Let me start this article by saying my general introduction to PUBG wasn’t exactly great. At the time, I worked at a GameStop, and between PUBG and Fortnite, I was absolutely SICK of arguing with parents who were victims of everything their children did to get in-game currency in either game.
In fact, that’s what I told Vice President and Creative Director of PUBG Studios Dave Curd when I sat down to talk with him about PUBG: DED.NET while I was at gamescom. But he was sure I would think differently about this new version, and boy was he right. I think this whole time, I had assumed it was some sort of sequel to the popular first-person shooter, but I was dead wrong. DED.NET is an unhinged look into the post-apocalyptic, weird body horror, and loud-quiet-loud dynamic that became synonymous with the 1990s and the music that emerged from then.
Forget Everything You Know About PUBG
Dave Curd was thrilled to show off the carnage in DED.NET, and he was excited to tell me what he envisioned for the game when he first began working on it. While I would consider PUBG to be a little more serious in the realm of battle-royale shooters, DED.NET takes everything that was learned in the nearly ten years since the original’s release and cranks it up to 11.
However, it’s important to note that it ditches the battle-royale gameplay for something entirely new: run-based roguelite progression across the Cascadia wilderness. So, certain things that you’ll find across your different gameplay sessions will give you all-new ways to adapt and experiment every time you set out to round out the build you’re going for. Even more interesting than this gameplay loop is how you play through it.
You’ll be able to pick up an array of wild accessories, like dolls that provide different buffs or debuffs, or boomboxes that can play appropriate songs you can jam to while your enemies die around you, like Tame by The Pixies. There are also more unorthodox ways of getting through every loop, like playing dead, hacking payphones to steal money, or even eating your enemies for health.
It looks incredibly arcade-y, and I can only imagine that it plays just as fun, though I didn’t get a hands-on experience with it during my time at the booth. However, the trailer does an incredible job of encapsulating everything Curd told me, including the passion behind the project as a whole and the references, music, culture, and more being implemented. Don’t think I didn’t notice that the protagonist of the trailer was wearing the same hat and glasses that Kurt Cobain was photographed in during Nirvana’s Jesse Frohman photoshoot; his LAST photoshoot.
There is currently no launch date for DED.NET, nor any information on whether it will launch in early access, but the team definitely seems set on ensuring they have a wild, fun game before launching. Right now, players can sign in with their KRAFTON Player Account to pre-register for the PUBG: DED.NET closed beta waiting list.
