Game Spotlight: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

One of the new games that’s making all the right noise with gamers is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG for short. Developed by Bluehole and directed by Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, the game is a realistic battle royale shooter designed for up to one hundred players.

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That’s right, this game is made to accommodate 100 players on the same map, at the same time. Players start the game parachuting off a plane and onto an 8 by 8 kilometer map. Given the size of the map in PUBG, it’s no surprise it can hold up that many number of people at any given time. Players of up to four can team up or go at it alone.

After being dropped off a plane, players then need to find or scavenge clothes, supplies, and guns. The initial gameplay feels very much like more realistic shooters like DayZ and Rust. This time though, you don’t really need to eventually build a shelter to protect yourself from zombies (although there is a game mode for that), you just need to find guns and find them quick. There are backpacks for storage, ammunition, vehicles, and, of course, the guns. There are hand guns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles in the game. Each have their own kind of ammo and each one handles differently than the others in both power and precision.

The game can cycle from first person to third person mode (much like Skyrim), depending on player preference. Third person mode helps with map awareness since you can see more than just your normal field of vision, which is perfect for finding defensive positions while keeping track of other players out to get you. First person mode allows you better precision when firing your weapon, which is great because ammunition is in short supply. Every shot counts in this game, and getting that last shot in before you need to reload might just make all the difference.

You might be thinking: camp out in a random building until time runs out to win, or camp out and have the others duke it out. The game has a few incentives to force confrontations for those who might want to take the easy way out. First, the map itself is an enemy: the safe zone grows smaller every few minutes. In-game, this can be seen as a shimmering blue dome. Players caught outside the safe zone get damaged over time, resulting in elimination. Second, places in the safe zone get bombed by planes. These will be marked on your mini map and players are alerted minutes before it happens. Lastly, planes also fly over and drop loot crates at random locations. These crates contain items that can’t be found in the map and can greatly help players survive encounters. These three events increase the tension in the game, and force players to move from their safe spots into more hostile territory. The goal of the game, of course, is to be the last person or team standing within the safe zone.

PUBG is a great game for fans of realistic shooters. You get wounded, you patch yourself up, you crawl on your stomach, you run over people in a car—it’s anything goes. What’s great about actually watching people play the game via live stream is the tension it mounts and how players react to these situations, making it an overall awesome game, and a potentially exciting esport once the developers have finalized it.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is now available for purchase on Steam for desktop and will be coming to XBox One by the end of the year as a console exclusive. No cross-play over the different platforms yet, but the dev team is already considering how it can be done.