Battlegrounds is a new battle royale game released in 2017 made by the creator of the same game mode in the ARMA series. The basic premise is that you get air dropped onto an island, have to quickly scavenge buildings for loot and weapons and try to survive against your fellow players for as long as possible inside of a constantly shrinking playzone. Straying outside of the playzone inflicts constant damage on you, at first this is quite low and you can easily risk staying outside of the zone if you spot some good loot but as time goes on this damage intensifies until it becomes a near guaranteed death sentence during the endgame. If you want to survive a lot of emphasis is put on knowing when to pick your battles and knowing how to avoid other players as even the best armor in the game will only protect you from a few bullets before failing. It's a constant exercise in balancing risk vs reward and so far me and a friend have been having a ton of fun with it.
The game is still in early access but it is quite playable and aside from some awkward animations and minor bugs I haven't noticed anything that feels like it's missing from the game. Currently there are 3 game modes, solo, duo and squad (2-4) and they are matched against each other so you don't need to worry about facing coordinated teams if you're playing solo. The player base is also quite large and I have never seen a match that didn't start out with at least 98 players (max is 100).
and there is of course the constant bombing zones, which of course proceeded to drop on me and walker three times in a row in the same place in the same match, without interruption.
on the other hand there is my ability to have a SCAR rifle in my hand within a minute of touching the ground...
edit: my steam id is shanov if anyone want to play sometime
It started decently when we landed at the military base, then went badly when all I could find was a scar and 30 ammo, suddenly another player comes upstairs to the building we were in and kills @Walker Of Chaos, i empty my magazine failing to kill him, I think I damaged him enough he didn't want to pop up and healed instead, allowing me to enter the last room where I find a shotgun.
Loading it an moving forward he leaves the room just as I arrive at the door, one shot and he is dead, his partner apparently having died already, he is my first kill.
I proceed to loot his body, getting a vector which I take instead of the shotgun, a lvl 1 police vest and a motorcycle helmet, I promptly get the hell out of there, leaving for the circle on the mainland despite it being two minutes until the blue wall of death even begins to approach.
I manage to safely cross some hills and get lucky, finding a motorcycle which I use to safely cross the bridge between the military base and the main island, I continue until I find a place with a hangar, I hope to find a better police vest in there.
Barely have I entered before I hear a car arrive, a quick look behind me shows another player, I quickly try to hide to ambush him but a few shots shows that he spotted me. I stay in cover while he fails completely with two frag grenades before he enters, I immediately gun him down and then finish him off, that's the second kill.
Just as I have done that his buddy enters from the other side and starts firing, pretty much trying to flank me as i suspected might happen, so I wasn't completely unprepared. A short burst from the both of us sends us into cover, I am badly injured but the other players nervousness allow me to heal with a first aid kit.
He probably thought I was in a different position as he tried to flank me once more, but sadly for him only rushed into the position I had just finished healing him. I had a huge grin on my face as I gunned him down and promptly started to loot their bodies, he is kill number three.
The guys had had the best and worst luck at the same time, both of them had SCAR rifles with a combined 250+ ammo, but neither of them had any vest of any sort on them. I took whatever good stuff I could, one being a lvl 2 helmet, finally searched where I happily picked up a lvl 2 police vest, whereupon I decided to loot a two story building to hide in.
I have barely managed to finish searching it before another team arrive, I nervously watch from a window I am crouching at.
Then, without me noticing, another team shows up, one of them enters my house quickly searches it only for me to head-shot him while he goes up the stairs only for him to promptly fall dead as I go to finish him off, the first team having killed his buddy, this is kill number four.
I quickly loot his body before resuming my position guarding the stairs, soon enough I hear boots hitting the floor downstairs. I throw two grenades, the first actually landing on the top floor while the second land in the middle of the stairs. This causes the other two guys to pop a smoke grenade, sadly for them it isn't very effective as I can still somewhat clearly see the stairs as I pull back a bit.
One of them rushes up the stairs and I promptly gun him down, I move forward to finish him off in case his team mate get lucky and kills me, he is kill number five.
A short stand off ensues at the stairs before the other player decides to move up, he is immediately killed, netting me my sixth kill. I promptly commence the looting, finding some good stuff like a SKS and two 4X scopes, one each for my SCAR and the SKS.
I quickly grab a car and move out into the final zone where my miniature rampage ends by some guy with a 98K rifle, never saw where he was shooting from.
In the end I got 6 kills and ended up on the 10th spot, right now my nerves are all shot to hell as my hands are still somewhat shaking from the adrenaline.
I love this game
edit: next time I damn well better remember to record the game.
