I first playedRustback in January. It was at times scary, confusing, and frustrating, which is to be expected in an anything-goes online multiplayer game about naked men trying to survive with rocks and crudely-fashioned hatchets while others possess pistols, assault rifles, and explosives.
Thanks to its players and their chaos,Rustwas entertaining in a way that a scripted game could never be — up until the point at which it wasn’t. It eventually got old. I stopped playing.
More than that, I quit paying attention to all of the updates in the pipeline for this Steam Early Access game. At about 16 hours of play time, I had gotten my fill, thanks. So I left, impatient and somewhat unsatisfied, unsure if I’d ever truly return to the game.
But I have, now that Facepunch Studios is rebootingRust. Work has ceased on the original version most players know while the team rebuilds the game from scratch in what it is calling anexperimental branch. It’s playable now and as janky as things are, it’s promising.
Let’s take a look! (Warning: there will be some butts.)
Upon launching the experimental branch ofRust, you’re greeted with a nice new scene. (Actually, the first time I tried it, none of the text appeared… so I just sat there like an idiot for a minute, waiting for something, anything to happen. The bear just kept sniffing the ground.)
There we go. I’m on the one and only server available. Not too crowded. Digging the new graphics. As you’ll already notice, though, not everything is properly implemented. No big deal.
The new user interface looks slick.
I’m not really sure what these floors are. Must be placeholders. Also, turn off motion blur if you can’t runRustsmoothly, according to chat. It is a bit too motion blurry by default, I’ll admit.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt.
Another person, already. How lucky. Contrary to what this image would suggest, no, I didn’t immediately proceed to kill and eat this sleeping man. Not this time.
One of the main components ofRustis harvesting, so here’s my attempt to gather some wood. It did not work. Clipped right through that sucker. “Experimental.”
Much like inFar Cry, the bow is my favorite. After firing an arrow, you’re able to physically pick it up and reuse it. All is right with the world.
Decided to craft a pick axe, just to try out the crafting system. As it is now, you click on the item name on the left-hand side of the menu and it just starts going.
Harvesting attempt number two. It works! Those temporary particle effects are quite something.
Getting late. Darkness is normally creepy inRustbut since I’m not at all invested in this character, it’s pleasant, for once. Also,DayZ— people in chat can’t not bring that up.
No sleeping bags yet. If “fully nude, legs spread on a grassy hill” is good enough for this player, it’s good enough for me.
I learned in chat that you can press F3 to go into a third-person view. Heh.
My only real goal thus far has been to find a wolf. Could that — could that be one? Enhance!
It sure is.
Not exactly what you would call “perceptive.” Maybe if I shoot at it…
Better put it out of its misery.
That seemed to do the trick. But I shot at it a few times just to make sure.
Now, to harvest. I got bones and meat. Not too sure I can even use those inRust‘s current state.
Explored some more and came across this wall. No one in sight, though.
Nearly there.
I totally saw a guy on the beach, but he didn’t see me. (I hope.)
It’s peaceful down here.
It should be noted that at no point have I resurfaced for air.
No pants, just like in real life.
—
This build ofRustis obviously still rough, but even in a bare-bones state it feels like Facepunch is on the right track. I’ll have to keep an eye on this. Guess they got me back on board.
