Highrisers vs TIO: Battlegrounds Royale
Highrisers
Highrisers is an “escape from the tower”-style survival-slash-resource management game that’s fairly similar to the first Skyhill game, except that instead of traveling to the lobby, your end goal here is to scavenge the resources you need from the lower floors to fix the helicopter on the rooftop so your team of 4 survivors (if none of them died, that is) can escape the tower. It’s basically a quarter of the plot of Zack Synder’s most recent and relatively controversial zombie flick, Army of the Dead, really… and like the film, the game is fun but it has its own caveats.And of course, there are the zombies… ahem… I mean, mutants that will attack your team and any fortifications you’ve put up if they spot you… so there’s that.
For what it’s worth, I really liked resource management-based survival games like Highrisers and I have had a pretty good experience with the game myself, minus all the issues I’ve pointed out. The game definitely has some good stuff going for it, but the dev team really needs to work on the game more to revamp some of the gameplay designs and also to fix the game-breaking bugs reported by their players. Only then I would be comfortable recommending the game. For now though, it’s probably wise to keep it in your wishlist.
TIO: Battlegrounds Royale
TIO: Battlegrounds Royale is the standalone battle royale game mode for the mobile survival game, Thrive Island. Set in a pretty huge open world where you can craft a large variety of items and build shelters or even big buildings as a base of sorts at night. This game has a lot more "survival" gameplay rather than the somewhat intense "battle royale" fights since you are expected to gather resources and scavenge loot just so you can have the best gear to prepare you for the final fight for the title of victor royale!Unlike other battle royale games that have the iconic map-shrinking feature, this game did away with that. Instead, you need to hunt the land for your opponents, which may take awhile, but can be fun when you catch someone by surprise. Interestingly, the game even has a zombie mode where you can turn your slain foes into zombies. Not sure how this fit into the battle royale gameplay though.
All in all, TIO: Battlegrounds Royale feels a lot like a hardcore survival game rather than a battle royale mainly because it places emphasis on building a good shelter, gathering raw resources (as opposed to finding ready-made items) and well, crafting. The game is also a work-in-progress so you can expect a less-polished game that could use your feedback to improve.