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Rust [Steam] is a game I've tried a few times and it never really seemed to click with me, but now after coming back to it after so long I'm finding it to be incredibly fun.

Note: My copy was personally purchased, quite some time ago.

The problem I always have with survival games is that they feel like an endless and boring grind, but Rust has somehow managed to throw that feeling out the window.

I've now experienced the fear of walking out of my house at night, to find a shadowy figure standing on my roof with some sort of assault rifle. I shortly met my end, but it was frantic and exciting to experience the absolutely panic and dread at seeing them there. There's many little stories like that you can get from Rust, like the ninja boar that sneaked up on me while I was mining and ran away right after it hit me. All I saw was a boar butt running off into the long grass―sneaky little devil! It practically made me crap myself, it was so totally unexpected.

For me, it's the fact that it's a sandbox that doesn't require endless level grinding to access items. They tried that once, it didn't work and they responded to feedback and removed it. Sure there's a bit of resource grinding, as practically any open-world game requires grinding of some kind, plenty from other genres do too! In Rust you only need the resources to make the items. There's no levelling, no classes―just a proper sandbox. Want to build a tower? Go ahead! Want to throw on a hazmat suit and explore some radioactive ruins? That's cool too.

When playing Rust, there's one rule you should generally follow: trust no one. You shouldn't buy Rust if you're not prepared to lose hour's worth of loot at a moment's notice, as it will happen. You might log in one day to find something like this:
image
They left us cold, naked and afraid. They also took all of our stuff―bastards! I've still got no idea who did it! That happened more than once, people sure do love to leave a sign to laugh in your naked face. The thing with Rust, is that when you log out, your body is still in the game. If you kill someone, the game will tell them exactly who did it. However, this makes it rather interesting. You could literally build a jail around them, or just pilfer all their crap, leave them naked and put a code lock on their door to be a nuisance.

In stark contrast to other survival games (hello ARK), the game actually runs incredibly well. I'm often above 90FPS on quite high settings. It does have a strange bug where running it in fullscreen results in no mouse and keyboard input, but running it in Windowed Mode until that's fixed does solve it. I'm pretty sure that's a Unity bug and not their problem, since other Unity games have the same issue.

In Rust there's a plane that flies over the map at random intervals to drop a big loot box, but don't think even for one second getting it is going to be easy. I honestly can't count the amount of times I've gone to grab it, to be taken out by a wolf. The absolutely terrifying sound of hearing footsteps suddenly speed towards you, as you see the jaws of a wolf jump out of the grass. Everything in this game is trying to kill you, unless you're that stupid horse I can never catch that runs at the slightest fucking breeze. On top of that, players will camp the drop out, waiting for you. Think you're safe? Think you got there first? Think again buddy.

The visuals in Rust can be absolutely amazing at times too, take this particular shot I took at random early on into our new server:
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I looked out of the window in our first house, saw this and I was in absolute awe at just how utterly gorgeous this game really is. That shot isn't even close to being maxed out either, which is amazing.

It does get a bit of stutter and frame-drop when it's loading new areas in, but it's not too often. This can likely be reduced by having the game on an SSD rather than a standard HDD. It's acceptable to me, considering the game isn't finished and they are clearly working on optimizations all the time.

Rust is just constant eye candy! I honestly think it's one of the best looking games we have available on Linux. Quite shocking really compared to how it was only a year ago. Take this shot from youtuber and GOL community member xpander69 that was taken on our server:
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I'm looking at this image, struggling to put into words how I feel about it. It's almost film-like quality with the colours—it's just so striking.

If you want to play with us, we have a server! See the server information in this linked article.

I'm also appreciating how open the developers are about what they're doing with the game. The frequent blog posts detailing various sections of the game being worked on, along with a bit of comedy at times about the nudity.

Honestly, I'm a little shocked to be recommending it. You can find Rust on Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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31 comments
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TheYetiWakes Jul 17, 2017
Guess I'm old fashioned and just prefer single player or pve games. My experience of PvP games always leaves me cold. Up against people that seem to have all the time in the world to play all day long without giving a balanced experience to let a noob into the game always puts me off.

Having said that just spent an hour running around a server without any other players to get a feel for the game and it was better than expected. The survival aspect wasn't too rushed and ott like some games. i didn't feel I was about to die immediately just because I hadn't killed, skinned and eaten a rabid giraffe with a knife i had to make from coconuts within the first minute, before I even worked out the movement keys.

Managed to craft a few walls, clothe my player, get a supply drop and gun from a plane and have a nice sleep in a lighthouse! Something tells me though when I try again on a full server I'll get my arse kicked before I can blink.


Last edited by TheYetiWakes on 18 July 2017 at 6:29 am UTC
GustyGhost Jul 18, 2017
Quoting: Mountain ManSounds like the perfect game for trolls and griefers. No thanks.

And while the graphics are nice, I think you overrate them quite a bit just judging by the screenshots.

