Review for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 20/12/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 07/12/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 04/09/2018
2018 was a great year for battle royale fans. This is largely due to Fortnite's huge explosion in popularity, but we find them in numerous titles, even in the AAA gaming sphere, with Call of Duty's recent Blackout mode. With an imminent presence in Battlefield V and even the recent Red Dead Online, this style of multiplayer is destined for a bright future.
The beginning of everything
But for many, the mantra "where do we drop?" started with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (commonly called PUBG). Initially releasing the early access version on Steam last March, the title is now a staple in the multiplayer landscape. A hundred players parachute over a vast landscape, collect items and fight to remain the last in life. It all sounds familiar now, but this Hunger Games-style fight was reserved only for Minecraft servers and terrible early access projects, destined to never complete.
So now, just over eighteen months after its initial release, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has arrived on PS4. The parallelism with Fortnite on the Sony console is perhaps even stronger than on PC, and we all had expectations about PUBG: were they met?
A muddy look
First off, let's face it right away: PUBG on PlayStation 4 looks dirty. Regardless of whether you are in the iconic Erangel military base or the newer tropical island map, Sanhok, everything looks unsightly and grainy. That's right. This is not to say that performance is always horrible, but from a purely aesthetic point of view, PUBG is a bad game. The guns lack the detail we would expect in a first person title, the surfaces feel pixelated, and looking across a vast landscape is like staring at a muddy puddle.
However, this does not paralyze the experience as one would expect. When we find ourselves in the middle of an intense firefight, we will not pay attention to this, we will only think about not dying. Like any other game, it will appear "clean" to us after a few hours, and the muddy images will slip away once immersed in its excellent tactical action.
Adrenaline for everyone
At the right time, with the right people, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is an excellent multiplayer experience. Even Fortnite lacks the heart-pounding rush to the abandoned staircase, waiting for an enemy to come out with a shotgun at any moment. Or the frenzied suppression fire of our companions as we are hidden behind a sandy boulder, with dirt flying around us from a sniper targeting us. When this all works, it really works, and the fighting difference with Fortnite is profound. Gone are the colored numbers when you hit someone, replaced by visceral blood and panic.
Some aspects will be familiar to those coming from Fortnite, like the swift and decimating storm that will hit anyone who doesn't pay enough attention. While Epic Games has largely reduced the storm as a threat through many cross-cutting means, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' blue wall of death is still very dangerous.. Very slow at first, ignoring it means running for minutes in an attempt to escape, only to be consumed and watch the health bar drop inexorably. In the later stages of a game, crossing this blue limit for a few seconds will result in death, so always be careful.
Health management is also familiar to most, but it is more thorough, with items like medkits and bandages used to repair wounds. Pain relievers will help push our decreased health beyond the 75% threshold compared to typical healing kits, and all of these can be activated by simply pressing on the D-pad. There are other hotkeys assigned to the controller, like pressing right to select grenades and left to change firing mode, and learning them all will make us a more efficient killer.
The combat is for the most part satisfying, with shotguns echoing through the hills and SMGs spitting out bullets at the speed we want. The aforementioned firing modes (single, burst, or auto) are useful for controlling recoil, but learning how to use R2 to shoot, instead of pressing it angrily, is often safer. We should also make sure to switch modes as soon as we find a weapon, as everything is set to "single shot".
If you manage to defeat your opponent, you will be dealing with PUBG's PlayStation 4 inventory, which is confusing at first. As you move along five columns with L1 and R1, you'll need to figure out where and how to equip weapons, clothing and anything else useful. The square picks up items as the triangle drops them, but you'll need a backpack to carry plenty of ammo for your weapons. The stats on the same are shown when you stand on them, but these apparently can't be compared, so it's hard to know if the gun you're picking up is more useful than the sniper rifle you just fired. This means that trial-and-error is the best solution.
Once learned, however, the choices seem to open immeasurably. Going from a holographic viewfinder to an x8 is extremely satisfying. There are still teething problems that are solved through experience (such as how you'll want "Control Type B" to zoom and zoom accurately when aiming), but compared to the amount of fun the game offers, these are small things.
And it is the multiplayer that elevates PUBG. We initially played a fair amount of single player games and found ourselves frustrated by the punishing time-to-kill menus. Dying immediately and having to start over is annoying, and the silent isolation created by the non-existent soundtrack makes a solitary trek through these huge maps possible. But once a friend has joined, everything changes. Reviving each other and ransacking homes as a team is much more satisfying. Learning which guns work and which don't, driving through the desert on a motorcycle, it all becomes much more fun. Maybe this is just our personal preference, but for a game like PUBG, cooperative gameplay seems like the best option.
There are still some glitches that plague a surprisingly functional game. The audio comes in and out apparently at random; especially the sound of the plane at the start of the game. Frame-rate is generally sufficient, but it struggles enormously when driving through a busy city populated by many tall buildings. Isolated, these are all negligible, but taken together they can affect the enjoyment of fast-paced gameplay. However, compared to what people expected from PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on PlayStation 4, everything works perfectly.
Recall that microtransactions are present, but they seem to be non-invasive and for the most part, everything can be achieved through normal gameplay. The BattlePoints, obtainable with the gameplay, will allow us to buy loot that assign a random reward, so that we can customize our hero. Then there are the G-Coins, the premium currency, which allows us to directly buy skins and specific items for weapons. It was inevitable that such a popular title could forfeit players into wanting to customize their hero, but it all turns out fairly fair.
The battle royale craze has captivated and infuriated many players, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on PS4 is unlikely to change that dramatically. However, it is a surprising experience. Once we get over the initial difficulty presented by the game's controls and menus, we will find ourselves in front of a truly fantastic game that is perfect for groups of friends. Basically, if you like the battle royale idea then PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is for you. Just forgive its hideous aesthetic because, really, it's the gameplay that it deserves.
► PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a Shooter-Survival game developed by PUBG Corporation and published by Microsoft for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 20/12/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 07/12/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 04/09/2018
Our latest game news: How to get the new crates in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
