By Samuel Sanchez, Staff Writer.
SURVIVAL: Things you should consider before purchasing Facepunches’ latest “Rust”.
Rust is a multiplayer survival video game created by an English company called Facepunch Studios. The purpose of Rust is to survive in the wilderness using collected or stolen items. Players must successfully manage their hunger, thirst, and health, or be at risk of death from the impending threat of bears, wolves, and possibly other players. Rust was released in early access in December 2013 on Steam and received its full release in February 2018. It is available on Microsoft Windows and macOS. Console models for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have been announced for release in 2021.
In Rust, a player begins only with a rock and torch. A rock can cut down trees and crush other rocks and fabric and food must be collected by killing animals. There are mines that supply stone, iron ore, and sulfur ore; and cutting down trees yields wood. The player must collect these resources and use them to build tools, weapons, and other gear. Additionally, the player can make art objects, which can be used to decorate their creations. The player must have a sufficient amount of the necessary items. Players are also allowed to sell their resources at monuments scattered around the map, though there are limitations on the number of items sold. An important thing for Rust is an airdrop. These parachute-provided pallets are delivered by plane. They can be seen in extremely long distances, sometimes leading to players running to the airdrop, where they convene, which usually ends in bloodshed.
Other drops carry high-level items, such as the assault helicopter and the CH-47 Chinook. Both of these go randomly around the map and try to kill the players. Chinook also travels to a randomly discovered monument and deploys a locked supply crate that opens after ten minutes, this crate acts as a beacon to players that invites PvP collaboration. There are cars run by players in Rust. Boats are used to cross long distances in the water and reach the most important points. Some vehicles in the air, such as mini copters and scrap helicopters, can be used to scan the map. Although these vehicles are fast, some AI-controlled defenses can target and destroy aircraft.
Rust’s development began as Dayone DayZ, a popular ARMA 2 survival mode, with content based on Minecraft. Garry Newman, CEO of Facepunch Studios, said: “Rust started as a DayZ clone”. As a result, Newman described the game as one of the many entry lines in the STALKER series. Facepunch released the game on the Steam Early Access program on December 11, 2013. Following its alpha launch, Facepunch enthusiastically released Rust updates adding equipment such as hunting gear, and other weaponry. In February 2014, the developers removed zombies, a temporary enemy, from Rust, and installed red bears and wolves. In the beginning, the engineers made the choice not to try to fill the earth with interesting places to explore, but instead to empower themselves. Newman described this as “we give them tools, they make the world”. One of the goals of the developers was to create a world that did not encourage any kind of behavior from the players. Consider using a DayZ-like system where those who kill other players get different costumes that identify them as ‘robbers’, or a measurement or coloring system. However, the engineers eventually rejected the idea, believing that it would interfere with the players’ freedom. Instead, they were surprised that the implementation of voice conversation had a significant impact on the player’s behavior. With the ability to communicate, many players would no longer kill each other visually out of fear.
In late 2014, the developers released the Rust test mode and installed it in an unprocessed gaming engine, Unity 5, which enhanced the graphics, and, in turn, improved the shader ingenuity and authenticity of the texture, as well as the approval of the vast world process. Test mode showed a new cheating system called CheatPunch, which blocked thousands of players in a few days. In October 2014, test mode became the default launch option. Shortly afterward, in December, EasyAntiCheat, an external anti-cheating program, replaced CheatPunch. In early 2015, Rust added a feature that determined the skin color of each player tied to their Steam ID. In the first two weeks of Rust’s alpha release, it sold over 150,000 copies, compared to 34,000 copies of Garry’s Mod sold in its first week. Rust’s sales had reached one million copies after the Early Access title was only two months old, and in February 2014, it passed Garry’s Mod in terms of sales, making more than $30 million. By the end of 2015, three million copies had been sold. By March 2017, the game had sold more than 5.2 million units, and sold more than 1.2 million game skins. In December 2019, Facebook announced that Rust had sold 9 million copies, making $ 142 million, exceeding Garry’s Mod’s excessive amount, even though it was lagging in total sales.
Many critics believed that while the restart was offensive, the war was beneficial. For example, Luke Winkie of PC Gamer summed up the game by saying, “Wake up naked, run for your life, do bad things to each other. There are no better stories, or fairy tales, or a winning situation.” He described the beginners’ experience as “very bad” but went on to praise the war, joking that “connecting [a hat] with a stupid head sounds fun”. Gloria Manderfeld, the author of the German magazine GameStar, echoed the sentiments of these ideas, adding that there was never a final game without PvP. However, you have selected PvP itself to work. Destructoid’s Ray Porreca described the fight as “fleshy” for the game. However, he wrote that the experience will vary depending on their desire to fight. “If you look beyond the normally toxic community, the rugged plains of Rust and the degraded landmarks are an excellent base for storytelling, and amazing times.” In a negative review Alessandro Barbosa of GameSpot said the whole experience was unsatisfactory. He described the game as a lack of creative elements, such as the ability to easily redesign bases.
However, some critics praised the difficulty of the game, expressing the satisfaction they felt after a successful survival. Porreca praised the game for those who are willing to donate time, saying the game provides a “public sandbox and an active depth plan”. Winkie expressed interest in the need to manage hunger, thirst, and health while learning more and finding better things. He also expressed his gratitude to those who volunteered for the game, mentioning the YouTube videos of the massive raids, which are international. He closed the review by saying that everyone should try Rust because of its uniqueness in other games. Cox conceded that the brutality of the game added to the excitement the player had when they were able to win in the end.
While this game has a lot of good things about it, such as fighting, different character formation, server variation, and good reviews, you don’t have an inviting or friendly community. The game is full of malicious and toxic players who use abusive language towards players when they are considered “insufficient” or do not meet the same criteria of skill as the more experienced players. On the other hand, Rust does have less populated servers with a similar skill level to you that are more on the welcoming side and will show you the ropes of the game.
Although I am not as active on the game, I do have around 600 hours of experience. I personally would say that it’s worth playing. Rust is $40 which is not super expensive, and the more you lean towards the lower populated servers, the more enjoyable your experience will be.