Playerunknown’s Battleground shattered the popularity charts during its early access and broke the concurrent user’s record on Steam. Previously Dota 2 and CS:GO ruled over the Steam community for quite a long time. But this phenomenon battle royale game took their place and ranked among top games on Steam and Twitch.
Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG) Review Score
Summary
PUBG is one of the best open-world shooter and battle royale games ever introduced in the gaming industry. It has revitalized the battle royale and created one of its genres due to its evolved gameplay. Not only the game has surpassed the popularity of many other known games in the league, but also developed a fan following that never gets bored even after playing.
Let’s Begin with Origin
In December 2017, Bluehole officially launched its famous title under PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Steam. The company aimed to sell a few hundred copies of the games, but it turned around oppositely. Overwhelmed by the users, PUBG broke the records by exceeding 30 million players on Steam. So, what exactly is the reason for the fame and audience of PUBG in no time?
The genius premise behind its success is Brendan Greene, the creative director of this industry-breaking concept. He took inspiration from the Hunger Game novels and a famous Japanese film Battle Royale. ARMA 2 was a military simulation released in 2009, followed by a zombie mod of Dayz.
Brendon worked on mod of DayZ and later hired for the transition of ARMA 3. Later Daybreak Games reached out to him, and he started to work in a battle royale H1Z1: King of the Kill. From there, Bluehole hired him, and they finally released Playerunknown’s Battleground.
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Getting Started With PUBG:
PUBG is a cross-platform game currently available on Xbox, Stadia, PlayStation, Android/iOS, and Microsoft Windows PCs (Windows 7 64-bit and later). Integrated graphics chips are not sufficient to run on PC owing to graphics-intensive requirements. A decent mid-ranged graphics card such as AMD Radeon HD 7650 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or higher are minimum requirements. Any mid-ranged or high-end graphics card is enough to run the game on a 1080p setting with smooth graphics.
A username is required to start the game for the first time. Purchasing the costumes and getting access to the different perks, Battle Points (BPs) is a standard currency. Battle Points (BPs) are easy to get from the matches and then utilize for the accessories. These customizations help to stand out in terms of accessories and in-game items. Verities of in-game accessory packs are transferrable with the BPs acquired from battle royale matches. Changing character is very easy and requires 3000 BPs.
A Real Battle Royale?
Like any other first-person shooter or open-world survival game, the basic theme of PUBG is last man standing. There is a right balance of gameplay in PUBG as compared to the other games in this genre. Gameplay elements like control over the jump from the plane, gliding and opening parachute to the desired location, collecting random weapons, selecting vehicles, and getting hands-on random items to contribute to the crazy experience.
You can select from different maps to join a match, including Erangel, Miramar, Vikendi, Sanhok, Karakin, Paramo, and Haven. You can choose between different playable modes like solo, duo, squad, and a very challenging 1-man squad match. Although it’s a first-person shooter game, it got both first-person, and third-person cameras for a better view. First-person camera is more challenging and limits the view.
Additional game modes get added with every new season that makes the gameplay more robust and exciting. There were few glitches in the lobby and match selection when the game was in beta mode. Since the release of the stable version and 1.0 update, it has improved dramatically in this regard.
To ensure fair gameplay and to manage the extra load, PUBG has included different servers. These servers actively manage the users depending upon their locality and prevent them from lags. There is an Elo-based ranking system for matching players for their battle royale. Name after Arpad Elo, whose method is famous across many games and board games for the ranking match. Elo ranking keeps the players in the matches, which reduces the chances of unfair gameplay.
Last Man Standing:
In PUBG, 100 players rush on a deserted island by plane, scavenging for the weapons and supplies to survive a bloody deathmatch. Players are forced to a play zone by an electric field, which makes things interesting. Several challenging events and situations keep the players engaged and prevent boredom in this open-world game. No other shooter game provides these features. Despite the glitches and lags, PUBG is becoming a mainstream success in the battle royale gaming industry.
Teams play against each other in deathmatch, and they scavenge for weapons, health packs, boosts, and armor. These critical items placed in towns, cities, military bases, and abandoned buildings make the gameplay even more enjoyable. As soon the match starts, you have to rush to a location to get an early hold into the supply like weapons gives an advantage over the other players that landed in the same area—not getting anything to get you killing spree, then no problem. You will be fighting with bare hands like kickboxing and expect to get a killer punch on the opponent. But there is always not the same situation. You might gain hands on one of the best weapons or get a pan for a melee attack.
In squad mode, sharing your ammo and weapons with other members makes you better at the gameplay. All this bundling up on weapons is time spending and needs a big chunk of your time for getting more out of the items. Despite all efforts, you might get killed by an unknown enemy and end up all your efforts for becoming number 1 on the map. But all this is the real triggering point in PUBG and makes things interesting.
