Game Review: Rust
Dazed and Confused
After a tiresome loading screen detailing the thousands of assets that just have to be loaded in, your avatar's eyes open, as you lay on the sandy shores of god knows where, armed with nothing but a rock and torch. You don't even have clothes, and you didn't even get to pick what you want to look like, but alas, you get up and take a look around.
About twenty yards away, you spot another person, naked and confused just like you, only he's got his rock high above his head, letting it loose on the skull of some poor guy who didn't push space to stand up quick enough.
*CRACK*
The classic coconut sound of a head being broken in flows through the air, and the blood-crazed maniac's neck snaps 90 degrees in your direction, like some character straight out of a horror movie; you're next.
That's Rust. There is no goal other than to survive.
The game does not ask that you kill others, or even explore. It doesn't ask you to do very much, if anything at all. It doesn't teach you anything about it but the basics of moving around, plus whatever tidbits you can pry off the loading screen before the dogs of war are let loose.
My first time around, I had a buddy of mine along with me as we tried to make sense of it all. Where's the food? What weapons are there to defend ourselves with? Is there any chance of finding a home, or at least finding some clothes to put on?
We wandered aimlessly like this for a while until some basic Minecraft logic came around and we scraped some wood off trees with our crappily sharpened rocks to put together a few primitive tools. Then, we head deeper into the island.
Night approaches, and shit starts getting dark. And it's not the blue-tint starry sky dark; it's the "I can't see my hand in front of my face" dark. With all that darkness, the stark contrast between the black and the firelight of a distant wanderer became ever so prevalent. We were starving, having lacked the competence to find some food, and on top of that, we were freezing and couldn't see jack, so we said "what the hell" and tried our luck at the campsite.
There stood a man frozen there with a loin cloth on (a technological leap to us) and spear in hand, staring into the bright orange flames. His campfire was a beacon to all players in the vicinity. Why would someone stand there like that with their back to us? Is this a trap?
With nothing to lose, we spoke the first word; "Hello?"
He whips back his spear and turns around ready to throw it, only to lower it when he sees the two of us harmless idiots.
"Oh, I thought you were someone else. Please, take a seat by the fire. Make yourselves comfortable, and I'll share some of my food with you two. New to this?"
"Yeah. We've got no idea what we're doing."
"Clearly..."
His voice tapers off towards the end, like a super-villain plotting nightmarish evil. We question his intent. Why help two strangers when you could easily finish them off in the dead of night with nobody near to witness it? He could have taken us out right then and there, but he chose not to. Was he trustworthy? Should we be concerned about his over-friendly nature? After having seen Crazy-Mc-Crazy bash that poor soul's skull in two on the beach, I wasn't going to let my guard down easily this time.
"Alright, the meat's done cookin'. Here, try a few pieces. You must be starving." Free food! He drops it on the floor for us to pick up, so I place it into my inventory and inspect its item description:
Human Meat: Will severely dehydrate you. Maybe find a better food source?
Oh shit. Another cannibal?! He does look experienced, though, like a neanderthal warrior. We couldn't take him down with our rocks alone; the guy's got a spear. But if we don't eat the meat, will he think us squeemish? Was there any better options? Are there even animals on this godforsaken island?
Starving to death, we feast. Nobody will speak of this, right? It doesn't really matter, as long as it doesn't happen again. We'll find better food later, right?...
Suddenly, the bushes behind us rustle violently. Someone's approaching. Cannibal-Man gets his spear ready.
"Hold up you two. I'll take care of this."
A few moments of stillness commence, like the pause before the shooting at a Mexican standoff. Over private messaging, my buddy and I exchange thoughts.
Me: Run?
Him: Fast.
As we take our first few steps back, the sneaky dude emerges from the bushes in a very non-sneaky berzerker-like manner. "ALLAHU ACKBAR!" he screams at the top of his lungs, throwing his first spear our direction, missing cannibal-man's waist by a few inches. Cannibal man fires back with a spear of his own, nailing the once-living sneak right in the forehead in midair as he fatally failed to dodge.
Cannibal-Man approaches the corpse, pulls the bone knife off his belt, and begins to dismember and gather more meat.
"Anyone hungry?"
Survival of the Fittest
After putting in some more time, moments like the one previously mentioned become more and more rare, until you've acquired enough game-sense that it never happens again. You learn to stop trusting strangers and begin to shoot on sight, effectively, as becomes the only safe way to keep yourself alive. Dead men tell no tales, and you never know which punk is going to back-stab you next.
AI enemies are present in the form of a roaming attack helicopter that targets players with weaponry, a tank that protects a launch site, and Scientists that roam around junk piles in radiation suits with guns that can pack a punch if you try to mess with them without reason. There are also bears and wolves that will maul you if you're caught off guard (or get an unlucky spawn-location when your starting out), but they eventually stop becoming a threat once you get a few tools on your belt. AI elements add to the immersion by throwing in some non-negotiators into the mix; they WILL attack you if provoked, and leave you alone if you do the same to them.
Airdrops bring military grade loot onto the island, and those who try to follow them will be met with heavy resistance by the other players who have the same idea. You can also learn to create different weapons on your own, from shoddy water-pipe shotguns that use black-powder and rocks to fire, down to DIY Semi-Automatic Rifles and shovel-stock AK-47's. All the weapons keep to the art style of making every item you use look like it's going to fall apart in your hands before you get to use them. Even the best armor in the game is made from pots, pans and sheet metal, held together by duct tape and plant fibers.
