PUBG New State review: Same old battle royale experience with a new skin

Krafton’s PUBG Mobile/BGMI successor is now here! Krafton has made some huge claims about PUBG New State, promising improved graphics and gameplay that can be compared to PUBG PC. With bold claims like these, PUBG New State had a lot to live up to. The game takes place in the year 2051, with futuristic elements in the gameplay. Unfortunately, the game’s launch was botched due to last-minute server issues and a plethora of bugs in the game, which delayed the launch by two hours. If that wasn’t enough of a mess up, there are reports of Android phones getting bricked while playing PUBG New State. PUBG New State runs well now even though it has a few bugs. I played the game on an iPhone 11 and here’s my review.

The future of battle royale

PUBG New State is set in 2051, which lays down some basic expectations from the gameplay. As part of the “futuristic” theme, the game features electric vehicles, trams, and drones. Since all of these have been around for years, there is nothing futuristic about them. The developer could have at least added some sci-fi perks like hovering above land and water to certain vehicles. Even the weapons are exactly what you get in BGMI, without any futuristic element to them. Maybe Krafton cannot evolve weapons too much to ensure competitive esports-level weapon balancing, but they could have experimented with some aspects of combat. Even in terms of graphics, there isn’t anything visually different in PUBG New State compared to BGMI.

Also read: PUBG New State download link available: Here’s how to download PUBG New State on Android, iOS

Familiar gameplay, with some new additions

The gameplay of PUBG New State is pretty similar to Battlegrounds Mobile India. There are some new mechanics like the drone shop that allows to you purchase weapon mods and supplies, a car trunk for storing weapons and other items for yourself and your teammates, and an enemy recruiting system to recruit downed opponents. The best one out of these is the enemy recruitment feature. The game lets you recruit your downed enemies in battle royale mode if you have less than four players in your team. This can be a life-saver for solo players, who often get separated from teammates over the course of a match.

Besides these, PUBG New State has a new battle royale map called Troi, which has an urban setting with a mall, tram, exhibit hall, and more. Erangel also comes back as Erangel 2051, which is almost exactly the same as the one from PUBG Mobile. Finally, Team Deathmatch mode comes with the new Station map that is ideal for close-quarters 4v4 combat.

The core gameplay experience of PUBG New State will be appreciated by hardcore BGMI fans, as it mostly stays the same with some minor additions. What’s unfortunate is the lack of content in the game right now. Besides battle royale and Team Deathmatch, there isn’t much to do in PUBG New State. Krafton will add more game modes, maps, and events with future updates of PUBG New State, to bring the game on par with BGMI content-wise.

Age-old weapon meta

Auto rifles like AKM and M416, and SMGs like UMP45 seem to be dominant in the PUBG New State, similar to its predecessors. The game needs some sandbox changes and weapon tuning to evolve the weapon meta as the franchise progresses. It isn’t like shotguns and sniper rifles are unusable in PUBG New State, but the auto rifles and SMGs easily outclass them. Krafton could also add some new weapons like grenade launchers to PUBG New State to make combat feel even more intense.

Also read: PUBG New State rewards and events: How to claim free launch rewards, participate in events, and more

Frequent and annoying bugs

Right now, PUBG New State has several bugs that can ruin the overall experience for some players. While playing the game, I noticed buttons in the UI would often be unresponsive and it shows a blank ‘Notice’ screen every time I open the game. Along with these, matchmaking can take a long time in a battle royale. Krafton will be fixing these issues soon to deliver a better experience in PUBG New State.

Final verdict

PUBG New State is basically BGMI with a futuristic skin. However, players would prefer BGMI over New State as it has much more content right now. It seems the game should have launched after fixing bugs and adding new exclusive content that isn’t available in PUBG Mobile or BGMI.

Editor’s rating: 3/5

The post PUBG New State review: Same old battle royale experience with a new skin first appeared on 91mobiles.com.

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