Recent reviews by epitome

Will change to positive when performance is smooth, netcode/interp is fixed, anti-cheat works, and a sane ranking system is instated.

This feels like an unfinished mod to Age of Empires 4, and not Company of Heroes at all. It's a shameless cash grab, where they took models, icons, units etc. and put them in the Essence Engine 5 - which was made for AoE4

They've stabbed the Company of Heroes franchise and its supporters in the back. I'm utterly disappointed by what Relic has become. Shame on you.

Game has rampant duping and exploits, and doesn't manage to punish/correct even when cheaters are streaming themselves doing it. The whole economy is screwed and you will feel like an idiot engaging in korean-mmo-like grinding, knowing your competitors could be fully decked out from some easy cheating.

Empty promises. Horrible balance. Lag. Aim hacks. We're just now seeing the tip of the ice berg, one month into launch.

The game seems fundamentally broken and should've never passed beta-testing.

PUBG is fun for a while, but with gained experience, certain flaws become painfully apparent. If you're a passionate and competitive player, this game will test your patience in more ways than one. If you usually end up obsessing about improving your skill and enjoy winning, heed my warning: STAY AWAY!

It's one of those games that came close to greatness, and have caused me frustration. If you ever jumped on the DayZ wagon, maybe you'll empathize. Having given my feelings for this game an unhealthy amount of thought, here's me getting my conclusion of my chest for probably nobody to read. Let the rant begin!

The network performance is abysmal. Be prepared to get hit behind cover constantly, opponents gliding about, and crazy peeker's advantage. The movement desync is higher than firing. Meaning you'll see players shooting you before their movement animations represent as much: seeing you before turning, shooting when stuck in animations. Super-bullets: you'll get hit multiple times instantly - players having shot you for quite a while, before you're even able to react. The hit-registration is client-side, and there's no max lag-compensation. So, a player with 400 ping will shoot you multiple times before you'll even see him - effectively killing you before you can do anything. It becomes more about who can abuse the desync better, not aim or outmaneuver. If games like CS:GO or Overwatch have ever caused you irritation for its desync, this is on another level. Seriously, stay away.

The client performance is also pretty bad. You will need a legitimate beast of a PC to run this smoothly at 144 FPS. Even if you get the FPS high, there are constant stutters and hiccups. Mainly because the frametimes aren't stable, and 100 fps feel like 30. If you're used to console or deem 60 fps enough, you'll be fine. If you care about graphics, this game looks like absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Like something out of 2003 with glitching anti-aliasing. It's an eyesore for sure. Also, there are bugs that have been present for over a year now, and have yet to be fixed.

The gameplay is where the game shines ... for a little while. When you're new, chasing the "winner winner chicken dinner" (last person standing) is exhilarating. However, you'll soon realize some methods are overpowered for achieving this objective, especially passive ones. In example, going to remote areas and looting for long periods of time will 100% ensure you're getting geared while others are dying, without risk. Then you'll move into the late game. Not having seen enemies for 15-20 minutes, this will naturally make you anxious and excited. When you're new, mostly you'll just die and loose the gear. Rinse repeat, the game soon turns into a looting/driving/running/camping simulator if you're chasing "Chicken Dinners". If that's your cup of tea, you'll enjoy PUBG for sure. For most though, this becomes increasing tedious and boring because it doesn't challenge you. And this is where you'll face problems if you want to continue placing high: because this is the only viable tactical style for continuously winning.

So, what do most experienced players end up doing? They "drop hot", which is the popular term for starting games in locations having established themselves as popular PvP areas. Needless to say, compared to beforementioned passive and tedious strategies, this is very risky. Not only do you infinitely increase your chances of dying (or your teammates dying), but there's no reward even if you're successful. Winning these popular drops will not yield you better gear than those who went to remote areas. More often, you'll come out with much less - having chewed though armor, ammo, grenades, health, bandages, first aids, boosters, and most importantly: time and teammates. If you want to win, doing this just isn't worth it. Ever. Not even close.

