Why CS:GO Danger Zone is better than PUBG
Valve decided to make CS:GO free to play and at the same time add a battle royale mode "Danger Zone". This is great for me as I was looking for a way to scratch my PUBG itch on my 27" iMac rather than playing PUBG on phones.
But IMHO Danger Zone is better than PUBG because it is only 16 players on a correspondingly smaller map. This leads to quicker, more intense gameplay and shorter games.
With PUBG, I typically spent the first third of the match (10-15 minutes) looting up, the second third traversing the map or camping depending upon where I am relative to the zone, and only the last third actively looking for conflict with the remaining players. Danger Zone basically trims down the experience, speeding it up and pushing the game into the conflict interval very quickly.
Other players may "drop hot" and thus spend the beginning of their PUBG game simultaneously looting and in conflict. Even those players should enjoy Danger Zone as it ensures all players are relatively close. They could even select a drop point specifically near other players. The tablet map also makes it more difficult for players to camp & hide.
The other game design decisions (e.g. money, buy menu & delivery drone, loot in cases, map showing player occupied hexes, drop point selection & how ammo works) can all be learned and tactics modified or developed. None of them make the game unplayable. (And I believe some are even shared by other Battle Royale games, like Ring of Elysium.) Even the lack of lean, crawl & vault aren't deal breakers. And while I've heard complaints that the Source engine is showing it's age and the map is unremarkable, I don't find DZ to be lacking in either case.
Obviously Danger Zone isn't for everyone. There is no third person perspective, so players who like to peek corners are out of luck. "Skins" also don't include the player model, so players who like to play as team mascots or naughty nurses are SOL.
The one place I do believe DZ could improve is with the matchmaking process. Currently it appears the game requires all 16 players to Accept before the "waiting room" is started. If even one player doesn't click the Accept button before the 20 second countdown, all players are put back to the matchmaking process. (If a player disconnects after the waiting room has started, the game still continues.) IMHO this is stupid and results in a lot of delays. My suggestion is to start the "waiting room" if a minimum number of players have accepted (e.g. 12). Then while those players are preloading the assets and playing a 2 minute deathmatch, the matchmaker selects other waiting players to fill the game. If they click Accept, they are put straight into the waiting room. Once 16 players are in the waiting room, or after 2 minutes, the main game begins.
2 Comments
Recommended Comments