This game can be very rewarding one minute and completely demoralizing the very next. The ultimate fight to the death, where being the last man standing is the only thing that counts. This is my first look at PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds!
Battle Royale
The genre of game is called Battle Royale. If you aren’t familiar with this term, it’s a game where many people start the game on a very big map (playing area). It’s essentially a free-for-all killing frenzy until only the winner is left. But doesn’t it take hours for many people to find each other on a huge map? Especially once there are only a handful of people left? Ha! There’s a catch there, a mysterious force field moves in and forces players in to an ever smaller circle on the map. Forcing the game to end within a decent time frame.
Starting Out
The game starts by spawning (loading into the game) all the players on the spawn island. Up to 100 players start the game simultaneously and depending on the game mode you can either play solo, rambo style, in pairs of two or a team of more than two players. As a squad of 4 you’ll be matched against other squads of 4, which are either predefined groups of friends playing together or a random bunch of people who got put together in the lobby, because they don’t have any friends to play with. 🙂 Once all the players have been spawned on the starting island the game starts. All the players are bunched into a transport airplane and are flown over the map. The players can then choose where they want to jump out and parachute to the ground.
The decision where to jump depends entirely on the player and her play style. Because everybody starts off with nothing, you first have to find some gear, guns, backpack, protective gear, medication. Most of the high value gear spawns in certain locations, like the military base, the shipping ports and underground bunkers, therefore attract a lot of players from the start. These areas become small death match zones where a lot of people die in the first minutes of the game, but the ones that survive come out with superior gear and weapons.
On the other hand, if deathmatching from the get go is not to your taste, you can always choose to jump towards the less populated areas with less risk, but also less quality gear. Usually you will find at least a shotgun or so and maybe a motorcycle helmet. Then jump into a buggy and hunt for other players that might have better loot than you.
The Circle
Five minutes. That’s the time you get before the force field starts moving in and forcing you into the subsequent smaller area on the map. And this is where shit gets real. Either on foot, on a bike or in a buggy you are bound to meet people on your way. Oh, did I mention there are random carpet bombings taking place and if you get hit by those they will kill you?
Chicken Dinner
If you managed to survive long enough to reach the final ten players, chances are the circle is rather small. At this point it is a game of cat and mouse, where situational awareness and strategy come out on top over blindly charging a player who has superior cover. The use of grenades should not be underestimated here! Patience plays a key role as well. Being prepared with enough medical gear is also something to keep in mind.
And if you are lucky, you will be feasting on the chicken wings for dinner 😉
I made a video on my YouTube channel about this game and my thoughts about it.
Have you played the game? What did you think? Let’s team up and fail together! 😉