Early Access on Steam is a hot topic it seems these days and for reasons that I will not try and dispute. I want to talk about one such title Rust and my experience that I have had with it thus far. Before I get into my experience I figured that I would post post the description below which comes directly from their website, and then begin to delve into the game.

"Rust is a survival game created by Facepunch Studios. Inspired by games like DayZ, Minecraft and Stalker – Rust aims to create a hostile environment in which emergent gameplay can flourish".

"The aim of the game is to survive. To do this the player should gather resources. Hitting a tree with a rock will give you wood, hitting a rock with a rock will give you rock and ore. You can then craft a hatchet from the wood and rock, allowing you to gather faster. You can go out and hunt a variety of wildlife such as boars, chickens, rabbits, bears, wolves and deer. Once you have killed an animal you can butcher it to gather its meat and skin. You can craft a fire using wood and cook the meat inside the fire. Then you can eat."

"You face two major dangers in game".

"Rust is a multiplayer game, so there will be other players trying to survive in the same way that you are. Unfortunately for you they can find you, kill you and take your stuff. Fortunately for you – you can kill them and take their stuff. Or maybe you can make friends and help each other survive. Rust’s world is harsh – so you might need to make friends to survive".

"The environment is not kind. Bears and wolves will chase and kill you. Falling from a height will kill you. Being exposed to radiation for an extended period will kill you. Starving will kill you. Being cold will kill you".

Day 1 Experience

Getting into the game was not a difficult task, you just pick one of the servers and then you are dropped into the game world. First and foremost this game is in Alpha and by no means is a gorgeous game but it does not look bad for an Alpha state. That being said I got lucky in finding someone that helped me get a handle on things. The game just drops you in no tutorial, which I have no problem with the goal is to survive. He gave me some equipment which eased the process even if just slightly. The beginning you start off with a stone to gather supplies not and easy task. The next thing I began doing was collecting food and resources. Resources are randomly generated in the world and are crucial to your survival. The rest of my day was just gathering supplies so I could begin to build my house. Doing all this brings hunger into the equation as you will need to eat food. The funny thing here is that no matter the animal the meat will be chicken. Warning just from experience do not eat any food raw you will get sick. Lastly there is a day and night cycle and it pretty much gets to where you cant see at night, so get everything you need done during the day.

Day 2 Experience

I had gathered all my supplies that I would need to build my house. Wood and lots of it will be required to build a foundation, pillars, walls, and roofs. You must convert this wood to planks for some of the things as well. This pretty much took me a good portion of my day two playtime with great results. I had built a 4 story house in the mountains with metal doors for protection. I had also constructed barricades and put up other defenses as well. Neighbors were nearby with what we thought were just as good of defenses so I went to bed figuring I would be safe.

Day 3 (Disaster Strikes) Experience

I am a college student so I woke up to go to my classes this morning. Little could I know that when I logged in I would find out that I had pretty much lost everything. I get home log in and appear in the middle of the field no clothes and just that stone. Freaking out i logged off and reconnected with the same starting point and material. I realized that I had been raided and all of my things had been taken. Demoralized after all the hard work that had been put in I am stepping away because I will need to wait til a time that i can sink more hours into the game to recollect everything and rebuild. This is not me bashing the game I have had fun in my three days of playing, I had met great friends that have helped me out that were raided as well so we will rebuild and maybe do a little raiding ourselves on those responsible.

All of this being said the game is still in Alpha so not everything is there. Looking at it there are no quest or anything just the goal to survive. That being said the crafting system is in the game and is easy and intuitive to use. Other than that its exploring to find resources and perhaps even form alliances. I will update this blog with my experiences as the game progresses through alpha and on.

Day 4

Well the server I was playing on got wiped so starting anew apparently. I am having more frustration with this game now it seems but hey what should I expect its in Alpha.

Day 5

I currently have about 30 hours under my belt with this game and have finally settled on a server with another friend. The server is great so far have not been raided as of this post either. Not much has changed gameplay wise for the game because it has not sen an update since they implemented more sounds to add to the game. My partner and I have found a nice little spot where it does not take long to gather the resources needed and is also secluded. This by no means that it will never be found its only a matter of time for that. The house is well designed and has plenty of defenses that can hopefully slow people down if they try and raid, because eventually someone always breaks through. All in all with a friend helping me it makes things much easier with building the house to resource gathering so my interest in the game has been reinvigorated again.

Final Thoughts

With the recent update removing zombies moving the game to more of just a survival game, I am not sure how this will fare for the game. I do not know what led to this decision maybe I do not know something the developers do but apparently now it will be just other players and animals.