the bushes or that one window. Musically, the game is really only providing one score and that’s for the intro screen. Ambient audio is how this game makes its mark. We have a game where listening and having headphones is a must. Not only is communication key and integral, but the mismanagement of sounds is lethal at times. The obvious scenario is PUG (Pick Up Groups/random groups) using voice chat, but can be heard by other players and I have killed more than I can count by getting the jump on people in a house blathering on about their tactics/plan. Beyond that is the simple sound of gunfire, vehicles and most important of all, footsteps. I’ve also lost count of how many times we’ve had to ask “Is that you moving?” and either identifying a threat or being angry when someone says “Yea sorry, I shot and didn’t tell you guys.” Listening in for vehicles and gunfire allows you to identify gunfights or snipers or just other players in general. This ambiance makes for a fun game especially since when you die, its about 5 minutes from everyone readying up to the next game starting and you are dropping out of the plane. Sorry for rambling on but leave a like or comment to let me know if you have this game, like it, or can’t stand people declaring “I’m a snake, look at me!!!!” in the beginning of the game.