Battle Royale Games With The Steepest Learning Curves, Ranked

As the gaming world entered the 2020s, the Battle Royale game became king of all. Indie and AAA studios alike were doing their best to get out their versions of the hottest new genre to try and get a cut of the action that PUBG and Fornite popularized.

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With such a big fanbase, it was inevitable that some of these games would grow, iterate, and become ever more complex when based on a seasonal model that demands changes every few months. That means some Battle Royale games are now nearly impenetrable for new players, resulting in massive learning curves. These games aren’t ranked by how good they are, but by how hard they are to get into as a new player.

8

Fall Guys

Takeshi’s Castle Techniques

Battle Royale

Party Game

Platformer

Systems

Released

August 4, 2020

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

While Fall Guys isn’t the most complicated game on the surface, particularly when played casually, it doesn’t take long for a game based on a mass-competition gameshow based on a variety of fun minigames to develop its own unique meta.

These days, when playing Fall Guys, it’s easy to fall to the back of a pack when the best strategies have already long been figured out. If players are interested in being competitive, they’ll need to brush up on the latest strategies or fall hopelessly behind.

7

Call of Duty: Warzone

The Big Boy

First-Person Shooter

Battle Royale

Released

March 10, 2020

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Putting the incredibly popular Call of Duty franchise beside the incredibly popular Battle Royale subgenre was an obvious and immediate recipe for success, surmounting even Call of Duty‘s own indomitable multiplayer mode.

However, just like the multiplayer mode of each Call Of Duty game, an intricate meta has built up around Warzone, particularly regarding map knowledge, hideout positions, and weapon rankings. Additionally, the fast movement speed requires high skill to keep up with the best, which makes it even more pressing because of the low time to kill. Beginners are going to have a rough time.

6

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt

Vampire Violence

Battle Royale

Shooter

Fighting

Platformer

Systems

Released

September 7, 2021

The Vampire: The Masquerade games were known for the longest time as old-school Western RPGs with deep branching stories and gameplay, which is why Bloodhunt, the newest entry into the franchise, surprised many by wading head-first into the Battle Royale genre.

While the game has had a bit of a rocky time, there’s no denying the incredibly high-skill ceiling. Playing as powered vampires, gamers need to master teleportations, warps, climbing, weapons, abilities, loot, reloads, and more to survive in a world that demands speed and aggression above all else.

5

Naraka: Bladepoint

Melee Madness

Battle Royale

Action-Adventure

Released

August 11, 2021

Developer(s)

24 Entertainment, Thunder Fire Universe X Studio

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

Since its release, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT has struggled to capture the mainstream attention of many other Battle Royale games, but with consistent updates, support, and community feedback, the game is slowly growing to be one of the biggest active Battle Royale games around, well-loved for its unique style of combat.

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Setting itself apart from other Battle Royale games, in NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, melee combat is king. That means players need to not only master different weapons, abilities, items, fast movement, traversal abilities, and map knowledge, but they also need to use combos and keen deflections to win in fights. It’s unforgiving for new players, but the main reason the game’s loved by its fans.

4

Apex Legends

The Titanfall Successor

Battle Royale

First-Person Shooter

Released

February 4, 2019

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

After Titanfall and its sequel failed to perform commercially, many wondered whether Respawn would abandon the Titanfall universe and move on to different pastures. However, in 2020, Apex Legends, a Battle Royale spin-off set in the Titanfall universe, arrived and overshadowed its source material almost immediately.

While Apex Legends looks like a standard shooter at first, it adopts all of Titanfall’s high-skill ceiling movement, time to kill, and traversal abilities mixed up with light RPG elements and various unique character classes. That means twitchy fingers, snappy aim, and quick reactions are key to victory. It’s easy to get outplayed by veterans in Apex Legends, where the fastest fingers and movers always win.

3

PUBG

The First Big BR

Released

March 23, 2017

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

While PUBG was not the first Battle Royale game ever made, it may well be the most important, setting an industry standard and influencing the next five years of gaming irreparably. None of that would have happened if the source game wasn’t delightfully addictive and engaging.

However, because PUBG is based on a military sim model, it’s necessarily tricky to get into for new players. Gunplay is a little on the heavier side; realism is favoured, a variety of massive maps, and the game is old enough to have a firmly entrenched meta and veteran players, meaning that newcomers are going to have a really hard time getting up to speed with almost eight years of development and iteration.

2

Hunt: Showdown 1896

Wild West Monster Hunter

First-Person Shooter

Extraction

Released

February 22, 2018

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

While the Battle Royale craze was still getting on its feet in the late 2010s, Crytek, the developers behind the famous Crysis games, came out with the most unique and unexpected entry into the Battle Royale genre: Hunt: Showdown 1896, a Western-influenced Battle Royale/Extraction Shooter that prioritized realism, slow movement, and careful consideration over all else.

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In Hunt: Showdown, you can easily be put down in one bullet. The HUD is minimal, guns are slow to reload, and every shot counts. The only way to identify other players is to listen out for their gunshots, or evidence of where they’ve been. It’s a really rewarding game to become great at, but it’s also insanely difficult for newcomers, with a definitively unwelcoming approach.

1

Fortnite

The Biggest Ever

Released

July 25, 2017

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

At first, it’s hard to describe one of the most popular games ever made as having a steep learning curve, which is true in many senses. Almost anyone can pick up Fortnite and begin playing. However, anyone who has tried to excel at Fornite knows just how high the skill ceiling really goes, and there have been near countless numbers of seasons of iteration and development since launch, complicating core mechanics.

At a certain point, skilled players can construct massive defensive towers in a matter of moments, outclassing players with a sharp aim but less building skills. Becoming competitive in Fortnite means being able to build, shoot, and move at the same time, which is a staggering feat that only a few players can pull off.

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