PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a thrilling, addictive multiplayer experience—and my favorite game of 2017
Myself and two squad members are hunkered down in a house on the outskirts of Pochinki, when we spot another team approaching from the south.
With the circle close behind them, it’s clear they’ve picked our abode as temporary shelter, attracted to the home’s location just inside the play zone.
As we prepare for breach, we can hear them scurrying about the perimeter, no doubt peeking inside to see if anybody’s home. We sit in silence, hoping to use the element of surprise, often an important ally in the art of war.
But they hesitate to come inside, perhaps feeling uneasy by the home’s seeming vacancy. (Trust me, a house that looks vacant in Battlegrounds usually isn’t.) Suddenly, we hear shots. They’re being ambushed by a separate group also trying to escape the circle.
Bullets ricochet and windows break. A frag grenade explodes, knocking a player down. It’s a proper firefight, one you’d see in a John Woo film. And we have a front row seat to watch the events unfold. The thirty or so seconds it took for the mayhem to play out seemed like an eternity.
Once the action finally died down, the surviving players came inside to take refuge from the preceding firefight, naively thinking they’ve avoided certain death. Big mistake. The first rule of Battlegrounds is to never let your guard down.
We rush down the stairs and pick them off before they can even react.