Ring Of Elysium
The battle royale genre has become so popular that just a legion of games have been released on it. The arms race is about finding a clever way out to make the game different from the world of PUBG and Fortnite. In 2018, Tencent released Ring of Elysium to Early Access, a surprisingly polished, cosmetic-only microtransaction game. And although it borrows a lot from the genre's titans, its winter theme, smart new ideas for moving around the map and an exciting match completion make it unlike a bunch of other clones.
A smaller than usual group of 60 players (singly, in pairs, or in groups of up to four) fight to escape the deadly storm that ravages distant mountain towns. Here you will not, as usual, trudge on foot (or by car, if you are lucky) from point A to point B. There are ski lifts on the battlefield in Ring of Elysium, and in addition, players have access to snowboards, hang gliders and climbing equipment ... This change adds creativity to the game, without rolling it into a formulaic fantasy.
Ring of Elysium fans will easily get used to it
On the other hand, much of the gameplay will feel dreadfully familiar to anyone who has spent enough time in PUBG. Which is not bad at all, but still a little disappointing, because Ring of Elysium brought so many innovations. The characters have satisfyingly realistic animations and movement speeds. The pace of the game is relatively slow, which implies long ambushes in cover, careful loot collection from houses, weapon upgrades and headshots from a distance.
There are also a lot of visual similarities with PUBG, from realistic models to similar interface elements and menus. It gets to the point that not everyone can distinguish between these two games from the screenshots. It works well, but you can still see where Tencent got their inspiration from. Despite the similarities, it looks very well polished for early access play.
Aside from the action, Ring of Elysium also draws inspiration from another source in the way she asks players for money. The game features an Adventure Pass that works just like the Battle Pass in Fortnite. There you can unlock rewards, including new skins and experience boosters, most of which can only be unlocked by purchasing a pass. However, Ring of Elysium is completely free to play if you are not interested in cosmetic items.
Ring of Elysium Features
There is only one map at launch in Ring of Elysium, but it is large. And since there are only 60 players in a match instead of the standard 100, the map at times seems empty. But on the other hand, the location of the spawn at the beginning can be viewed in order to find a place where other players will be at the beginning of the round. When the first wave of a storm hits the map, it cuts off a much larger piece of the map than most other battle royals, bringing players closer together very quickly.
In addition, the characters themselves are more mobile here. At the start of each match, you choose one of three outfits: hang glider, snowboard or climbing equipment. The hang-glider is the fastest, but it is obviously not always possible to use it, for this you need to jump from a hill. Snowboard is the most versatile and allows you to do cool jumping tricks - who doesn't like that? Climbing equipment is the least useful of the three, because most of the time you spend away from the hills, and there are quite a few lifts on the map. However, with it you get a shotgun and can carry more weight, while hang gliders and snowboard players get a pistol, a weaker starting weapon.
There are some changes in the game that make Ring of Elysium much more flexible and enjoyable to play. When you select an upgrade compatible with your weapon, it is automatically installed on the used gun. You no longer have to pick up the scope, open the inventory, look for the sight, put on, close the inventory back. He's just already equipped. In addition, one gun can be equipped with two sights, which can be changed at the touch of a button, which makes your weapon more flexible. It would seem like little things, but in fact, such improvements are just a gift from God for those who are used to PUBG.
Alternative end of the match
Aside from movement, the biggest change in Ring of Elysium is that it is not the last remaining player who wins the match. Instead, as a storm approaches and wreaks havoc on the area, a helicopter arrives to rescue the survivors - but there are only four seats. Therefore, regardless of whether you are playing in a party or not, only 4 people can leave the match alive, which gives the last minutes of the match a revitalizing change of pace. The evacuation zone is clearly marked for all players, the game turns into real chaos when they begin to climb the stairs, while trying to shoot back at others. Perhaps that's why Ring of Elysium feels so fresh.
