July 4th, 2018

6+ hours.



Rust... What to say, the community is toxic, it's hard to learn, but It's fun as hell. That's the main selling point isn't it? It's simply fun when winning and terrible when losing. If you have sensitivity issues, this game is simply not for you. Most people will kill you on sight, and the few that don't usually do when you turn your back to them. Though sometimes, through the competitive nature and gunfire, Killing unarmed players, the madness of it all. A new champion is in every survival server, Willing to fight for those who have nothing, so that they may have something. That is rust. Will you succumb to senseless murder of unarmed people? Or will you have the strength to fight for what you want?

Rust is a battle of morals if you want it to be. Will you be one of the few to rise above while still maintaining your dignity?



September 7th, 2022

2000+ hours.




Rust... my beloved, what have they done to you?

I spent two-thousand hours on Rust, and for good reason.

Rust was a skill-based survival-horror game, with first person shooter elements. It took the thoughtfulness of survival games, the fear of horror games, and the skill of first-person shooters, and merged it all into one beautiful conglomerate. You won because of your achievements and you lost because of your failures.

There was always a question, pre-recoil change—always a frightened, untamed curiosity burning. You could spend hours, only to lose everything to failure of foresight. Sure, the losses were crushing... but the victories, especially when against the odds, were euphoric.

Why?

Because there was always a question.

There was always a question when you scanned the forested treeline and searched for silhouettes in the bushes—when you peered through a wuthering blizzard to the distantly snowy landscape—when the heat warbled the arid soil, stars starting to just twinkle.

There was always a question when you saw someone—when you tried to make out what they had—how capable they were. 'Was it worth fighting? Were they an easy mark or a battle-hardened veteran? Do I have a choice? Are they alone?'

There was always a question as, by circumstance or intent, you eventually found yourself at risk of losing everything—the exploding staccato roared into your very soul—'Who would win? Who would die? Who prepared more for this very moment?'

And with that question came an answer.

It wasn't always nice to hear.

It wasn't always bad to hear....

...but there was always a question.

Now?

Not so much.

The very life-blood of Rust has been phased out in favor of extra money. What was once a skill-based survival-horror game now lost its luster, tumbling into a corporatized shell, one that all video game giants eventually decide upon.

It's not skill-based, it's numbers based.

But hey, I have great news. Those 'two-hundred meter beamers' that were such an issue?—The ones who dedicated hundreds if not thousands of hours of their limited lives? They don't exist anymore.

No, we've done away with such things as 'skill.'

Facepunch, in their infinite wisdom, decided upon making a once 'skill-based' game into a roll of the dice—RNG. Now one single person can't kill easily from afar—now you just need four or five or twenty people all with rifles for some ACCURACY BY VOLUME.

The legends are gone. They myths have faded. The dreamers have awoken.

There is no champion—no savior or messiah. There is no great obstacle to overcome, no zen-like flow of which to immerse yourself in. Everything you've given—everything you COULD give... is gone.

You're merely doomed to be average... forever.

That's the part I find most depressing.

You can have all the skill in the world, the best mindset in the world, the most preparation of anyone ever... and still fail due to no fault of your own. Your outcome relies mostly on who pressed their crouch button first.

It's camp or be camped.

Everything you worked for?—Your 'loot?' Vanished into the coffers of those 20+ groups, never to be seen again. Your 'skills?' Ah, you don't need those anymore. Your 'duo/trio/quad friends?' Gone, tired of playing a game with no triumph.

I'd like to address the 'other' reason for this update: Scripters.

I'd like to make it clear that I've NEVER scripted—never ran a third-party program to modify my game files. The enjoyment I derive from Rust tended to be mostly from the extreme struggle—a struggle which I feel has disappeared.

Aimbotters, Espers, and other cheaters still run rampant and unchecked. The update changed NOTHING in that regard. It was merely a lie peddled to make it appear more palatable—a lie that, when in-game for more than an hour, is swiftly disproved.

What does recoil matter to the guy who has every shot locked and auto lead on perfectly to the center-mass of the target?

Rust has been emasculated.

There is no hope, and no future—no grand last stand. The odds, which were never in your favor, now landslid into the obscene: Quantity over quality to the highest degree.

And... things were always going to be this way.

This outcome was always going to be the same one.

It seems as time passes on, good, idealistic companies will always devolve into greedy, gluttonous and insatiable pits of despair, squeezing every last dollar that they can while diluting, cheapening, weakening, and degrading their product until it's merely 'acceptable.'

Things weren't perfect before, but they're certainly worse now.

The one way that made Rust such a special game for me has been tarnished forever.

This isn't the game I bought—nor would I have ever spent the money I had if I knew things were going to turn out this way.



April 13th, 2023

2,000+ hrs.



I re-downloaded and played the game (not what I'd ever call 'Rust') for a day. Still terrible with a low skill-ceiling and pay-2-win features. Do not purchase.

In summary, with the subsequent deterioration into 'large groups with at least one cheater'-esque gameplay, little remains to enjoy.

After a short warm-up, I reached end-of-game within twenty-four hours, killing and dying to RNG as the new gods deign. There were Roofcampers, roamers, and clans, as there always was—but, as predicted, exacerbated by the high-group-number meta.

Perhaps in a fit of melancholic hope, I submitted an in-game suggestion detailing some possible solutions for new and old recoil players, such as adding a distinct 'Classic Gamemode...' but I have little hope that any meaningful change will come.

Do not trust the label's the game portrays on the store page.

This is not a skill-based survival horror game anymore.

This is a generalized, barely-palatable pile of jank, subject only to the whims of the developers. Anything you see today can be changed tomorrow. The bloat of new features just keeps on coming, and it will only stop when it ceases to make Facepunch and it's creation relevant.

You know, it's strange—for a game with such a problem with skilled players... they have an awfully high and increasing learning curve.

If you've somehow read this before purchasing... then heed my advice: Save yourself the trouble. Take that little excited voice in your head and kill it. You'll surpass the two-hour refund limit before you can experience the full extent of how terrible Rust is. It's not worth its price for it's competitors.