All of this is just standard stuff, though. When you actually do get the chance to finally join the official servers (which are almost always full, and laggy as a consequence), you will be greeted by the fruits of Satan almost immediately; of course, I'm talking about clans. No matter where you run, somebody's going to find you one way or another, and you have to hope it's not some rat who'll stop at nothing to find your humble abode in-game and report back to base, so that twenty of his fully loaded fuck-buddies can steamroll your hours upon hours of labor in a matter of minutes with rocket launchers, C4, and Ak-47's, equipped with enough body armor to break your spear before they even take any damage.
That's the problem with this game, or any competitive multiplayer game, at that; people will find a meta (a common game-term for "optimal end game"), exploit it by finding the fastest way to get there, then dominate. There's little room for solo-players or even casual players in this game; if you want to live, you need to group up, and if nobody you know plays this game (or more commonly, doesn't have the free time to sink in hundreds of hours of playtime a month), you will be forced to meddle with strangers who may or may not ruin your day. Put simply, this game EATS your time; if you want to experience it in full, dedicate at least a week to try it, and gather up some friends first, or don't bother with it at all.
Granted, there are modded servers and community servers with rules barring group-play, and those serve the niche interested in that, but regardless, your average server, along with the official ones, will wipe (as in "full reset") weekly, so if you play once, wait a week, then try to get back into it, everything you wasted your time on doesn't exist anymore. Sorry!
Unlike some survival games in the market, nothing you do will carry over to other servers you play on, or even last beyond any server's life-cycle, so if you're someone who likes to see yourself progress over time, or doesn't like to play the same thing every day, your SOL; don't buy this game if this is you.
I Don't Get It; Is it Good or Not?
It depends; the classic "Maybe".
How about this: instead of thinking about it like it's just a video game, think of it as you would a vacation. It's not something to be had non-stop; you'd wear yourself out if you spent an entire week partying daily in Vegas, for example. But spending only a single day in Vegas isn't that fun, either, because you'll probably be left wanting a little more time to have fun.
Well, Rust is like that. If you play for three or four days on the same server, then take a break from it and come back a month later, the developers will add new content to the mix, be it more weapons or new locations to explore, just as there would be new concerts and different sport-events to bet on depending on the time you choose to visit Vegas.
One day of Rust is boring, because your experience will be inherently too short to see the full picture. A few days in with friends, and you'll love it. A month of restarts, painstaking rebuilding stages, and getting gunned down with no chance to retaliate will leave everyone restless.
Quality Time
"So if I'm okay with spending time, will it at least be quality time?" Again, it depends. Keep in mind this is a game that's gone through multiple stages of COMPLETE project do-overs, as in the devs had to scrap it to the ground to rebuild it all over again in order to fix deeply-ingrained errors in the way the game played.
Currently, in a vacuum, the game compared to its old self is extremely polished and deserves to have taken down its "Early Access" badge that had probably deterred many buyers for so long. Unfortunately, games don't exist in a vacuum, and when you compare Rust at its asking price of $40, you can do better. Much better.
Is it fun? Yes: it's highly replayable, and if you're like me, you'll get your money's worth after getting sucked in for 200+ hours. Is it balanced? No. Is it perfect? No. Is it bug-free? God no.
Is it worth your time? Watch people play it on YouTube first; that's the best advice I can give.
If it looks like something you can sink your toes into, then by all means, indulge. If you see what it's like and decide that the time investment it asks for is totally off the table for you, that's okay too. It's not for everyone; it serves a niche player-base for those who prefer survival games with the "wipe-grind-dominate & repeat" style. But if that's your cup of tea, then this is the best place to drink it; Rust will immerse you in a world of pillaging, faction-wars, and friendships that hang by a thread, and god damn does it do that well.
Final Verdict: 77 / 100
Story / Lore: [72 / 100] - No story is offered, but the environment design is unique enough to give it some credit here. Facepunch Studio have refined their vision to create a world they can finally call their own.
Gameplay: [84 / 100] - Fun, challenging, and heart-racing at times, you will feel immersed, but worn out if the game is played too often. The time requirement to fully experience the game is large, so for those who are not interested in investing large chunks of hours, don't buy.
Presentation: [75 / 100] - Compared to itself years ago, it is a much more polished experience, but when compared to other titles, it is severely lacking; there will be many bugs, load times are annoyingly long, and not enough is done to intuitively show new players how to play. On top of this, it is multiplayer-exclusive, and server quality is hit-or-miss, with the official servers bearing massive lag-spikes and occupancy.
For a survival game, Rust is ambitious, and it gives its users memories that can last years under the right conditions, but having barely emerged from its early access shell, the game still suffers from severe lack of polish and performance issues that will take away from the experience before you even really start. Is it a bad game? No, but that doesn't make it a great one. With more time, I can see it improving, and those who purchase with the intent to play in long sessions will definitely get their money's worth.
For those people who just want a game to sit down to and play after a long day of work, this is probably not the best choice; it requires that the player come back often to keep up with the competition on whichever server they choose, and assumes that you have a group of people to coordinate with before you begin. It it very much a social game that hinges heavily on player interaction and the value one places on memories instead of level-up meters or individual progression. Servers wipe often, and if you don't like to play the same game exclusively for extended periods of time, this is not the game for you. If you want a polished game, this is also not for you. But if you want to immerse yourself in a savage world, and have some friends willing to stake it out with you, you're in for a treat, so long as survival games interest you.