With the battle royale game as popular as it is, what tweaks do we need in order to take PUBG to the next level?
A constantly evolving game like PUBG is always in need of tweaking, patching, and improving, not only to keep its playerbase happy, but to keep us on our toes. Here’s five things publisher Bluehole could be doing to improve its massively successful battle royale game.
1. Anti-Cheat That Doesn’t Break The Game
PUBG devs have been waging war against hackers and cheaters since Early Access, and while they’ve absolutely taken steps to make it more difficult for players to get away with using third party software to give themselves an unfair advantage, it’s hard to forget what their last big step towards implementing anti-cheat methods did to the game.
The devs have since rolled back their implementation of that disastrous update, meaning that while it’s great to have the game running at a decent frame rate again, we’re still as vulnerable to cheaters as we have been for some time now. And while the more dishonest side of the PUBG playerbase has yet to ruin the game irreparably for the rest of us, it couldn’t hurt to have more measures in their way before they get anywhere close.
2. More Guns!
Right now, the process of arming yourself is pretty straightforward. You drop, you get by with whatever guns you looted or found in your immediate area, and you slowly replace your weaker guns with a SCAR, or an SKS, or a crate gun if you’re lucky. While this is definitely enough to keep us occupied for the foreseeable future, it would absolutely mix up the endgame phases of each PUBG match a bit more if there was a wider array of weaponry available to pick up.
The Miramar update saw the release of guns like the Winchester rifle and the R45, both of which are thematically perfect for the desert map, but more often than not, those guns don’t get carried into the final phases of each game because they’re just not comparable to the assault rifles that have been around since the beginning. Why not broaden the variety of viable endgame weapons available to players, either catering to different playstyles or forcing players to handle themselves difficulty because they found a particular gun? Even introducing a few more shotguns and SMGs would add a bit of freshness to how a round plays out.
3. Game Modes for Larger Squads
This one’s a little more personal, since I game with a group that often has to split off into different games because there’s just no way to play PUBG if you run with a party of more than four people.
I mean, save for teaming. But that’s cheating, technically speaking.
Fortnite introduced a hectic 50 vs 50 game mode in December of 2017, but even a 5 or 10 man squad option would be a more than welcome addition to the game. Players would have to create tactics to deal with larger roving bands of enemies, and create strategies to compensate for their own increased numbers as well.
It seems like we just might be headed in this direction, however - with the dev blog announcing an 8 man squad game type in Event Mode.
4. Better Optimization
This has been an ongoing effort for the dev team even before the game’s official release, but it’s important to stress just how much proper optimization factors into a game’s popularity. There are tons of performance and optimization guides around on how to tweak your individual setup to run PUBG at the smoothest it can manage, but some low-end PC setups are getting barred from enjoying this game entirely because of frame rate and loading issues.
And in some cases, players won’t want to spend money on a hardware upgrade to play a game they already spent money on.
I’ve got no issues running my game at 60+ frames on low settings, but I still experience a little bit of choppiness when I’m in a densely packed area, or when I enter a house. And while this is something people can usually shrug off, there are also times where it could mean the difference between living a bit longer and getting taken out for the round.
The constant influx of new game features is great and very much appreciated by the playerbase on the whole. But new content tends to be more enjoyable when more players can appreciate it, regardless of their setup.
5. Bring Back The Weather Modes!
Those of you who played PUBG during its Early Access period might remember that despite Erangel being the only map, there was still a lot of variance in what the map looked like when you dropped from that plane.
Things could have been as inconsequential as a sunset, or as hindering as a dense fog over the island, forcing players to fight in closer quarters than they usually would want to. Sometimes you’d even drop in a torrential downpour, with the sound of rain and thunder making it harder to discern the sound of footsteps closing in on your location.
These features were scrapped around the time Miramar was released (probably due to optimization issues) but they were great ways to mix up gameplay without releasing an entirely different game mode. Bringing optimized versions of weather back could provide the breath of fresh air a map needs once you’ve dropped in on it for the hundredth time.
The addition of Miramar opens up more avenues for weather options, as well. Dust storms, anyone?
