Developer – Facepunch Studios, Double Eleven
Publisher – Facepunch Studios
Platform(s) – PlayStation 4, Xbox One
MSRP – $49.99
Release Date – May 21, 2021
Disclaimer: Review Copy was Kindly Provided for this Review
Rust is a weird one for me to review for a multitude of reasons. I’ve watched tons of Content Creators play Rust ever since it was first released in early access in 2013. From 2017 onward, I heard snippets of the updates that came to the game but for the most part, I disregarded Rust for a few years. I’ve always liked the concept and look of the game but I was never able to fully delve into it myself.
From the time that Rust was first released in early access in 2013 to its full release in 2018, it’s only been available on PC. I’ve always been primarily a console player, so for how much I watched others play Rust, I was never able to actually play it myself. Then a few years ago, the console version of Rust was announced and I’ve been waiting for its release ever since.
That leads us to where we are today with the console edition of Rust NOW available to purchase on PlayStation and Xbox. I’ve spent a little over a week being able to fully immerse myself into this game and I can finally give my thoughts on how Rust feels like to sit down and actually play for yourself.
Rust is a survival multiplayer game where your main objective is to simply survive. There will be a collection of servers to choose from, each of which contains a multitude of resources, animals, and other players. You must traverse throughout the world to further your progression and better your overall experience.
Everyone who has played Rust will tell you the same thing in terms of what this game has inklings of in its overall design. Rust has a similar overall look to DayZ and similar crafting elements to Minecraft. I’m not familiar with DayZ all that well, but everybody has played or at least has heard of Minecraft, so you have a bit of knowledge of the inspiration for this game.
Like I said earlier, Rust was in early access for a few years and I didn’t keep up with the game when it was fully released. The game may not seem that complex, but I’ve noticed that so much has changed in terms of factors such as graphics and crafting elements that it feels almost like a completely different game than what I remember watching.
Rust is a slow burn in terms of working your way up to get better gear and resources. I never found the game to be an unbelievable grind mostly because I enjoy exploring the world. Rust has evolved in terms of its environmental design over the years. Instead of the plain landscape filled with rocks, trees, mountains, and the occasional broken-down city, you experience a more detailed world. There are beaches, sandy & snowy areas, and much more buildings to obtain materials.
I love the many dynamic and plentiful crafting options especially when it comes to building dwellings. I will admit the crafting system can feel very cluttered and confusing as you obtain more resources. You’ll get used to it the more you play, but it took me a couple of hours to understand it completely.
The PvP elements of this game have proven to be very divisive. Many people loathe the community in this game simply because of how toxic it can be. For some, it can be very disheartening to walk around the map and encounter players frequently that kill you on sight. I know there are tons of people who don’t like that aspect because they feel it’s next to impossible to get anything done, personally, the PVP elements are a favorite of mine. It would get very boring if all you had to do was run around and collect in a game like this. It’s a personal preference thing, it doesn’t work well in some games and it does in others, I feel Rust falls into the latter.
A problem I have with Rust is how quickly the will to explore loses its luster. It didn’t take me long to understand the ins and outs of Rust because I watched it so much all those years ago. Besides the crafting system, I figured out how to build and where to explore relatively easily. In turn, it only took me a few days to get to a point where I felt I had progressed as far as I needed to.
Don’t get me wrong you can still progress through the map and do whatever you please. I was just never encouraged to continue building and exploring because I felt I did everything I needed to do in that specific server. I could just enter another server and start over from scratch but if I did that over and over again, the feeling of repetitiveness would set in quickly.
A game like Minecraft has multiple layers to it. If you don’t want to play in a multiplayer survival you can do it in a single-player survival. If you don’t like survival at all, there’s a ton of servers with minigames such as hide & seek or hunger games. Its variety and ability to adapt is why Minecraft has been as successful as its been.
My point is that Rust only has one layer, it’s a survival multiplayer and that’s it. Certain games have one layer and can continue to keep my attention such as Overwatch. The thing with Rust is that I simply don’t feel I’ll have the continued interest to continue playing at a persistent pace. I know that the game does get updates from time to time, I’m not entirely sure how substantial Rust updates are in scope but I hope the ensuing updates give me a reason to keep coming back frequently in the future.
The console edition of Rust was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. My review was done completely from the PS4 version via backward compatibility on PlayStation 5. I just wanted to mention this before I get to the next part of my review, visual and technical aspects.
Visually, this game looks substantially better from what I remember all those years back. These aren’t the best graphics you’ll see, even considering these versions were made on last-gen hardware but they’re fine overall.
Rust runs fine, I never had any game-breaking bugs or glitches. However, the textures are a situation that I hope gets resolved soon. Texture pop-ins in this game incredibly constant, I can’t go a couple of minutes without seeing multiple of them. It’s not something that I can simply ignore because pop-ins happen on practically every surface whether it’s trees or buildings. It was made clear to me that Rust was only optimized for PS4 and Xbox One and not for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, so I definitely should keep note of that. At the same time, I can’t help but comment on it because it was such a plentiful issue and it’s something I hope is improved upon soon.
Rust will always be special to me because of all the memories I have of watching it on Youtube and Twitch over the years. I finally got the opportunity to sit down for hours on end to play Rust. I did enjoy what I played but I can’t overcome the feeling that the will to dabble into the game incessantly just isn’t there. The only technical issues I encountered were the texture pop-ins but that one issue is enough to make a difference in my overall experience.
Rust is a good survival multiplayer game from Facepunch and Double Eleven. This game definitely has an audience, as it has attained over 5 million players on PC alone. The console edition will bring more eyes to this game than there already were. I enjoy this game in spurts and I can see myself going back to it every couple of months to see what the updates have changed. I just wish certain aspects will be further improved in the future to make this game a must-play daily.
Rating - 7/10
GamebredMatrix 
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