[Review] Rust

[Lunix I]

Rust is a multiplayer-only survival video game developed and published by Facepunch Studios in February 2018 for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux . Rust was initially created as a clone of DayZ, a po[CENSORED]r mod for ARMA 2, with crafting elements akin to those in Minecraft.

The objective of Rust is to survive in the wilderness using gathered or stolen materials. Players must successfully manage their hunger, thirst, and health, or risk dying. Despite the looming threat of bears and wolves, the primary menace is other players due to the game being solely multiplayer. Combat is accomplished through firearms and primitive weapons, such as bows. In addition, vehicles controlled by non-player characters will occasionally roam, attacking heavily-armed players. These can be defeated with persistence. Rust features crafting, though initially limited until the discovery of specific items in the game's open world. To stay protected, players must build bases or join clans to improve their chance of survival. Raiding is a major aspect of Rust and is done more frequently by large clans.

Rust was first released in December 2013 to the Steam Early Access program, while in an alpha state. Further into its development, the gameplay was changed significantly. Dangerous wildlife replaced zombies as the primary environmental threat and several fundamental revisions to the crafting system were released. 2014 saw the game ported to the Unity 5 game engine, providing substantial graphical changes. Around this time, Rust introduced immutable, predetermined skin colour and biological sex tied to players' Steam account details. Despite being fully released, the game continues to receive updates.

Throughout Rust's alpha release, critical reviews were mixed, with many comparisons made to other survival games. Rust was commonly explained as being a mixture of DayZ and Minecraft. During this period, reviewers frequently noted the game's unfinished nature. During its pre-release phase, critics praised the concept and gameplay and by March 2017, Rust had sold over five million copies. After leaving Early Access, it received mixed reviews from critics. The player vs player combat and survival aspects were highlighted by those who enjoyed the game, though reviewers were critical of the constant need to grind for materials, along with the harsh beginner experience.

As a multiplayer-only video game, Rust pits players against each other in a harsh, open world environment with the sole goal of survival. Animals, such as wolves and bears, act as a looming threat, but the primary danger comes from other players. Most maps are procedurally generated, with the exception of Hapis Island, a pre-built map. Player vs player (PvP) combat is accomplished with bows, melee weapons and craftable guns. Bullets and other projectiles travel in a ballistic trajectory, rather than being hitscan. There are a number of different types of bullet for each gun, including high velocity and explosive, thus allowing for more diverse strategy. Hit tracking calculates damage; shots to the head are more damaging than shots to other parts of the body. The use of weapon attachments, such as holosights, provides an advantage over opponents. To survive, the player must craft tools, build bases, and team with other players.

When beginning, a player only has a rock and a torch. The rock can cut down trees and break apart stones. Cloth and food can be gathered by killing animals; mining provides stone, metal ore, and sulfur ore; and chopping down trees provides wood. To survive in the world, the player must gather resources and use them to craft tools, weapons, and other gear. To craft items, the player must have a sufficient amount of all required materials, with advanced items needing more obscure components scattered around the map.

 There are limitations imposed on the amount of craftable items, with blueprints allowing the creation of more advanced items.[14] An important element in Rust is the airdrop. These are parachute-equipped pallets of supplies delivered by a prop plane. They can be seen over extremely long distances, sometimes resulting in players running towards the airdrop. There are also other entities that drop advanced loot, including an attack helicopter and the CH-47 Chinook. These travel to a random zone on the map, attempt to kill players, and then drop a supply crate that opens after a length of time, inviting PvP interactions. There are player-operable vehicles in Rust. Boats are used to traverse long distances across water and reach valuable loot. Hot air balloons can also be used to explore the map quickly. Spawning randomly, they can be used once fueled. Unlike the helicopters, balloons can be destroyed by surface-to-air missiles that players can position outside bases.

