Survival games remain very popular among MMO players these days. Especially if you were into hardcore PvP back in the old days. Each one coming up offers some twists and turns on an already solid premise. Of all these The Culling really caught our eye at PAX East. The battles play out like Battle Royale or Hunger Games in most respects, which makes this game a lot of fun to play and even fun to watch.
The Culling begins with sixteen players dropped in a zoned forest. There are abandon buildings and plenty of places to find resources and craft weapons. You can begin by making crude weapons and then entering buildings and finding some higher tech stuff. Everything from a stone knife to a rifle and baseball bat are available. Gun ammo is extremely limited in the match though so if is definitely not a “win” button.
The quick crafting early on can give you a boost when finding those first few opponents and either killing them quickly or defending yourself so you can run away. Most games last about twenty five minutes. The developers close the zone down with gas near the end to stop people from hiding in the corners.
Female characters will be coming into the game very soon (within the next few weeks) and players are excited to have the opposite sex available. The game will also have a trials mod coming to test out skills and gear.
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If you have not played before you get FUNC which is similar to experience that you can spend. You pick up Perks along the way which are used on skills, weapons, and armor. Some of the great parts of the run through we watched was when they started using traps to either snare or damage other players. If you want to know how you are doing just look up, the score is kept up in the air so you can track who dies and who is still alive (thanks, Katniss).
We asked about healing in the game and you can craft bandages and also find healing stations. This way you are not just doomed after one fight. Audio also plays a huge part in the game as you can hear players sneaking up on you during the battles. The last element that really caught our attention is the two person team battles. There are seven teams of two all going after each other. These early battles had been very popular on Twitch lately. The best part is you do not start in the same place over and over.
Overall, The Culling was a lot of fun to watch and play. We dug the hardcore aspect of it and the great zones where you could craft, grab weapons, and most of all set traps to doom your opponents. The team has a lot of plans to expand the game, but for now it is straight battle royal style with sixteen players. We are definitely looking forward to more as the game grows, it is worth a try to get in some solid PvP.
