After the release of Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG) in 2017, the popularity and interest of gamers in the Battle Royale genre has been on the rise. The map of traditional First-person shooter (FPS) genre or Third-Person Shooter (TPS) was limited in a small places such as buildings or villages. However, Battle Royale genre is loved by users thanks to its wide map and freedom. Games of battle royale genre have also been promoted to current status through many attempts and advances, so let’s take this opportunity to learn about it!

1. What is Battle Royale?

The origin of the word “Battle Royale” can be found in the 1999 novel “Battle Royale” published by Takami Koshun. In the novel, junior high school students who are trapped on a remote island by the government's “Program” had to kill each other until the final winner was left. After the novel, film and cartoon were all internationally acclaimed and the term “Battle Royale” began referring to works that described situations where people had to kill each other in order to survive. However, there was one more condition for becoming a battle royale “game”. Not only the game had to include survival genre elements, but the area of survival zone also had to narrow down over time. Just as the number of “restricted area” where landmines were buried was increased in the original novel, in these battle-royal genre games, the survival areas keep shrinking as the game progresses. After the first Battle Royale element advent in Arma3, former mode producer Brandon Green has advanced this genre further by participating as a technical advisor in another title of the FPS game “H1Z1: King of the Kill”. Finally, he developed the “PUBG” at the suggestion of producer Kim Sun-han of Bluehole.

2. Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG)

PUBG, the representative game of the Battle Royale genre, can start the game in solo, duo, and squad mode, with up to 100 people playing in one game. Together, players compete for the last person, using their individual judgment and various survival strategies. What made this battleground most popular than other battle-royal games?

For me, who loves this game, I think the reason is high degree of freedom. There are four maps, ranging from Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok, and Vikendi, and each map has a very large scale, representing actual size of the real world’s objects. With a wide range of maps and a wide variety of topographical features, whenever you play, you will be in a new situation, and you will find new enjoyment in solving and overcoming the battle situation.

In addition, a variety of weapons are deployed, so it is a joy to cope with the situation using different types of gun such as assault rifles (ARs), designated marksman’s rifle (DMRs), sniper rifles (SRs), shotguns, and machine gun. Personally, when playing, I prefer a combination of the M416 and Kar98k for near-field and long-distance combat. Like this, there are many combinations for the battle, and this is another charming characteristic in PUBG.

Finally, there are a lot of survival strategies. Due to the high degree of freedom, just because you do not have good shots does not make it easier for you to survive in all situations. As a result, it is necessary to make your own play-style to be the last man standing. The most popular styles include “Johnber Meta”, “Yupo Meta”, and so on. Johnber Meta is a strategy for dealing with an approaching enemy while staying in one place without moving. On the other hand, Yupo Meta refers to the Meta, which actively seeks and engages the enemy. There are also many other strategies that add fun of battlegrounds. By making your own strategies, it can also be a joy in this game.

After the popularity of Battleground, various games such as “Call of Duty Black Options 4”, “APEX Legends”, and “Fortnite” have also adopted Battle Royale mode to follow the steady popularity of the Battle Royale genre. Nevertheless, the popularity of Battleground is still too high for the other games to follow up. What about having a fun time in PC room playing PUBG this weekend?