A Rust review is incoming...

...but not till early next week. As Early Access ended, there was a server wipe yesterday evening so I'm going to play a bit more now that I can build up my blueprint collection and base knowing that everything isn't going to be snatched away from me. Rust's world of multiplayer survival can be harsh at the best of times, so it's only fair that I find out if the promise of actual progress can lessen my sorrow.

The wipe also means there are fewer people running around with machine guns, so hopefully it'll be easier for me to survive long enough to craft some machine guns of my own. Until now I've found that there are so many trigger-happy folk slaughtering everyone they run into that it's impossible to get anything done. Things might be worse than usual because that's how the monthly life-cycle works: the official servers are normally wiped once a month, so I can see how more people might turn to player hunting in those last few days.

You can read more about those wipes and the philosophical meaning behind them just over here. This was an more dramatic wipe than the usual, taking away blueprints as well as buildings, so there may have been an increased sense of nihilism above even the Rust norm.

But perhaps the end of Early Access and this new phase won't make as much difference as I think it will, and my impressions of Rust will remain much the same. It currently strikes me as a game that's defined by a harshness that dominates both its survival systems and the mindset of its players. Sometimes, those players will do cool, interesting things! Most times, they'll just kill you.

If you run into me on the island, please don't shoot. I'll give you my rock.