Hey, all! So I was finally ready to pick this game up, but I noticed that lately it has a ton of negative reviews on Steam, saying it's full of hackers. Is this a real problem that I should be concerned about? I'm unsure if I should actually take the dive still or if it's been ruined. Thanks in advance!

There are 100 people on a map, in an average game you'll maybe encounter 5 of them. Has it hackers? Sure, what modern game doesn't? Are they a problem you'll encounter constantly? No, not really.

In 120 hours of playtime I've only had one instance where I was pretty certain someone was hacking (though it's always possible I was just being salty).

If you are in doubt you could wait until the game fully releases at the end of December and see how things are then, but in my opinion it's definitely worth jumping into now.

The lack of updates for content and fixes is the most annoying part of this game, more so than probably a hacker encounter, which I've never experienced in all my time playing. If you know what you're getting into, I'd say it's fine to buy now. Just know you're getting a game that is riddled with early-access jank and at times it feels like the developers don't really care about fixing any of it.

The hackers end up in a abery high tier MMR so I wouldn’t worry about them, really. If you ever do get to their tier, then you’ll have easily played (and presumably enjoyed) enough of the game to justify the purchase.

I think the frequency at which hackers are a problem is overblown a bit because people watch a lot of streams of the game, and streamers are often directly targeted. Same with stream snipers.

The hacking is kind of rampant right now. I've encountered enough hackers recently to have me step away from PUBG for a while until it gets sorted out. Having said that, the devs are obviously working hard to counter this and I wouldn't say the game is ruined at all but it's a serious problem for sure. This might be more prevalent in certain regions (I'm playing in OCE).

Also the game is hard to recommend unless you have friends or a Discord group you can team up with. Playing Solo is not a great experience and public matchmaking is really hit or miss.

The amount of hackers seems really unclear. I have heard a ton of people claiming they see them all the time (enough that I don't doubt their experience), but in my ~350 hours I've literally never seen one.

I see some people claiming it's MMR related, including Will Smith on a recent Bombcast, with more hackers at higher MMR levels. However, I'm in the top 100 for NA solo FPP (Will is top 2500, for context) so it can't *just* be that. If that was true, I'd see them all the time but have literally not seen a single fishy person.

When it comes to hackers, I don't think anyone can predict what you'll encounter as there are just so many conflicting reports it's hard to be sure. However, the game itself is still a ton of (janky) fun so if you like DayZ, H1Z1, etc definitely pick it up.

300+ hours, my group has seen probably 10 or so obvious cheaters. I haven't played with anyone who hasn't experienced running into multiple cheaters in PUBG. It's still not THAT common though, it's not unusual to play an entire weekend and not run into anything fishy.

To offer a counter-point to this (really just reinforcing my post above), nobody in my group of 4 has ever encountered a cheater. We probably have 500 or 600 hours combined, almost all played in solo and duos NA on weekends and the occasional weekday evening.

No idea what causes people to have such wildly different experiences in this regard, but I can say from my own experience that not everyone is encountering this.

@cakedotavi: Of course not everyone is experiencing the same thing, but it's clearly a problem. Bluehole has made a number of announcements about banning tens of thousands of cheaters along with pushing multiple anti-cheat updates with the most recent one only being a few days ago.

I'd say wait for a big sale before purchasing the game. If you are buying it on Steam, you can try it out for >2 hours and still return it if you didn't enjoy it. That is what I am planning to do.

I've experienced three separate occasions with hackers, two of them being instant headshots and one of them being guys able to sprint faster than a car. Oddly enough, each time was at the Sosnovka Island west bridge.

The first time it was kinda humorous and fun trying to get one over on guys that can instant headshot you if they shoot towards you. After that though, the game already has a low reward for patience, so going 20 minutes of exploring only to be killed by hackers was enough to sour the game enough that I'm moving on. Hackers didn't ruin the game itself for me, but it was the final straw before I moved on. Still would recommend to try it out, especially with friends.

Nearly 200 hours played, I can't say I've ever seen an obvious hacker.

It could be a long, long time before PUBG goes on sale. It is still selling tons of copies, they have no reason to discount it at all right now. Plus the game is only 30 bucks, even with all it's problems I think it is well worth it at that price. I mentioned this above but I have put well over 300 hours into PUBG, and it's given me some of the most memorable and intense gaming experiences maybe ever.

@mike: PUBG has already been out for 7 and a half months. It has a high chance of going on sale from now until the end of the Steam Winter Sale.

Maybe 10-15% off during the Winter Sale, max. With the kind of growth they are still seeing there is absolutely no reason to heavily discount the game. If you are intent on waiting for a "big sale" I think you are going to be waiting quite a long time.

Has the game improved technically? I picked it up in September but refunded it due to an extraordinarily poor experience. I took a clip of it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mm7vaqAUxMOW-OjE9QOXZz6RpBHXMaA7/view?usp=sharing

Is it still like this?

@zidd: It's way better than that now. It's still got issues, however. If you are expecting a polished experience then you should keep waiting.

I've ran into one 2 hackers in 300hours of playtime. 1 not confirmed.

@mike: I may pick it up again since I still think about my time with PUBG. At this point I may as well wait to see how the Xbox version pans out.

If it's about to get a 1.0 release, there may be the somewhat traditional 10% launch discount. But I thought a lot of early access games go up in price on full release. That might be an older trend because I barely follow any Early Access games and this is only the second one I've bought (after Prison Architect).

Could PUBG hit $60 on Dec 20th? I doubt it, but it's possible I guess. Maybe. More likely if they have some 'surprise' launch features, but it doesn't seem like they will.

On whether this game is worth picking up? I say, if you have the cash spare, it's worth a look. It is (was) such a unique concept at launch and in many ways it was the 'it' game of 2017. It's like nothing else I've ever played and is incredibly tense. I certainly got my money's worth, even though I didn't play that many hours of it in the end. I played 4 hours, but few games hook me for long. I'm waiting for 1.0 to jump back in.

It really depends. I played it, didnt like it at all. It feels like a lot of time spent just walking around with a couple very quick shoot outs. Sometimes only 1. I cant get into a game where you can walk for 10 minutes just to die to someone you never saw and be out the entire game. Too much time spent doing nothing for my taste.

played 5 games last night. 2 games with hackers.

the kill cam on the test server makes it super obvious when they are tracking you through walls or mountains, or when they have reduced recoil/aim enhancers on.

still fun but cs go feels like it has less hackers now...