Rust (The survival computer game)

There are some games out there which are based around survival situations, but one that I played last year was Rust. Has anyone else played it?

If you haven't heard of it, it's a game where everyone starts off as a naked bald man in a post-apocalyptic world. There are some remaining structures from civilisation, such as air bases or warehouses, but they're usually very high radiation zones that you can't survive in for long (and as you can imagine they're also very competitive areas). But they often have left over supplies such as Hazmat clothing, weapons and fuel in them.

The game is set up as servers - some official game servers which have thousands of people playing on them, but many more unofficial servers which anyone can purchase and run. But on your server are countless other real people who are placed into the same survival scenario as you are. You have to be strategic and tactical about where you build your base (if you build one at all), and how you build it to make it as impenetrable as possible from the other players.

There aren't rules which say you have to kill each other, but it's a dog eat dog world and inevitably you won't make friends with everyone. Rivalries develop quickly between opposing groups of players, and if you're alone you're very unlikely to establish a safe space for yourself. But similarly you don't know who to trust. If someone kills you, they can loot your corpse of everything you are carrying and you respawn as a naked bald man again. If someone breaks into your house, they can steal everything you own. And it's impossible to make your house entirely immune to an attack, as if someone is resourceful enough, they can eventually craft explosives and blow your doors or walls down.

Like real life, you need certain things to survive. You have a health bar, a water bar, and then you have to consider other things such as temperature (you can get too hot in the sun and too cold in water at night, for example) and radiation sickness if you enter one of the "rad towns". If you choose to, and you have the time and resources, you can progress further and build quarries or pump jacks, collect your own rain water, etc. You can hunt animals for food, or even harvest meat from human corpses. There are hourly air drops which offer random rewards, sometimes weapons or tools, sometimes food or medical supplies. But everyone on the server wants them, and will kill to get them, so you have to decide whether it is worth the risk of trying to be the first one there.

I got really into the game for a couple of months and had some amazing moments playing it, but the nature of humans also made some genuinely stressful or panic inducing moments too. Like, if you go out into the wild and fill your bags with wood and stones and animal meat, and then you hear footsteps approaching, you genuinely stop what you're doing and make a run for it to avoid being killed and losing everything.

You communicate with other players using a microphone, so you have real conversations with people and can hear them taunting you as they kill you, for example. Similarly, you can make friends. On my first night on a new server, I built myself a little hut in the snow and was waiting eagerly for morning to come, and I could hear footsteps circling my house and eventually the person called out that he was friendly but would die if he didn't get inside soon. As it was just a little hut and I had nothing to lose, I invited him inside. On that occasion I was lucky that he turned out to be a friendly guy who helped me build my hut up better and stayed with me for a long time. But on other occasions where I was too trusting, I was punished. It really helps you to realise how dangerous it will be to have human contact if shtf.

 

I've played Day Z, and I can say is something of a survival/hoarding stuff/rage inducing game just like Rust.

You start out with just a gun and a few consumables, afterwards you have to do some looting in local zombie infested towns in order to gain access to weapons, food and equipment. You progressively do some scripted quest to gain even more loot that you even need, also lots of military vehicles and even a helicopter.

Is a sandbox, that means you're free to do as you like wthin the boundaries of the game. You can even kill other players and loot them. Survival is a crucial aspect but lose its charm given there is not any major purpose but to linger there killing zombies, non playable characters and hoarding items.

 

I have never heard of this game. It sounds pretty interesting. My current lifestyle doesn't allow me a lot of extra time to play video games. However, I can see how it could be a beneficial game in a way. It would make you start to think like you are in a real survival situation. Preparing mentally can be as important as preparing physically. Maybe if I have more time in the future I will look into trying this game.

 

I've never heard of this game but the gameplay you described, pretty much piqued my curiosity. I'm definitely going to google the game for further info and see if i can download this for free. lol. It would've been better if the game is offline though but from what you've mentioned, it's definitely an online game, bummer.