You may have thought my Cats ranking was my big review that I had in my pocket for the week. You just happen to be mistaken. My true big review is actually a clash of the video game titans. And instead of hitting you all at one with one monster review of all the games (and partially because this is taking absolutely forever to write), I’ve decided to split it into 4 parts.
Say you’re late to the party and you say, “Hey Tyler, you’re quite the renaissance man when it comes to playing games, what Battle Royale should I play?” There isn’t an easy answer, as even the game I like the most in this comparison has a few glaring flaws. So instead of a simple suggestion, let me hit you with something a little better…
Wait hold up, what is a Battle Royale you ask? Its a game where you drop into a map with 100 or so other players in teams sized from solo up to quad (varies depending on the game) and fight to be the last team standing. Across the board, you loot your way across an ever shrinking map and no two matches ever play out the same. They all have their own quirks, and while no game is the objectively best BR, there is one out there that can please many different gamers.
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds
PUBG, PapaGino- whatever your group calls it, this was the original monster BR. Created as a spinoff of a spinoff of (possibly even another spinoff of) Arma 2 and taking a few cues from the movie Battle Royale, PUBG was an enormous hit. Some see it as the true start to the BR craze and the reason Fortnite (Save the World) and arguably Titanfall 3 have been buried.
PUBG was the game that introduced me to the BR format of games, and for quite a length of time, it was one of my go-to nightly games. PUBG’s format is the backbone of most BR games so for the sake of nostalgia, most future comparisons will likely be to this game. Overall, PUBG is probably the most realistic (Warzone is more like movie realism) and that makes it the most clunky. But with clunkyness comes quirkiness, which is really part of the charm of PUBG.
Dropping
PUBG features a rather nuanced dropping system, probably being the most realistic of the lot. You can pull your chute at any time but do it too high and you’ll be in the air for a while. There is a modifier button to drop straight down or coast when you’re free falling or parachuting. You definitely have the most control over your trajectory here over any of the other big BR’s, though it may be a lot slower than the drop/pull chute/cut shoot/pull chute/etc… of Warzone.
Loot
Most of the time you are seeking out buildings for floor loot, since unlike the other games, there are no loot chests (except for the supply drops). The guns are all fairly real world guns using their real world ammunition types and all have a myriad of attachments to attach. This is where the clunkyness comes in. Your HUD will show you if you have a weapon it can be used with, but it does not auto equip, so you are stuck dragging it from the ground or your backpack to your current gun (yet it will swap backbacks and armor, weird inconsistency). Early in the game’s life (before anything worth getting came exclusively from the battlepass), you also had clothes on the ground that you could find, but that was dropped to streamline gameplay and “help lag.” Helmets, backpacks, and body armor are still a major mechanic though.
The flipside to the clunkyness of looting, is the useful TAB menu for accessing your inventory- and by inventory I mean also the ground. This is the only game that has an interface to see ground loot, so you might have a hard time picking up stacked loot in later games (unless you have a Loba on your squad in Apex). Like most, the Supply Chests offer stronger loot, but are easy to contest in many of the game’s wide open areas.
Each weapon has a varying amount of attachment slots. You have a few different choices for each but the stat differences are more so for preference, though some like the silencer or combo quick reload/extended magazine are outright better.
Gameplay
PUBG has the tried and true drop-loot-fight gameplay loop. Sometimes you go whole games without seeing anyone and other times you fight from the start. Other times you fight all game with the worst weapons (even worse, PUBG lately seems to have all guns start semi auto, so that makes things interesting should you forget to change it) or sometimes you’re armed to the teeth and die to a single headshot from someone across the map.
Speaking of dying randomly, this game does both a good and poor job of showing you where enemies are. People are virtually invisible while scoping if they’re hidden well enough and if they haven’t been firing or moving, its hard to tell where any potential foes are. Gunfire though is another story. This game has probably the most realistic soundscape, which really helps finding the direction of enemies. Guns also expel a very tell-tale muzzle flash, so if you do get the jump on someone, make it count.
Movement is pretty standard third-person fare, with a couple extra flourishes like climbing/vaulting and leaning. The game is the only one that can be both first or third person, but you can kind of tell which one they started with (third) because of how things are set up. Third person allows for some corner peeking ambushes without any skin in the game (you can see them, but they can’t see you) which is why some prefer the first person mode. For me, a careful pace and religious use of sound cues (thank you DT990’s) are enough to root out many lurkers.
Design
For some reason, half of these games are (originally) set in Russia. PUBG’s first map was a lush early fall seeming countryside in Russia, with a later map set in a snowy Russia. Other maps include a Mexican desert and a lush East Asian Island. All maps have their own designs and layouts. They also feature different weapons and vehicles.
Graphics were pretty realistic for their time. Some updates in the times between first playing and now have increased the quality of the anti-aliasing (and by updates I mean a new graphics card and higher res monitor, so I don’t know if the game actually changed). Either way, the higher definition just sort of highlights the aging textures and weak lighting.
Battlepass and Store
An in-game store in a long term game is an inevitability. I don’t mind being offered unique skins to keep the lights on, especially since the game isn’t based around cosmetics (looking at you Sea of Thieves, putting cool stuff in a for money store is not very work-hard-to-be-a-pirate-lord of you). I’m not a fan when its a paid-for game and even the base set of skins is based behind a random loot box (*cough Overwatch*), but that is more of a game industry issue at large. Very few items are available for in game currency, so if you don’t spend more on this game, your character will look like it (and you’ll have a ton of locked chests in your inventory).
With the birth of the BR comes the birth of one of the most controversial gaming fads- the Battlepass. Starting a bit earlier in Dota2, Battlepasses took off with Fortnite. It was not long before PUBG also started one. Split into seasons, the first Battlepass was pretty much a cash grab. You couldn’t possibly complete it unless you made the game your 9-5, or much easier, paid a stack of cash. Battlepasses prey on that FOMO (fear of missing out) that can really be damaging to some individuals. If you get near the end of a pass, its all too tempting to drop some stacks to get to the skin you might want, but that’s an argument for another time. Here specifically, it was nigh impossible to finish without serious dedication.
Overall
This is a solid game that has probably some of the most realistic gameplay of the lot. Its the earliest (and boy does it feel that way) but is just a delightful mix of many aspects that later games hold center stage. If you like military simulations or survival games and want something a bit more faster paced, this is a great one to look at. If you’ve played later BR’s and want to try something new, maybe wait for a free weekend. Just know that though its the only game behind a paywall, it has the least amount of progression and probably the stingiest Battlepass and in-game store.
Goose Reviews Everything 