H1Z1: Battle Royale – Review

If you’re a PlayStation 4 player, chances are you’re not exactly lucky when it comes to finding any type of Battle Royale game. Surprisingly, there’s not much selection when it comes to the genre on this console. You’re either playing Fortnite or Realm Royale. There are others such, but there’s not much to choose from. Unfortunately, PUBG isn’t available to PS4 players as of the moment.

H1Z1 Battle Royale just might be the closest thing to PUBG you’ll get to play on the PS4. Don’t mistake it for a rip off clone or an inferior model though. It is its own game.

H1Z1 Battle Royale is pretty much your basic styled Battle Royale game. You drop into the map with a hundred other players with a closing circle. If you’ve played other Battle Royale games, you should already know this. What makes H1Z1 stand out from other Battle Royale games in the PS4, however, is that it is more similar to PUBG than any other game. And what I mean by that, is that it’s not so freakishly cartoonish to the point of it looking like it came out of Disney’s budget. If anything, H1Z1’s atmosphere is gloomy and depressing.

It’s 2018. Suppose if we go back 10 years ago, the visuals would’ve been groundbreaking. Graphics are okay; they hold out. But they’re nothing new.

Visual-wise, H1Z1 is just gloomy and depressing. There’s this fog everywhere that makes it really hard to see the distance. I don’t know what Daybreak is trying to hide, but it’s often hard to appreciate where I am when it feels like I’m in a killzone version of Silent Hill. It almost makes me long for the cartoony Disney-like bubble gum candy display of Fortnite where everyone is dabbing and trying to kill you if I wasn’t going to get me diabetes just from looking at it.

H1Z1 Battle Royale won’t impress you with its display. Hell, it’s even difficult to memorize the map because of how similar all buildings look from each other and how each area feels uninspired.

But why in the world would I want to look at the amazing scenery when I’m killing everyone else? That’s just distracting.

Gameplay is pretty basic. It’s good, but nothing really stands out. You pick up a gun, you aim, and you shoot. You can crouch to hide behind cover, crawl to blend in surroundings, or just stand there out in the open for others to shoot you. There are armors to choose from. But it’s really just your head and your torso. It’s almost as if Daybreak is saying your legs and arms aren’t that important to protect in a gunfight. But they do the job, and it does give you an edge against an opponent who doesn’t have any. So it’s better to have them. They break easily though so be warned if you’re suddenly feeling invisible.

There are multiple modes to choose from.

  • Solo – get yourself sodomized alone with everyone trying to kill you.
  • Duo – get yourself sodomized with a close friend with everyone trying to kill you.
  • Fives – get yourself sodomized with five other people with everyone trying to kill you.
  • Training – baby mode where you can just have fun with everyone trying to kill you.

As you can tell, being a winner isn’t easy in this game. With everyone competing for top dog, you’re eventually going to have some inferiority complex issues when you realize that this isn’t a single player game. And unlike a multiplayer game with only two teams competing against each other where you only have to worry about the other team, in Battle Royale you have to worry about every team coming from all sides.

How Does It Play Out?

Can we consider Battle Royale games to be tactical shooters?

I mean, yeah there’s a certain level in tactics and strategy to ensure survival and victory. But the same could be said for almost any shooter out there if you’re going to be loose with the word “tactic.” H1Z1’s Battle Royale does have a level of tactics and carefulness you have to put into to make sure you survive into the game as far as possible. But there are simply too many variables to account for that there’s no real way to actually guarantee survival.

If you want to win, you have to give it your best and play it safe. Unfortunately, H1Z1 isn’t exactly a stealth game and wasn’t built like one. It’s boring to wait in cover or silently blending in the grass waiting for other players to kill themselves. It’s even more frustrating to do all that and be killed anyway.

Most of the fun you get from playing H1Z1’s Battle Royale will either be from those split-second thrill moments where you and another player are gunning each other down in frenzy because you’re far too near to have room to breathe. Or those slow tactical ones where you and another opponent are slowly biding their time with bandages and health kits because you’re too far apart on the other side of the map.

The former scenario relies on quick muscle memory and a bit of luck, while the latter relies on how well your accuracy is and making sure that nobody is behind you.

Thankfully, we console peasants are spared from having voice chat proximity so at least I’ll be able to enjoy killing someone in peace without them telling me how tight my mom’s pussy was.

Should You Try It?

Why not? It’s free. Except if you want to customize your character. That takes some actual dough and earning customization in the game is honestly just too much work to bother. But that’s not really important. Nobody is going to comment how sexy your pants make you look when you’re dead on the ground. How could they anyway? There’s no voice chat proximity.