So why do so many players still do it? Because it's fun and challenging, even if it isn't a viable way to win. In other words, if you like winning and PvP: this game will cause you frustration, because you can't have your cake and eat it too: You can't have fun, and win too. Like ranking up? You'll be better off looting meds for 25 minutes every game, and hiding. Actually, the rank 80 player in EU right now does this, and doesn't actually use weapons. That's how overpowered passive playstyles are: you don't actually need weapons - he doesn't even TRY to shoot others. (MasterT94).

This issue causes a lot of problems, and has polarized the community for a long time. It's been an ongoing debate between enthusiasts and frustrated critics, and where both should've won, the PvP-oriented players have lost completely. The PUBG competitions have established a niche community, dedicated to players willing to compete at "who can play passive styles better". Employing weapons mostly to scare other teams away, out-of-game handshaking so they don't land on each other, or when forced into conflict much later in the game. There's never an incentive to search for action, so if you like to PvP, but you also want to do well, this game will frustrate you. It's not even viable to risk fighting, when you're desperate: exemplified in article: https://www.pubgradar.com/n/5b3fa5a7abd73400213866f8 The offensive side of an idealistic "viability-continuum" is none-existent, and so you're only left with obviously better passive strategic choices: and obvious choices aren't choices at all. PUBG have yet to acknowledge such balancing issues. If you prioritize winning, you will probably grow bored pretty quickly when you realize the tedious nature of achieving it. And even then, if you actually want to gain rank through passive styles: The ranking-system is flawed for this exact reason, and nobody actually respects it. Not even the "pros" who've dedicated themselves to winning at PUBG will respect your ability to win, absurd as it sounds. Most lose respect for winning, and by extension the e-sport competitive aspect is alienating: only competing at passive styles of play, not encompassing the PvP accomplishments most audiences find awe-inspiring.

Returning to reviewing the actual game, PUBG has a lot of fun moments. Even if it doesn't support long-term engagements, as I've detailed thus far, the short-term spectacle can be fun. Especially when playing with friends, the gunplay is great in spite of networking issues and a breath of fresh air compared to most shooters. Clunky, but very rewarding. Also, driving cars, throwing grenades, explosions, stressful situations and many, many failures offer its own sort of fun. If you're that kind of player, jumping from game to game without the intention of long-term engagements, not caring if you lose a lot, it's probably worth checking out with friends. Is that worth 30 bucks? You decide.

I’ve played PUBG a lot, but stopped trying to win long ago, though I never stopped trying to improve (should be complimentary aspects, but isn’t). It sounds smug, but “surviving longer” isn’t challenging, and therefore not interesting. I still play because I enjoy the gunplay and PvP in and of itself, discarding all “chicken dinners” in favor of PvP. As a competitive person, this has been a very confusing experience. I don’t respect the competitive scene, at all – considering them a niche of commercially manufactured “athletes”. And the game’s made me so frustrated with its development and ignorance, I’m unwilling to spent another dime on it. In my frustration, I’ve found myself hoping that it fails. If any other game replicates the gunplay and introduced a wider viability-continuum, I’m out for good.

TL;DR: If client and network performance is important to you, STAY AWAY! Else, PUBG is fun for a while, but not worth a long-term engagement. The game isn't competitive, as only passive and tedious playstyles are rendered viable - something devs aren't acknowledging, and generally seem unable or unwilling to make substantial changes.

Closing in on 3 000 hours, and the game's still very much enjoyable. Even if you don't enjoy conventional sports, this is a game everyone should try.

I waited to Early Access was over, and Rust is now a nigthmare to get into. As a noob, it's become pretty much impossible to get stared. Even after googleing how to play, so I could learn how to survive, other players make it impossible to get anywhere. There's too many that simply love harrassing new players, going out of their way to ruin your experience. And after reading the PvP is littered with hacks, I don't really see the appeal any more.

I'm guessing this game was pretty fun once, when players learned together in unison. Now that it's realeased however, it's established community ruins it.

A good point-n-click, throughly enjoyed it.

I'd put it up there with Gemini Rue, Primordia and Machinarium.

Well balanced difficulty, plot moves along nicely, and the theme is weird enough to keep it interesting.