Don’t forget to get yourself out of the deadly blue zone that slowly kills the player when a player traps inside it. The speed and intensity of the blue zone depend on the stage of the game. In the early stage, the blue zone is less deadly and has a moderate speed. Lately, it gets more lethal and can kill players in seconds at the very last minutes of the game.
Beware of collecting a supply of bandages, health kits, pain killers, and energy drinks to minimize the blue zone’s damage and survive the damage caused by it. You never know at any stage of the games where the final zone will form. It always intriguing, and players have to move inside the play zone while it’s continuously shrinking. Positioning, engaging, and remaining vigilant are crucial to success for getting a winner-winner chicken dinner.
The strategy is critical for becoming the best at this game. Firing and locating other opponents also alerts opponents about your location and makes you vulnerable to enemy attacks. Continually changing your location and keeping yourself surrounded by any obstacle keeps you alive in the game. But once hit by the enemy, your health goes down, and eventually, if the health goes drain, then a teammate needs to revive you before you further get down by the enemy attack. Get yourself embraced and quickly move to a secure location inside a building to get yourself revived by a teammate. While reviving, you and your teammate remain defenseless and need to stay vigilant for an enemy ambush.
PUBG is the collective name for tactics and arts of survival in deadly deathmatches. Although this is not new to a video game unpredictably, changing circumstances and not knowing where you can get hit by an enemy keeps the game fresh and engaging. The achievement in PUBG continuously varies with the game going towards the end. Winning is satisfying without any prize involved for the winning team, and it’s not the only essential element in the overall gaming experience.
Survival also contributes towards the excitement, and with each kill, there is satisfaction and feels earning something special. PUBG, like its predecessors, carries a military theme, and guns are the primary factors in the overall gameplay. Recoil is still a significant factor in close combat as well as a long-range battle. The adrenaline running inside the body in the tense moments killing with a sniper is an immense challenge, especially for the newbies. But thanks to the scopes that come in 2x, 4x, 6x, and 8x zoom to support the player for a long-distance kill shot. In all this simulation timing of an event play a decisive role for the player to survive. For example, healing during a heated battle is the risk as it can be fatal if the counter-attack comes out of nowhere.
Two maps are not Enough
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds had two playable maps with diverse locations. Every location has its pro and cons and has popularity based on players liking and skillsets. The first map is Russian location-based Erangel maps that carry most of the gaming due to its pretty scenes and exciting locations. Miramar comes as the second map and introduced in the game lately, bringing a desert environment for snipping lovers.
Each map is vast and virtually 8 by 8 Km in size, with graphics that mesmerize the players. Later more maps are also introduced in the game named Vikendi, Sanhok, Karakin, Paramo, and Haven. Once on these maps, you will find yourself in urban areas, villages, beautiful landscapes, massive frozen mountains, deserts, and many abandoned buildings. Each map contains an enormous graphical scenery with embedded structures explicitly known for that location only.
As soon as you land an airplane, there is a complete view of the map location and famous buildings and areas highlighted. The entire process from landing to entering a building and then leaving for another location is a technical marvel. You do not feel any interruptions during all this process, and seamless gameplay continues without any additional loading times.
Every great thing comes with some limitations, such as the story towards the graphical side of the PUBG maps. There is a need for some improvements in the maps that can boost the gameplay to another level. Maps need improvement in their graphical details, which posed disappointment in general. There is a need for texture sharpness, which otherwise derailing the overall presentation. Sometimes you can’t tell that it’s a man hiding or a bush/shrub rite in front of you. Few buildings appear to wash out as compared to the colorful background. However, in new maps, this improved quite a lot you can look it’s in Vikendi with a great overall experience in the frozen environment. The in-game length of the maps feels very interesting. Miramar maps are vast and feel a bit tiring, especially there is not much building, and there are still desert areas. While the Erangel map is high-speed due to the proximity of different locations and enemy engagement is high.
I Got Supplies
Like any other battle royale and shooter game, winning in the PUBG depends upon the right weapon, vehicle, and supplies. And if you played PUBG, you are probably already familiar with the term “I got supplies”. Vehicles are the key to quick moving to other buildings and areas for loot. Each map has a unique set of vehicles that are not present in other maps. Some of them are common, but most of the vehicles are bound to a specific map.
Weapons in PUBG are much needed for the winner-winner chicken dinner and surviving on the deathmatch. Scavenging for the right weapon during the gameplay is the ultimate desire for most of the players. Melee weapons include pan, machete, and sickle, while hand grenades, smoke grenades, stun grenades, and Molotov cocktails are throwables to fight the enemy from a distance.
Groza, AUG, AKM, M416, and Scar-L are the most sought-after assault rifles in the game. Although AKM has some recoil issues and M416 covers flaws that AKM has in the recoil section. In the snipper category, AWM, Kar98, and M24 are the best choices to tackle the enemy from a long distance. Each weapon has its pro and cons, but most of the time, assault rifle combination with snipper is a deadly combination.
