VIDEO GAME REVIEW // PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

Game - PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

What is Battlegrounds?

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is usually shortened to PUBG for short. It's a Massively Multiplayer Online Survival Game, developed by the company Bluehole, on Unreal Engine 4. PUBG is a last man standing shooter that is being heavily developed on community feedback. The main goal is to scavenge loot such as supplies and weapons on a 8x8km island to use to protect yourself to be the last man standing.

PLAYERUNKNOWN

PLAYERUNKNOWN is the gamertag of Brendan Greene, who is the pioneer of the Battle Royale genre. He started off mucking about with the source code on Arma, he didn't consider himself a programmer, but he knew enough from his web design experience to start working on a mod that he could call his own. He wanted to make a game where you would value your in game life rather than just running around in a gun fight, knowing that if you died, you would instantly respawn. So that's where it started, he created a mod for Arma2 and Arma 3 known as Battle Royale. You start off by parachuting into the wilderness, with nothing to help you. You then proceed to loot buildings for supplies that will help you on your journey. Then slowly, the map starts to shrink, making all the players need to move closer together. The winner is then the last player left alive.
After the Battle Royale game mode became popular, he was contacted by Sony Online Entertainment for some consulting work. They then went onto develop the game mode King of the Kill, which was very similar to Battle Royale. King of the Kill then launched in 2015 and about a year later, he got a call from Bluehole, who wanted to work with him to create an Original IP for Battle Royale. He went ahead with this deal and in 2017 released Battlegrounds. As soon as Battlegrounds hit the steam market, it rocketed to the top of the steam sales chart and has even been one of the most viewed games on twitch.

Updates

PUBG is still in early access, which technically means that the game is still being developed and is not fully finished. Saying that, I think the game easily has enough features already in that will keep you playing the game and entertained for hours! Every week there is an update to PUBG, this is usually small changes such as bug fixes and performance optimisations, and then there is also a monthly update, which will introduce bigger features. Usually this will be new guns added, more gun sites, more item pickups, new vehicles etc. Recently on their twitter they have shown some upcoming features such as new maps and some new animations such as climbing/vaulting.

The Guns

Within the game, there is already a range of different guns, there are Snipers, SMGs, Shotguns, Pistols, AR's, and LMG's. Depending on your play style, the guns that you choose to pick up may be different from others. There is also a range of different attachments that the guns can hold such as extended mags, red dot sights, Silencers and Gun Stocks. Within the monthly updates, new guns are usually added to the game. Some guns in game can only be obtained by Supply drops, which are crates that get dropped from planes during the game. They add another element into the game as many different people will head towards these drops if they see them to try to get the loot.

The Map

At the games current state, there's only one map out at the moment, however the developers are working on at least two more maps at the moment. The current map is a 8x8km island with lots of fields and rough terrain. There are lots of different buildings scattered around the islands and lots of mini cities. There are some hot spots located around the map, such as the School, Flats, Shooting Range, War Tunnels and a Military Island. These hot spots will usually have better loot, however they will usually also have more people try to get to them.

The Gameplay

The game play is very tense, as soon as you spawn in the plane, you are instantly looking and deciding on where the best place for you to jump out is. Then once you jump you are looking around to see if anyone else is landing anywhere near you, if they are you then quickly run into a building looking for the first gun you find so that you can defend yourself. I find that PUBG is very tense and you really do have to think tactically about every move. Is that the place place for you to go, should I shoot at this person and give away my position, should I move out of this house. These are all questions that you will be asking yourself. When you manage to get into the final 10, you can really feel your blood rushing and you may even start to shake for your life. One small move and you could be out of the game.

Conclusion

Overall I think that PUBG has really got a lot of potential to be a great game especially as of how much fun it is at its current stage as a early access game. The developers are always communicating with there fans and letting us know what they are currently working on, and what will be released in the next major update. You can tell that they are taking on the feedback of the community and are really trying to make the best game they possibly can. PUBG may look expensive for its current price of £26.99 but if you are like me, you will easily sink in over 100 hours in no time. Once the game comes out of early access, its most likely to go up in price again, so I defiantly recommend taking the plunge and buying the game if you think it looks good. Don't forget, you can always get a refund on Steam.
Good luck, and may the best man win!
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

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-Nesbitt