5 minute read
playerunknown’S BaTTlegroundS
Hate lone-wolfing it? You can start rounds in a pair, or even a four-player squad
Publisher MicRoSoft / DeveloPer Bluehole GAMeS / forMat XBoX one / release Date out now / cost £24.99
Tense survival sim runs afoul of Tech Troubles Dave MeiklehaM
It’s the biggest PC gaming phenomenon in years. Not since the days of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has a shooter captured the shooty zeitgeist quite like Bluehole’s beguiling battle royale. After enthralling the PC Master Race with its deliberate, nerveshredding survivalist shootouts, the most played game on Steam has finally come to console, courtesy of Xbox Game Preview. Has the wait been worth it? That’s up for debate.
PUBG’s premise is simple, almost absurdly so: 100 players enter, only one leaves. Said sole survivor then gets to bask in the protein-rich glory of a virtual chicken dinner: one of the most bizarrely triumphant ingame rewards ever to grace a game. If that sounds a little basic, fret not. Battlegrounds’ stripped down structure is actually its greatest strength. Unlike many modern shooters, where groaning campaigns and gimmicky side modes dilute the overall experience, PUBG stands as a refreshingly focused game with a tunnel vision tightness.
There are no cutscenes here, nor will you find awkward QTEs, phonedin bomb modes, or unnecessary zombie shenanigans. Instead, PUBG shoves you out of a plane onto its lone island map, then simply asks you to outlast 99 other players through a combination of cunning, awareness, and more than a bit of luck.
Chute for the stars
Each round starts in the same fashion: you parachute out of a rickety jet, then scan the terrain for buildings you can scavenge supplies from. Though characters can be customised with new clothes – bought from loot boxes unlocked from in-game currency – you can’t actually take weapons into the start of a match. To ensure everyone begins on an even keel, the game makes you find your own guns and supplies, and doing so quickly and efficiently is crucial to outlasting your rivals.
To survive PUBG’s dilapidated, deadly Erengal, you’re going to need steely nerves and steady aim. Oh, and a hefty dollop of calculated cowardice. That’s right, if you want to succeed in Battlegrounds, sometimes you have to be a dirty great wimp. Thanks to the game’s clunky, unreliable arsenal of guns, and the intrinsic chaos of the basic battle royale premise, being too aggressive is often a surefire way of getting blasted in the back. More often than not, your best chance of making it to the final 20 players is to simply channel your inner Cowardly Lion.
Unlike many rival online shooters, PUBG is a game of controlled aggression. It may have dominated
short cut
What is it?
A battle royale shooter where the last player standing wins. What’s it like?
A 100 player Royal Rumble, with shotguns instead of suplexes. Who’s it for?
Steely shooter fans who like hiding in virtual bushes.
righT it’s vital you read the terrain as you plummet towards terra firma.
far lefT erengal is a pretty darn big area.
lefT There’s no shame in going prone and hiding. cowardice is your pal.
Twitch and YouTube streams unlike any other game this generation, but that doesn’t mean this survival sim serves up non-stop, rip-roaring firefights. Quite the contrary. Instead, 95% of your time in PUBG is spent cowering, crawling, scavenging, and if you’re feeling super crazy, pulling the trigger once in a blue moon.
How you take to this gameplay loop really depends on the length of your attention span. If you’re the sort of player who can barely get through a ten-minute round of Call Of Duty: WWII without fidgeting with your phone, the game’s slow-burning action will likely whittle down your concentration levels long before you ever eye up that first poultry-heavy winner’s medal.
PUBG is a game of silent stillness, a plodding affair that’s only briefly punctuated by imperceptibly quick moments of chaos when rounds reach their latter stages. Does your ideal PvP experience need to constantly provide explosions, loud noises, and a steady procession of headshots? Then PUBG’s brand of gently nerve-wracking, yet undeniably languid action, may not be for you.
fiRSt-peRSon looteR
You don’t have to play PUBG with the default third-person camera: a quick press of RB will switch the action to a first-person view. Shooting, looting and stalking can all be enjoyed from this more intimate perspective, though the controls are a little finicky. to use iron sights, you must gently click lt, while you can also lean left and right, useful for when you want to peek around corners.
A mixed lag
If you’re going to fully buy into the cult of PUBG, you’ll also have to look past the game’s technical shortcomings. Make no mistake, even played in 4K on Xbox One X, Battlegrounds is sinfully fugly. Drab textures, copious pop-in, poor character models, and a frame rate that constantly dips to the low 20s make this a sensory experience to endure, not savour. Considering the game is essentially still in Early Access, server issues are rife, too. We suffered persistent stuttering lag and random freezing. Yep: PUBG is very much a work in progress.
In the here and now, it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend Battlegrounds. Sure, the core concept of outlasting and outmanoeuvring 99 other players on an abandoned island is a compelling one, and stalking opponents can be enthralling. When Bluehole has hopefully had time to address the game’s technical failings with patches, and when the second Mirarmar desert map is out, PUBG could be a much more attractive proposition. Right now though, this survivor is a rough diamond in need of polishing. n
oXM verDict
Battlegrounds’ potential is undeniable, but patches are needed to fully untap it.
