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SOS (Now called SOS: Battle… Royale…)

Never before have I seen anything so misguided. Changing a great concept for a battle royale, and just make it into something so… generic…

(Another Updated): As of November 12th, the game had closed its doors, and shut down its servers.

(UPDATE): As of June 20th 2018, SOS is now free to play, so if you previously bought it… Tough luck.

I’ve heard about SOS back in January 2018, and the game itself is an interesting concept. What it originally was is that it was a pseudo battle royale type of game, but it has a focus on social interaction. Before a match starts you do introductions, have a little bit of bantering, and then you’re dropped onto the island. On the island, the goal is to find the relic and return it to the helicopter, but a majority of the fun is had from the interactions you have with other players. You can form alliances, but also betray them! I enjoyed games like SCP: Secret Laboratory and even Team Fortress 2, not just for the combat, but the interactions you have with other players. SOS was built on the idea of interacting with other players and personalities Hell, they even had Snoop Dogg play the game during the game’s launch day livestream (among other streamers)! From there I haven’t heard anything else about the game until I found out it was on sale and even was having a free weekend… BUT…

The game has recently received a high volume of negative reviews. The reviews pointed towards the game’s new Battle Royale mode, which at the time I thought was a separate game mode. Then it became more clear when I played the game. I installed the game (since it was free) and made my character, I started to join a lobby… after waiting 2 minutes. I found myself in a lobby similar to PUBG and Fortnite, and when the game started I was being dropped from a helicopter… Then it dawned on me… the Battle Royale game mode wasn’t just a separate game mode… SOS is now SOS: Battle Royale. They even removed the original trailer from the Steam store page and swapped it out with a new trailer showing the battle royale gameplay. Not only that, but the ability to communicate with other players face to face and using the walkie-talkie had been removed from the game. The game has been given a complete facelift and it is not pretty.

So SOS: Battle Royale is a battle royale played in the first person… you drop from a helicopter, you collect ammo, find guns, and axes. Sometimes coming across chests with more ammo and weapons, and you might even come across armor. As the game goes on, the map’s border will close in and the remaining players will be forced to fight to the DEATH… and that’s it. That is all this game has to offer. It’s not even a bad game, it’s just generic! There is nothing about the game that stands out! Even when someone wins it’s underwhelming. At least games like Fortnite, Darwin Project, and Radical heights do something that makes them stand out from all of the PUBG clones or tact on battle royale game modes.

Apparently, you’re still able to play classic SOS. Originally I thought there was an option in the game’s menu until I learned I would need to buy the game in order to access a separate client for SOS classic. As tempting as paying $6 s0unds for some joking around, alliances, betrayal, and all that, the battle royale game left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially considering that I didn’t have the option to even try SOS classic for the free weekend. If the battle royale is what the devs are putting front and center for the free weekend, then they have failed to hook me in.

In conclusion, I have never seen anything so misguided. They decided to move on from their original concept and moved to cash in on the battle royale trend. I don’t recommend this game, at all. Not even when it goes on sale. Even before the devs changed the game, they have also been fragmenting their own community. Such as stuff like having a tournament event where someone could win $500 which led to a lot of drama. As well as the devs heavily favoring streamers over their own consumers and going as far as banning them for “stream sniping”. There are better options out there, so your money and time will be better spent somewhere else.