Ubisoft has finally joined the mobile battle royale bandwagon, despite arriving late to the event.
Ubisoft has quietly released Wild Arena Survivors, a brand-new battle royale game created only for mobile devices. As the title prepared for its worldwide release, it appears that the game received some coverage in June as a result of a beta that concluded in July. Therefore, this isometric 40-player combat royale is now available to the general public as of today’s release date. Collectible characters are fairly common, as you might guess, and you may spend hours upgrading each one as you go. There is also a strong emphasis on the survival aspect, and there are many other modes accessible, including a solo option for the die-hard survival aficionados. Nevertheless, the game’s lack of promotion and its quiet release
Wild Arena Survivors may be quickly seen in action in the trailer up above. As you can see, it features the standard battle royale mechanics, such as falling onto an island and gathering a variety of characters. Though the sceptic in me wonders if Ubi simply repurposed some random survival game engine, seeing as how pretty much every isometric survival game on the platform looks incredibly similar, it appears that the game offers an isometric view with pre-rendered backgrounds to keep performance on par for a selection of Android devices. While the game does have some eye-catching graphics, I’d say they are more Fornite-inspired than anything else, which makes sense given how late Ubisoft comes to the mobile battle royale bandwagon.
There are a variety of game modes available, including a solitary mode, so survival gameplay is undoubtedly an option. However, if you’re more interested in the primary Battle Royale mode, it provides 10-minute rounds for up to 40 people at once. You’ll need to scavenge for riches to enhance your weapons and equipment in addition to acquiring and upgrading characters. After all, the ultimate objective of a game like this is to have you continually run on a treadmill until you spend money to break the grind.
Unsurprisingly Wild Arena Survivors is free-to-play, so it contains in-app purchases that range up to $104.99 per item. There are also multiple currencies, and of course, the in-game store is hidden from everyone until they complete the forced tutorial. The best part is the tutorial doesn’t explain a thing, so you’re literally left standing on an island with zero direction, which might explain why Ubisoft is so silent despite today’s release. Still, I did the dirty work to find out what the in-game store contains, and it’s a bunch of loot boxes and currency, so the game’s paid loot is indeed hidden behind a gambling mechanic. Gross.
All in all, it seems pretty clear why Ubisoft hasn’t put any effort behind today’s launch, and that’s because Wild Arena Survivors is neither polished nor fun, with awful monetization attached. More than likely Ubi knows this but has decided to silently launch the game to recoup the development costs from players, which is why I have a feeling Wild Arena Survivors isn’t going to last for very long. Still, if you’d like to check out one of the worst battle royale games to land on the Play Store in some time, just to educate yourself on how not to develop a game, go right ahead and grab the install from the Play Store widget below.