Mavericks: Proving Grounds vs PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)
Mavericks: Proving Grounds
Mavericks: Proving Grounds is an ambitious, 400-player battle royale game that includes some form of virtual world game elements to make it more social. What do we mean by that? Well, basically, there's a central, social hub where you can meet, chat and interact with other players. Similar to a virtual world game or an MMORPG, there are shops manned by NPCs here along with a nice selection of mini-games for you to enjoy during your downtimes outside of the "Proving Grounds". There's even a shooting range for you to test your skills.In terms of gameplay, Mavericks: Proving Grounds provides a massive 16km x 16km-sized map, which is dubbed as the Isle of Dern, that's filled with immaculate details like buildings, forests and the like. You'll then search these locations for chests or boxes containing the weapons or tools you need Considering the vastness of the map, there are vehicles you can drive around too.
Admittedly, it's pretty much similar to PUBG in many ways, but what truly makes this game unique is its physically-sound destructible environments. For instance, let's say an enemy is taking pot-shots at you from a forest but you can't see where he is... all you need to do is light the entire place on fire and smoke him out. There are also special specialist hardware that are powerful to use but can be really hard to find. These items will give you more strategic opportunities to get at your opponents.
The game has a bit of RPG in it mainly due to its emphasis on narrative and how every battle you fight in may determine the fate of the world. Through a unique reputation system, you can fight for the faction of your choice, either The Capital or one of The Factions, by completing achievements or simply by performing well in-game. Naturally, each faction provides you with their own sets of benefits.
Mavericks will be free-to-play once it is officially released, but it will also offer a premium, citizenship program. Likely a subscription program, having a citizenship will grant you some perks, allowing you to say earn more in-game currency and prestige, access to premium cosmetics and more.
So, if you enjoy battle royale games, you'll want to try this game! You can do so right now if you purchase a Founder's pack, or you can try your luck getting into the game's beta testing by signing up as a tester on the website.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is a battle royale game that features a vast open world island filled with plenty of resources to scavenge. Being a battle royale game, everyone will start off on an equal playing field. Through clever scavenging and picking the correct fights will you end up with the last few survivors to battle it out for the winning spot as the map will gradually shrink, pushing survivors closer and closer together.In some way, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds reminds me of Hunger Games, albeit a much more brutal Hunger Games that you can actually play in, and I'd actually like that.
However, the game is still pretty poorly optimized long after its release as an early access game, and well, the game has drawn plenty of flak since the devs have started banning anybody who killed a streamer who cries foul due to this thing called "Stream sniping", giving rise to a pretty bad and toxic atmosphere where streamers are players whom you literally can't kill in fear of being banned for no reason other than getting the upper hand on a streamer. Worst thing is the game's not exactly a free-to-play, so if you do get banned, that's literally money down the drain.
So, even if the game is as epic a battle royale game as it is, you should keep these downsides in mind going in. Gameplay-wise, the game is amazing, but you will need to be wary of its increasingly toxic community (both players and the team managing the PR side of the game).
Its developer, BlueHole, has recently (as of March 2018) released the mobile versions of the game, PUBG Mobile. The mobile version of PUBG is available on both Android and iOS.