
So long as you can forgive some poor rounds here and there, you’ll almost always find yourself queuing up for another one immediately. It’s an exhilarating experience that works unbelievably well in practice, and in spite of the unfinished nature of the games themselves. Most variables in this genre are randomised, you never know where you’re going to land – though you can choose the general area, and you’re never sure if and when you’re going to find the gear you need.Įvery player is constantly both the hunter and the hunted, almost always looking for better gear and weapons than what they currently have. Sure, it can be frustrating to lose what you worked for because of one bad move, but you get into another round so quickly it doesn’t really matter. Dying may seem like a penalty, but it really isn’t. Rounds typically last from five (if you get killed early on), to around 35 minutes if you make it to the end game. There are other hazards, too, though all have the same aim of preventing things from getting stale. You can’t ever stay in one spot for long, because the playable area shrinks every two or three minutes, which does exactly what you think it does: forcing players to continue moving closer to the centre. Everyone is ferociously hunting for weapons, ammo, armour - anything and everything to improve their chances of success, of surviving the hunt. There are no zombies here, only other players. If you’re unfamiliar, battle royale is a last-man-standing game mode where players are dropped into a massive map and asked to scavenge for weapons and gear to get the upper hand, or simply fend off potential attackers until there’s only one left standing. So yes, this unflattering association is true, but what I did not expect was that the nascent genre is removed enough from the trite survival tropes it grew from that it’s well worth paying attention to for its own merits.

The mode got so big in H1Z1 it eclipsed player numbers of the core survival game, and Daybreak eventually made it into its own game, King of the Kill. The genre gained prominence in DayZ – a Perpetual Early Access survival game - before later finding its way into H1Z1. I didn't look at it any closer until I bought PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on a whim recently, and realised that a lot of my preconceptions weren’t entirely accurate. It’s an exhilarating experience that works unbelievably well, in spite of the unfinished nature of the games themselves. I have, but I always associated it with clunky and boring survival games the kind that flies the Perpetual Early Access banner with pride.Įvery player is constantly both the hunter and the hunted. You’ve no doubt heard the words “battle royale” in one context or another over the past six months.

Battle royale is a relatively new genre that's exploding on Steam and Twitch, but somehow still niche.
