Battle royale pioneer 'H1Z1' comes to PS4 on May 22nd
It's providing much-needed variety on Sony's console.
PS4 players don't have many major choices for battle royale games: there's Fortnite, of course, but you won't find PUBG or up-and-coming games like Radical Heights. All that is about to change in a month, though, as Daybreak is releasing H1Z1 (the title that arguably started the battle royale trend) an open PS4 beta on May 22nd. It'll remain free-to-play with purchasable cosmetic items, but will pack new progression mechanics to keep things quick, including the pacing of the gas (the zone of death in battle royale titles) and airdrops.
The team is promising a fast experience, too, with "fully optimized" code that runs at 60FPS if you're fortunate enough to own a PS4 Pro.
In many ways, H1Z1 is effectively the PUBG substitute on the PS4 with a semi-realistic setting and the weapons to match. However, the speed is arguably closer to that of Fortnite. Where a PUBG match can go on for ages if you make it to the final few players (that's changing with the new Savage map), H1Z1 is designed to wrap up in 15 minutes or less. That might be alluring if you're more interested in a thrill ride than the slow-building tension that tends to define the battle royale genre.
