PUBG 1.0 had a great launch, at least from my experience. Steam even put a timer in order to announce the official release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and it got everyone hyped up. Even though not everything went perfectly, considering what they had to do in a such a short time and with the release of the xBox version I can say that really did a decent job. Now let’s see the PUBG 1.0 review and what’s my take on this game after the official release.
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Cons |
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First Thoughts
I have played in the test servers also, so I knew what to expect already. The game has already been polished quite well and they added a lot of new content in order make almost a new game. But I need to put the test servers aside and see if the 1.0 release can deliver me a great experience without any other reference point.
Matches
I played PUBG for a good amount of hours and I really had fun. So that is a very good start. The main problem regarding the matches is that the lag doesn’t seem to have stopped. When everyone jumps at the beginning of the match, there is so much lag.
Experience
For example I was trying to get to a weapon and I just couldn’t reach it because the servers were rolling back my position. Many times I couldn’t move forward more than 2 steps and I would be rolled back 1 step. So that’s really bad. I also had a fist fight with someone right when we landed and I couldn’t hit him. He kept punching me from nowhere… it was like a ghost would punch me in the face until I dropped dead. That’s how bad the lags were.
Ping Lock
To be fair, this was the first day of playing PUBG since its release and I have to admit that it did got a bit better since then, but not that much. They said that they will solve these issues with time and they want to implement a ping lock. This means that if you have your ping over a certain value, you won’t be able to play on that server. So if you want to play with your friend from Asia/Australia and you’re from Europe, you might not be able to do that anymore. They will probably also do some other fixes in order to provide a lag-free experience, but we’ll have to wait and see for that.
Crashes
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that the game crashes quite often. It is good that you can easily reconnect back, but if it catches you in the wrong moment, it will surely cause you to lose the match. I often got caught while running from the blue zone and trust me, it is not fun when you’re in the last 20 or so.
I think that they will solve these issues in the future, but I have to judge the game as it is right now. The game was kind of delayed a bit with the release of the xBox release even though they didn’t admit it officially. So the release of 1.0 was really rushed.
Gameplay
The gameplay in general feels really smooth. The vaulting system is just pure awesomeness and I’m really happy that they implemented it in the official release. There are still some bugs and inconsistencies to solve, but all-in-all it gave me a nice experience.
Weapons
The weapons also feel premium right now. The sounds are satisfying and the looks are even better. They also revamped the bullet system a bit. Meaning that when you shoot, now the weapons behave a bit differently and it takes a bit of time to adjust. Also, the scopes now can be zoomed in and out. If you have a x8 or a x15, it is really useful. The light from the red dot and the holographic now can be adjusted so you can see what you’re looking at.
Toggle or Hold
The implemented options in order to toggle or hold for certain actions to happen. For example, a lot of player complained that you have to toggle the ADS (aim down sight) and now you can assign a button and change it to hold. So you will ADS now more smoothly.
The new map also offers some more gameplay possibilities since it has more points of interest and you can now get good weapons in less crowded areas, which is really good in my opinion.
Idea
The idea of fighting for your life and that you have to be the last man standing is very appealing and it offers a lot of excitement. When you’re within the last 5-10 people, things get really intense. You will literally pump adrenaline in your veins, it’s that intense. Especially if it’s your first time. So that makes it a really appealing and good game.
Graphics
There’s nothing much to say here. The game looks good and it will probably look even better in the future when they accumulate more experience and optimize their game. Right now you probably don’t want to crank up the settings at maximum details because it sacrifices a lot of FPS. But even at medium settings, the game looks great. At maximum details it’s beautiful and in the future it will probably be possible to play it at max settings with not performance sacrifice.
ESports
This game has huge eSports potential. It already has a spectator mode implemented, but only for official tournaments and for the people that are actually in the match. You can replay your death and you can go around with the camera in a 1km radius, which is a welcome feature for many content creators. I expect it to be as big as LoL, DotA or CS:GO in the future. I hope I will not be disappointed because there are some things that need to be fixed before going in that direction. For example, how will the randomness of the game affect the outcome of a game? Maybe a player is better than another, but the RNG (random number generator) gave them bad loot and they lose faster than the’re supposed to based on skill.
Conclusion
PUBG 1.0 is a great game and it offers a unique experience. Even though the problems it has doesn’t make the game unplayable, they do provoke some annoyances and they need to be solved.
I would give PUBG 1.0 a 9/10 Gamerseal Rating.