Strayed VR Is Just As Ruthless As Rust
As evidenced by the Youtube videos I’ve released showcasing some gameplay stories in Strayed, it is worthy of being called a Rust VR Game. That’s probably why everyone call is that (it’s also good for SEO).
You can look at a lot of elements in Strayed and say “Oh so they just did what Rust did, but in a Virtual Reality game.” That’s pretty true, and I don’t see anybody else other than Combat Waffle Studios rushing to make another Multiplayer VR Base Building survival game ala Rust. So I’d also hesitate to try and call Strayed a copy of any sort because well… VR is a whole different medium from flatscreen games. Either way somebody is going to make a game like Rust in Virtual Reality eventually.
I’m glad it’s Strayed that is currently really shining as that VR Rust game though. Outside of the fact that you spawn in as a naked baldy and that a lot of weapons and structures sort of fit the scrappy apocalyptic Rust aesthetic, it really nails the Rust feel in VR in the way that matters the most.
It is an absolutely ruthless game.
Strayed Is As Rust Is - A Dog Eat Dog World
Just like in Rust, Strayed nails the feeling of living in a world where the strong prey on the weak. That’s evidenced through the progression of the game.
You don’t get better stats to get more powerful, you get better equipment to get more powerful. You start with a rock that is a barely capable of hurting someone when you hit them with it. You can quickly upgrade that to a bat by hitting a tree. Hit a tree and a rock and gather some plants and you’ve got a bow.
With a bow you can easily defeat anyone with a melee weapon. Boom, you’ve moved up the Strayed food chain. Now you can look down on the people who are just like you just were, practically unarmed. You can take them out with ease.
Someone who has managed to scavenge or craft a gun and ammunition for it though… they’re still a level above you.
Even a pistol is very superior to a bow, unless you’ve got a ton of practice and are fantastically accurate with a bow. Of course even then the armor either party wears can be the deciding factor in who walks away with the other person’s stuff and who respawns in their base with nothing.
Up and up the food chain goes until you’ve got the best armor in the game, pipe bombs, healing syringes, and assault rifles. Even then, when you’re the most powerful player around and you can take anything from whoever you come across… what if you run across a large group of players? There is strength in numbers.
The ability to take what other people have gathered in Strayed with just a little bit of force can easily propel you through tons of otherwise tedious gathering and scavenging, and it’s much more fun to fight than to grind. So people naturally do that in Strayed just as they would in Rust. That is the best way Strayed continues the legacy of Rust, but as a Virtual Reality experience.
It is this more than anything else that gives Strayed the moniker of a Rust VR game, and why that title is so fitting. People who know they stand no chance against you because of your equipment advantage will mostly beg for mercy, and people above you in regards to equipment will generally shoot first and ask questions later. You’re just a free bag full of gathered valuables to them.
The only separator is stuff. Equipment, armor, weapons, and whatever else you can store in your base is all that differentiates you from the horde of nakeds freshly spawned on the beaches. Lose those things and you are back to square one no matter how much you scavenged or how many fights you succeeded in.
Of course you can always reject violent human nature and try to encourage peace and understanding. You could work together with those you come across and try to succeed more together.
Where is the fun in that? There’s only so much scavenge to go around in any given area and well… any stranger could easily ambush you if you turn your back to them.
Strayed, much like Rust, is an apocalyptic dog eat dog game.