First of all, it seems obvious to point out that the game is indeed "Xbox Preview" meaning the game is unfinished, hell the game even tells you so when it loads up! So with that in mind my expectations were not as high as a full release of the game.
So with that out of the way lets start talking about the game!
In terms of the gameplay loop, PUBG on Xbox is the same addictive fun as the PC version. You drop out of a plane into a large open map, salvage what gear you can and try to survive in an ever shrinking map. You can do this alone, duos or, my personal favourite, with a squad of up to 4 people. The game excels in creating that tense feeling of hunting a group that passes you by from a vantage point, the rush of that pinpoint headshot and the hilarity of you and a friend flying over a hill in a sidecar to try and get into the circle before the electric dome gets you! This all works great on the Xbox and Xbox Live is the ever reliable source for grouping and chat.
The controls also surprised me, i was expecting a severely toned down system but to be honest, its all in there. The inventory and gun attachment system works great and adds so much needed depth, the vehicle movement and general player traversal feels alot more natural with a stick instead of keys and nothing has been taken out (as far as i can tell anyway). It isn't perfect however, the shooting is significantly more clunky than over console shooters. Going down sights in particular is very strange and awkward compared to what you would expect. Overall is definitely serviceable enough and hasn't thus far caused me any real anger or frustration.
The next big talking point is performance and really this is where PUBG struggles. The game looks ugly, lacks high quality textures, much customization and the game does chug noticeable in certain places (We've found the initial plane jumping to be the may area of frustration). But, to its credit, the game does just about enough in terms of server quality and generally locked fps to not cause any major issues. As a console player you tend to expect a greater level of consistent performance but because EVERYONE is in the same boat it doesn't cause as much frustration as it could.
The last aspect i want to talk about for this first impression is its impact. So far, from my own limited viewpoint, PUBG appears to be doing well. Its trending on twitter, prominent games media outlets and influencers are producing a ton of content for it and i have never seen Mixer as active as it has been the last 48 hours! Xbox needed a game like this to come out swinging and so far i think it has done that.
Is there room for improvement? YES, absolutely loads but the developers were wise to bring this to Xbox Preview before its slated Q1 Version 1.0 release. If the game can continue to build upon this early promise, i can see it being a very bright spark for Xbox's 2018 aspirations.
So my first impressions of the game are fairly positive and realistic, its buggy, clunky and a little bit light but the most important thing is that PUBG is fun, A LOT of fun, and that is really what gaming is all about.
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