Exciting Locations
Although all the maps are unique and developed by keeping the people in mind, Erangel is a widely used map. Some locations are much more crowded and are challenging. We are going to cover some of these locations and give a brief overview.
The first location in every PUBG player’s mind is Pochinki and based in Russia’s town. This area covered with the building and houses which makes the sneaking very easy. Out of 100, almost half of the players land on Pochinki, making it a bustling but dangerous location. You might end up getting killed even without getting hands-on any weapon after the land due to rushing adrenaline in this area.
The military base is the next location that is overwhelmed with the players. This beautiful location surrounding the mountains is an abandoned military base. You find airplane hangars, storehouses, and buildings in this area filled with heavy loot. Critical for survival in this area is to get a hand on any weapon after landing and get to a secure location. Other notable locations are bridges and Rozhak in Erangel.
Special Airdrops
Drops include rare items that are not present in normal loot within the maps and have two types. One is a standard airdrop that comes every few minutes on a random location on a map. At the same time, the other one is summoned by the users using a flair gun. The flare gun is a loot item that found in a few place on maps. Once found, it needed to be fired towards the sky and wait for the airplane to drop your special items. These airdrops include a ghillie suit and special inventory items like level 3 helmets, level 3 vest, AWM, M24, Groza, AUG, MK14, M249, 15x scope, and adrenaline syringe. These unique items are one of the most sought after and can prove fatal when looting from airdrops. Most players are after these airdrops that makes it difficult even with the whole squad.
Servers and Ping
PUBG operates its servers in many locations to manage players’ load and provide a seamless gaming experience without any lags. But latency and ping are always an issue with this type of MMO and server-based multiplayer games. Although there is region-wise load management with the servers, several occasions of lags and glitches are there when tested on our PC. Delayed ping provides late actions and disturbs the overall experience of the game.
Lag and Known Issues
PUBG broke the records of Dota 2 and CS:GO popularity with its groundbreaking initial releases. Owing to its highly competitive and addictive gameplay, it became an overnight success. Keeping that in mind, we must also mention weak areas of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds where improvements are a must. One of the problems that players face in this great deathmatch is lags causing real frustration. Consider yourself in a steamy battle with the opponent, and you get caught in lag, giving the edge to your enemy. For a hardcore gamer, this is a real disappointment and trigger point. Recently PUBG has listened to the feedback and improved overall glitches and lags in the latest updates. New servers are being continuously added to the game to facilitate high-quality gaming with minor or zero lags.
In PUBG, the anti-cheat system is weak, and there are 90% chances that you will see a flying car where a hacker is driving it and killing people all over the place. There is a system for banning such players regularly. Forum is also active where people report the hackers and glitches that affect gameplay. These requests manually reviewed and requests moderated, but still, this is not enough. Other bugs that are sometimes annoying include glitches in parachuting, random bike flying, and dropping mid-air without any reason. However, these glitches get addressed with every update, but there are still many problems.
What’s the latest PUBG update for PC?
PUBG released 10.3 updates to its PC test servers and brought many improvements and notable gameplay changes. Few fundamental changes include lighting improvement for Karakin map, weapon sound selection mechanism, and emoting with teammates.
Karakin Map Graphical Update
Karakin has received some lighting improvement that increased the overall graphical experience of the map.
Weapon sound system
There are new options for weapon sound mechanisms and a selection between the weapons’ remastered and original sound. Under the Audio tab in Settings, you can change the sound of weapons, including M416, SKS, Kar98, and M249.
Squad Emote
Emote feature is already a most enjoyed thing in the PUBG Mobile version, but now in the PC version, players can emote with their teammates. A grand celebration using emote after chicken dinner is always delighted to view.
What is PUBG Lite?
Most of the games are heavily graphical and need mid to high-end graphics cards to handle the FPS and smoothness. But a large chunk of gamers still has low-end PCs, which limits the gameplay for them. PUBG released PUBG Lite for those gamers who have lower specification hardware. It is free to play version, and you can enjoy your favorite game with lower graphics.
Final Verdict
PUBG is one of the best open-world shooter and battle royale games ever introduced in the gaming industry. It revitalized the battle royale and created one of its genres due to its evolved gameplay. Not only the game has surpassed the popularity of many other known games in the league, but also developed a fan following that never gets bored even after playing. It is the most significant hit that inspired competitors like Apex Legends and Fortnite.
No online game is perfect ever, and they carry glitches, hacking issues, and lags. PUBG is no different and has some problems, but on the other hand, it is one of the best battle royale games with a super unique experience. It generated a large fan following and gathered gamers from all over the places to Reddit and discord communities. One of the best players in shooter games like Shroud, Ibiza, FuzzFace, Chocotaco, and many more are playing this unique game.
PUBG experience is everlasting, and there is no level of getting better at PUBG because of its continuously evolving mechanics. You can lead the team, play solo, or carry a duo squad for winner winner chicken dinner.
