These past few months have seen more posts about #1 victory royales than we have ever seen before. The prominence of games like “PUBG” and “Fortnite: Battle Royale” have dominated gamers of all creeds and hardware. “Fortnite” recently made the jump to the Apple app store as well, so the Battle Royale format grows deeper and expands further. While on the market right now “PUBG” and “Fortnite” are the two titans of the genre, the success of these games has not gone unnoticed. Video game developers, always trying to stay on the edge of consumer trends, are already starting to push out competitors to this hot market.
What made these games so popular?
For “PUBG” the game was the first of its kind to really helm the ship of this genre. The game design is simple and easy to pick up by anyone who has played an online shooter before. However, “PUBG” shook up the tried and true shooter game formula just enough to feel familiar but fresh. The game starts with all players being flown over the play area and parachuting out a plane and starting out with nothing, they must find weapons and defend themselves from other players and stay within bounds to place number one over all others. This is a big break from the traditional formula popularized by games like “Call of Duty” which starts you off in the same area with a team and is all about just receiving more kills than the other team.
It misses the survival aspects of Battle Royale.
The other juggernaut of the genre out right now and my personal favorite is “Fortnite: Battle Royal.” Whereas “PUBG” is a paid game and came out first, “Fortnite” is wrestling the crown from its predecessor. This is due to the fact that it is Free To Play and avoids pay-to-win tactics that befall free to play games and even some triple-A full priced titles, like EA’s “Star Wars: Battlefront 2.” Allegedly you can even make money off playing "Fortnite" but don't think you can do that instead of going to work.
Another unique aspect that sets “Fortnite” apart from “PUBG” is the building mechanic that is crucial to master the game. The base building constantly evolves the dynamics and strategies of the game and makes it more consistently fun and brings players coming back for more. Besides that, the games function on the same core principles.
Could there be a new #1 victor coming soon?
Developers are quick to seize on the hype surrounding these two games. The developer of “Dying Light” Techland is adding a battle royale mode to their already released game and the current fan base is happy to see it coming. Other notable additions to this genre include “Paladins: Battlegrounds” from developer HI-Rez which aims at the mechanics of the battle royale genre but with heroes to play as like Blizzards massively popular “Overwatch.” Finally, the last one I am going to keep my eye on is “The Darwin Project” from Scavengers Studio which looks to develop the rules and mechanics of the genre further by tweaking the formula. Here is the trailer for "The Darwin Project" give it a watch and tell us what you think of it.