The player must stay well fed or they will die of starvation. There are other challenges the player must overcome during gameplay, such as drowning, hypothermia, and wildlife attacks—primarily bears and wolves. Specific locales around the map are radioactive. There are four levels of radiation: minor, low, medium, and high. The correct armour or clothing must be worn to enter these areas; failure to do so can result in death. Upon death, a screen with an option to respawn at a random location or at a sleeping bag placed prior appears. Respawning resets the player's inventory to the basic rock and torch. The main concept of Rust is to form a "clan". Clans usually create housing for their members, give items and supplies to each other and partake in organised raiding and looting. Safe zones, called Compounds, provide players with a place to trade resources, overlooked by automated high-damage turrets that fire on anyone who draws a weapon, discouraging betrayal. Additionally, these treacherous players will be marked as hostile for a predetermined amount of time.

Rust's development began as a clone of DayZ, a po[CENSORED]r mod for ARMA 2, featuring elements derived from Minecraft. Garry Newman, the CEO of Facepunch Studios, said "Rust started off as a DayZ clone. But then we decided that we are sick of fighting zombies. And can't compete with the Arma island in terms of landmarks and towns." Consequently, Newman described the game as being more along the lines of entries in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series Facepunch released the game onto the Steam Early Access program on 11 December 2013. Following its alpha launch, Facepunch actively released updates for Rust adding mechanics like animals, hunting, armour and weapons. In February 2014, the developers removed zombies, a temporary enemy, from Rust, replacing them with black bears and wolves.

Early on developers made the choice not to try to po[CENSORED]te the world with interesting locations to explore, but rather provide the ability to create them. Newman described it as "we give them the tools, they make the world". One of the developers' aims was to create a world which does not encourage any particular kind of behaviour from players. They considered implementing a system like DayZ's where those who kill other players get unique outfits which identify them as 'bandits', or possibly a rating or color-coded system. However, the developers ultimately rejected these ideas, believing they would detract from player freedom. Instead, they found to their surprise that the implementation of voice chat had a noticeable effect on player behavior. With the ability to communicate, many players would no longer kill each other on sight out of fear.

In late 2014, developers released an experimental mode of Rust and ported it to a then-unreleased game engine, Unity 5, enhancing the graphics, and in turn, improving the shader mechanics and texture realism, as well as allowed for larger procedurally generated worlds. The experimental mode featured a new anti-cheat system called CheatPunch, which banned thousands of players within a few days. In October 2014, the experimental mode became the default launch option. Shortly after, in December, EasyAntiCheat, a third-party anti-cheat system, replaced CheatPunch. In early 2015, Rust added a feature that decided each player's skin colour tied to their Steam ID.

In the original game, the heads-up display featured statistics like as health, hunger and radiation level. These were later modified and hidden statistics such as hypothermia were added. Monuments went through a phase where developers removed the radiation hazards because of the annoyance it was causing. Female models, added to the game shortly afterward, were initially only available for server administrators to test. Upon rollout, akin to skin colour, players were automatically assigned a biological sex permanently linked to their Steam account.[39] Later in 2015, virtual goods stores selling guns, clothing and other objects were added to the game. When Valve introduced its Item Store, Rust was the first game on Steam to use the feature.The Steam Community Market was also allowed to sell similar items.

Developers removed blueprints, one of the core gameplay concepts of Rust, in July 2016. They replaced them with an experience system where players could level up after completing tasks, such as gathering wood. In September, lead developer Maurino Berry mentioned in a Reddit post that there was a chance the experience system would no longer exist in the future. Before saying this, Berry wrote in one of the devblogs "the XP system had huge praise until it was released, and then lots of people hated it". In early November 2016, components replaced the experience system. Originally, players had an initial list of items they could craft. This was changed to having a complete list with the required components from the outset. Radiation, removed in 2015, was reintroduced in November 2016 after being "reprogrammed from the ground up". Instead of each location having the same level of radiation, developers added different levels ranging from low, to medium, and high.