Fortnite
Games Like Rust If You’re Looking for Something Similar
If you’re talking about straight up PvP madness, Fortnite is the obvious choice. Its popularity is unfathomable at the moment, and it seems like everyone and their dog is just itching to jump into the fray. Even trend-loving Drake is a fan, though with his track record, we wouldn’t be surprised if he jumps ship to something else when the hype dies down.
Because it doesn’t strive to be a jack-of-all-trades like Rust, Fortnite excels in the one department it focuses on. Battles are intense, frantic and oftentimes hilarious, and the unique system of building structures on the fly makes each skirmish completely unlike any you’ve had before. The best players seamlessly combine expert marksmanship with artisan-level construction, and it’s beautiful to watch.
If you’re after a more cooperative experience, the less ballyhooed Save the World mode pits you and three companions against the chaos of the apocalypse. Work together to fend off waves of monsters, manage resources and protect the weak and vulnerable. Each character has their specific role to play, and only those capable of utilizing their skills correctly will survive. Considering the more sustained gameplay length when compared to Battle Royale’s quick sessions, this mode is more in line with what Rust has on offer.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Games Like Rust If You’re Looking for Something Similar
Coming from the unlikeliest of starts, PUBG rose to prominence for its simple yet effective premise: you’re dropped onto an island, and you’ll have to kill everyone who stands in your way. Inspired by the film Battle Royale, it has more than a few similarities with the dystopian world envisaged by Koushun Takami. Not quite as many Japanese schoolchildren ruthlessly murdering one another, unless you happen upon a strangely specific server.
PUBG is more than a little rough around the edges (completely understandable considering its origins as the brainchild of a lone modder), but its accessibility and ambition create an atmosphere that is all of its own. Right from the word go, you’re faced with a decision: at which point should you jump from the plane and begin the battle? You’ll have to work it out quickly enough that your opponents won’t get too much of a head start, but carefully enough to avoid landing somewhere silly like in the ocean.
As with Rust, your interactions with others can go in multiple directions. Will you forge a temporary alliance with an unknown entity? Can they really be trusted, or are you destined to have them betray you, squatting over your prone corpse in an obscene display? The risk is always there.
DayZ
Games Like Rust If You’re Looking for Something Similar
The world has gone to hell in a handbasket, zombies lurk around every corner, and the remaining shreds of humanity struggle to survive in whatever way they can. It’s all a bit grim, really – though it sounds a lot more pleasant if you read the title as ‘daisy.’
An open-world survival game in the same vein as Rust, DayZ places you in the fictional post-Soviet Republic country of Chernarus, where a mysterious plague has turned most of the population into mindless ghouls. Much like the morning after a particularly chaotic bender, you start out with only a road flare and a rag, and must explore the abandoned buildings in search of precious resources. Clothes are of the utmost importance, not only for warmth and comfort, but because even in the cataclysm, fashion never stops.
With all of the hazardous elements, deadly beasts and suspicious people roaming about, Rust players will feel right at home. The similarities aren’t coincidental, in fact: Facepunch Studios CEO Garry Newman has openly admitted that Rust originally started out as a DayZ clone. They simply grew tired of being mauled by zombies, and figured they’d rather get mauled by wolves instead – which is fair enough.
Minecraft
Games Like Rust If You’re Looking for Something Similar
Not every game needs to have the same tone to capture a similar audience, and we posit to you that running afoul of a Creeper in the dead of night is just as terrifying as anything you’ll encounter in Rust.
If you’re a fan of Rust’s crafting system, you’ll feel right at home in Minecraft – you can make pretty much whatever your heart desires. The truly dedicated have managed to create everything from detailed recreations of Game of Thrones locations to roller coaster rides that last several minutes. In most people’s cases, however, they’ll just be content to fashion a crude home out of sand and bundle themselves up like a little homeless lady.
You won’t be feeling quite as much pressure to survive in Minecraft, but your imagination will no doubt be piqued by the scope of what you can do as you wander the fields, and there is a beautiful sense of freedom to that. Once you open up your world to others, that feeling is amplified even more. It’s gaming purity, and it can help rekindle that magical feeling of discovery that you felt as a child. Or you could build a tower shaped like a penis, up to you.
The Forest
Games Like Rust If You’re Looking for Something Similar
Canadians may be known for their hospitality, but that will be called into question the first time you set foot in these British Columbian woods. After narrowly surviving a crash landing, your son is soon abducted by an apparent cannibal, and you must use your wits and your instincts to save both his life, and your own. There is a distinct feeling of isolation in The Forest that makes each moment unnerving, and you’re never sure whether or not there is someone or something watching you.
The mutated tribesman stalking you operate in particularly fascinating manners. Their AI is programmed to give the impression that they are self-aware, using cover, protecting one another from injury and retreating when it is clear that they are outmatched. They also hate fire, which is quite reasonable when you are surrounded by flammable everything.
Though The Forest lacks the massively multiplayer aspect of Rust, there is a cooperative mode that allows up to eight players to work together, via P2P. Communicate with one another via walky-talky, revive fallen allies, and light even more things on fire – it’s fun for the whole family! (Not literally, of course. Please don’t play this with your Nana unless she asks first.)
Stranded Deep
Games Like Rust If You’re Looking for Something Similar
If cannibal-ridden woods aren’t your thing, perhaps you’d prefer to soak up the sunshine on the Pacific? You’ll probably die anyway, but you’ll get a better tan, at least.
Stranded Deep follows a similar theme of plane crash survival, but otherwise, you’re on your own out there. There is no multiplayer mode at present, but all of the other elements are there: build a shelter to house you from the elements, scour the land and sea for valuable resources, and manage your vitals to avoid perishing before your time. Stranded Deep’s world is procedurally generated, which makes each gameplay session feel fresh and new.
Should Beam Team manage to integrate multiplayer down the track (something they have expressed a desire to achieve), you’ll be able to take all of your favorite interactive moments from Rust, and try it out in a spiffy new location. It’s fair to say that those moments are rarely amicable, but they still are a hoot.
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