Early Access Review

I truly believe Rust to be one of the greatest games of all time, and it's by far my favorite game, ever - singleplayer or multiplayer. Rust combines the journey of self that is experienced in singleplayer games with the reward for discipline taught by multiplayer competitive games. There simply isn't another feeling like it short of going into real life and doing dope ♥♥♥♥.



Like other "hard" gaming feats - successfully raiding in WoW, controlling an island at the head of a coalition in Puzzle Pirates, getting a high rank in a moba or even figuring out how to log into the game in Eve Online, Rust has a steep learning curve which will punch you in the face repeatedly. But, unlike its facepunching peers, Rust allows you to define your own terms of success; it's almost the holy-grail-game of Eve without spreadsheets. You get to do whatever you want, and you'll innately know when you're winning or losing without a meter telling you your score, but the game retains the satisfactory feeling of "getting stuff done" that other casualy-sandboxy games like Battlefield or GTA lack.



And if you want to play the game the "normal" way, as a competitive long-form pvp match against hundreds of other people, it's better than Eve. The best part about Rust is the journey to riches, and every journey you learn more about the game and about yourself (#knowledge). Rust's combat is as visceral as DayZ or Eve and it combines itself with the feeling of accomplishment normally reserved for more arcadey games like LoL or csgo.



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Yes, the game can be played casually for an hour a week and you will still have fun, contrary to what people who haven't played the game will tell you. No, you won't dominate a server, but you wouldn't expect to raid mythics in WoW with an hour a week or become Global in CS with an hour a week, but you can still have fun and find success the same way you can casually in WoW or CS



No, the game is not easy to be good at, but it's as easy to get into as Overwatch and the difficulty & burden of #knowledge creates the depth and replayability that Overwatch doesn't have but games like csgo and mobas do, while still being easier to get into than those games. You don't have to ask questions like "wheres dragon" "whats baron" "why cant i play nami mid", and you don't have to learn how to counterstrafe / what ct economy means / why dont my bullets go where my crosshair points, just to play Rust, BUT, similar mechanics are THERE, and you CAN learn them to get better.



The biggest reason I view Rust as one of the greatest games of all time is that it simutaneously allows people to play a different game within the same game. Just because I play it for the pvp and competition doesn't mean others can't play it like Stardew Valley, and have even more fun than I do. The stories and experiences you will have in Rust are reminiscent of WoW pre-crossrealm and pre-dungeonfinder, but told through a much more entertaining fps-shooter-builder medium than a clunky mmo, AND the #knowledge you gain (improvement) is so much more tangible than other games that it's just as much of a dopamine rush as seeing your level increase or getting a rankup.



Anyone that is able to try something without letting prior notions discourage them will enjoy Rust for what it is, simply because it can be so many different things. I would consider Rust a must-play if you enjoy multiplayer games.