PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – Early Review

Name: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Developer & Publisher: Bluehole Studio
Platform: PC, Xbox One
Release: PC – Late 2017, Xbox One – Early 2018
Reviewed on: PC

It seems like everyone is playing this all new battle royale type of game on PC. So I thought, why the hell not try it out then? For those of you who doesn’t keep track of what is happening in the videogame industry at the moment should know that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is released as an Early Access game on Steam. That means the game is still under development and are not released as a full game yet. The game is set to launch at the end of this year on PC and early 2018 on Xbox One. (There are some rumours about a PlayStation 4 release later on)

Graphics

The graphics isn’t the best out there, and it is pretty visible that they use the Unreal Engine. That is not a bad thing though, because the world design, textures and other visuals isn’t badly created. You might get a little bored with some of the buildings as there is a lot of “copy – paste”.

One major issue with the graphics though; if you set foliage (grass and such) to high, you will see grass patches that other players don’t see. This means while you think you’re hiding in some tall grass, for many others you will be laying out in the open. Not a big deal once you know about it, but personally, I feel like the foliage-settings should be determined by the developers instead of by the players.

Gameplay

There is no thing as a tutorial in the beginning on how to play or survive the battleground. You are put right into the action with up to 100 other players each game. We start off in a plane who flies into the map on random locations each time, you alone decide where to jump off and land. Call it your destiny if you like, because your choices do have consequences.

If you decide to land near an urban spot with tons of different buildings, the chance of finding lots of weapons and armors are big. But so is the chance of encounter enemy teams. The key to survival might be different to some players, one is to find weapons and go guns blazing hoping for the best. Another option is to keep to yourself outside big cities and just looting single buildings or shafts. The very first minutes of the game is crucial and the tension is huge. But things get more serious after a few minutes as there is a white circle on the map that every player has to be inside to stay alive. Each time (Each phase lasts a few minutes) the white circle shrinks in a blue circle appears and starts moving towards the white circle. If you are outside the blue circle you’re most likely to die.

There isn’t a lot of different content in PlayerUnknown, but it still manages to deliver an intense and creepy gameplay experience. One thing is mostly certain, when you finally manage to deliver that sweet headshot from long range on a moving vehicle, that gave me tons of adrenaline and testosterone. Whole aspect of PUBG tests your skill on weapon handling, tactics and survival. I can honestly say that this is a must play shooter.

Replay Value

As I said previous, there is not a lot of different content in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. But each game feels fresh every single time I start a new game. A new map has been announced, including with new vehicles and weapons. But each round might feel a little different each time, depends on your tactics.  

Controls

PUBG delivers a basic control system as every other shooter game on PC. “Easy to learn, hard to master”. Same goes with the user interface, inventory and map is easy to figure out and by playing through a few rounds it all comes naturally.