Private servers when possible. Otherwise I would never play such games.
Kimyrielle Jul 18, 2017
I stopped following this game when they announced that you get force-assigned your character's gender when creating one. Which is still in my personal Top 5 list of "Dumbest Ideas Ever to Disgrace Gaming".

But glad that you like it.
Mountain Man Jul 18, 2017
Quoting: elo
Quoting: Mountain ManSounds like the perfect game for trolls and griefers. No thanks.
It's a survival sandbox game after all, which gives me a lot more motivation to protect my shit and work for my own protection. I guess it depends on what you like - but calling it "Trolls and griefers" is a bit wrong when that's half the game :P
That fact that you can be robbed and killed while offline is a deal-breaker as far as I'm concerned. That sounds like the opposite of fun.
nox Jul 18, 2017
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: elo
Quoting: Mountain ManSounds like the perfect game for trolls and griefers. No thanks.
It's a survival sandbox game after all, which gives me a lot more motivation to protect my shit and work for my own protection. I guess it depends on what you like - but calling it "Trolls and griefers" is a bit wrong when that's half the game :P
That fact that you can be robbed and killed while offline is a deal-breaker as far as I'm concerned. That sounds like the opposite of fun.

Again, it depends on how you look at it and what you like. Instead of looking at it in a negative light, for me it's a challenge. Keep my character, items and inventory safe while I'm away. Being a bit excited every time you log on and see that your strategy seems to have worked is fantastic - and coming back from a short vacation to see that everything you worked for taken away by another player makes you rethink that strategy.

I do see your point of view though - and on a huge popular server I'd go mad myself, but the GoL server is chill so far for the most part :)
Ehvis Jul 18, 2017
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Quoting: GuestYou get 90FPS on this game?!? What am I doing wrong? I tried to play Rust with a friend the other day and I was struggling to get 20-25 FPS with all my settings pretty much on minimum. 6700k, 16GB, GTX 970 4GB .. KDE Neon

Interesting. I experience the same low FPS on a GTX 970 regardless of settings. The must not like this gpu.
nox Jul 18, 2017
Quoting: GuestYou get 90FPS on this game?!? What am I doing wrong? I tried to play Rust with a friend the other day and I was struggling to get 20-25 FPS with all my settings pretty much on minimum. 6700k, 16GB, GTX 970 4GB .. KDE Neon

Make sure your GPU is set to max performance and your CPU is set to performance mode, it makes a world of a difference for me!
Ardje Jul 19, 2017
Quoting: eloI do see your point of view though - and on a huge popular server I'd go mad myself, but the GoL server is chill so far for the most part :)
I was just walking around in the server, me, being my naked me. And suddenly I saw a creep with a bow and arrow...
I run...
Kept that creep looking... Never seen a naked guy before ;-).
(Yeah, this is the first time in a long time I played online :-) ).
TheYetiWakes Jul 19, 2017
After giving it a few hours I could get into this.

Think I still need some guidance on best strategy to get started though - It took me a very long time to realise you could alter the blueprints to make different building items... I may have spent a long, long while wandering around looking for other blueprints for walls and roofs...

Mind you last attempt on the GOL server was a lot better - I managed to almost finish a half built house I came across and nicked from someone else (Sorry). Found my first other player asleep and nicked most of his stuff (sorry Sinister) and was looking for stones to upgrade my new seaside abode when a damn helicopter shot me. Bit unsporting of the old chap.

I'm still unsure about etiquette and how to proceed / consequences. If i'm on GOL server am i allowed to nick stuff I find or is it not the done thing? I found a salvage hammer and other stashes etc. Were they there for a reason and to help new folk? Do other items respawn at all? For example if I destroy every barrel I come across and take every hemp plant are they limited or do more appear? What happens to all the stuff I had when I die? Is it dropped where I fell to be collected by others or does it simply disappear??


Last edited by TheYetiWakes on 19 July 2017 at 10:26 pm UTC
Ketil Jul 19, 2017
Quoting: TheYetiWakesI'm still unsure about etiquette and how to proceed / consequences. If i'm on GOL server am i allowed to nick stuff I find or is it not the done thing? I found a salvage hammer and other stashes etc. Were they there for a reason and to help new folk? Do other items respawn at all? For example if I destroy every barrel I come across and take every hemp plant are they limited or do more appear? What happens to all the stuff I had when I die? Is it dropped where I fell to be collected by others or does it simply disappear??
Everything except player built stuff respawn. Generally everything not protected by a lock. Having people steal your stuff is part of the game, so don't worry about it, you can even demolish their walls or doors to get to their stuff if you want. You might not want to tell them it was you though.

When you die, your body with loot will stay for a little bit until it despawn. Other players can take the stuff if they find it. If you have a sleeping bag close by, you can respawn there, and probably reach it before it despawns, although the thing killing you might still be there as well. If a player shoot you, they will probably take your most valuable stuff.
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