PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) vs The Culling
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.
The Culling
The Culling is, in many ways, a potentially great PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds alternative game. In fact, many would say that this is perhaps the very first standalone, battle royale game that is inspired directly from the Hunger Games. As such, you'll expect a pretty brutal arena set on a remote island where players will not only need to explore the foreign land to scavenge for resources but also to craft a wide variety of weapons, traps and tools just so you can ambush your fellow players. Naturally, being battle royale and all, the last man standing will be the victor.Each match can contain up to 16 contestants (and yes, like Hunger Games, The Culling is apparently a game show) and the game lasts for around 20 minutes. There is also a tutorial, a training mode where you play against AI bots, and a special 8-player Lightning Round where players get access to the best weapons early on in the game. As a game show, the "organizers" will often spice things up with special in-match events that have some pretty crucial rewards too. Like the Hunger Games, players can also each call in an airdrop (a.k.a. "care package") containing valuable items but getting to that airdrop in one piece without having your stuff stolen before you reach there can be quite a challenge in itself.
Now, unlike PUBG's shooter-heavy gameplay, The Culling has a more visceral, action-based, melee-oriented gameplay that will make every successful kill a very satisfying one. Don't get me wrong - the game does have ranged options like bows and guns but having a firearm or any ranged weapons may not be an advantage if you don't know how to keep your distance. Players can easily be disarmed of their ranged weapon if they are ambushed by a melee player, and of course, if you missed your aim, you may not have a second shot.
However, due to a plague of problems between the developers and its community, The Culling seems to be a pretty dead game at the moment and hence, finding a match can be quite difficult. Similar to PUBG, The Culling is not a free game either and this game is on the pricey end considering its almost non-existant player base.