Seven Series We Want To See Adopt A Battle Royale Mode

Despite not being the first battle royale game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is dominating the genre. Developers who couldn’t care less about the game type when it was starting to be played in Minecraft, DayZ, and ARMA 2 are now jumping to take advantage of this mode type before our short attention spans lead us to the next shiny thing. However, some series are better served by this game mode than others, so here are some of the less obvious series we would love to see do something unique with a battle royale mode.

Counter-Strike
Often considered one of the best “pure” shooters, Counter-Strike could bring the battle royale genre to a new level of competition. PUBG’s system of scavenging for weapons and ammo could be completely replaced by Counter-Strike’s weapon-buying wheel. Dying players could drop increasing amounts of money, ensuring people who fight are the ones who get to upgrade their arsenal instead of those who avoid combat to loot. Implemented correctly, this mode could lead Counter-Strike to kick PUBG off its current spot at the top of Steam’s active player count.

Assassin’s Creed
Ubisoft stopped including multiplayer in the Assassin’s Creed games after Black Flag, but if they brought it back with a battle royale mode, it could refresh the series’ multiplayer. It’s been a while since we played Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, but imagine the city of Rome filled with thousands of NPCs and players who look just like those NPCs. Players would balance speed and stealth if they hoped to come out on top. Attention to detail would give players a huge advantage in this mode. Players who saw something suspicious from the other side of a courtyard would have to weigh the reward of a potential kill with the risk of revealing themselves to others in the area. The stealth aspects and the addition of NPCs make this battle royale mode very different from PUBG’s gunplay.

The reality is Assassin's Creed multiplayer probably isn't coming back, but the upcoming Assassin's Creed Origins is innovating the single player aspects of the series.

Planetside
With servers already hosting up to 2,000 people per continent, PlanetStide 2 is in a prime position to create a battle royale mode with up to 20 times the number of players as PUBG. With huge battlefields, dozens of vehicles, and hundreds of weapons already in the game, Planetside 2 offers a plethora of options when planning your battle to be the last one standing. Aerial vehicles allow players to travel across continents with speed, so an ever-shrinking circle players to need stay in, similar to PUBG’s, could move fairly fast while ensuring players have a chance to catch it. Just imagine the madness as the final 50 people, on foot, in tanks, and in aircraft rush towards a single bio lab before the circle can catch them.

Planetside 2 wasn't a critical darling, but it still has a thriving community of dedicated players. That community could drastically expand if the popular battle royale mode came to the game.

Dynasty Warriors
If you take away the ability to smash through hundreds of NPCs like butter, you take away any semblance of Dynasty Warriors, so each player starts with a group of their own mercenaries in this battle royale mode. Players can focus on weakening other players by taking down their soldiers, or they can go directly for opposing players. When one player takes out another, they would have the chance to grow their army by hiring the surviving soldiers of that fallen player. Similar to Counter-Strike’s money system, this would ensure players who participate in battles grow in strength. Unclaimed mercenaries could also bait players to a specific area, tempting them with the promise of a larger army at the risk of open battle.

The next Dynasty Warriors game isn't looking so hot, so maybe Koei Tecmo should consider scrapping that and try revolutionizing the series beyond simply going open world.

Titanfall
Getting in a Titan comes with plenty of risks, but those risks would be compounded with fewer Titans and more Pilots. Titans could be made into a rarity in this mode, encouraging players toward a specific location when one falls, similar to air drops in PUBG. As players rush toward a newly fallen Titan, they’ll have to be wary of other players camping the area or rushing to capture the Titan for themselves. The risk will pay off for one player who will then be able to decimate the Pilots in their path. A lone Titan in a field of Pilots makes for a large target, though, so the balance of risk and reward doesn’t stop once a player hops into one of the mechanized giants.

Respawn Entertainment has promised us more Titanfall, so maybe they'll pull an Epic Games and release a battle royale mode for free.

The Last of Us
The Last of Us’ multiplayer is brutal, and it already has the closest gameplay to PUBG on this list. The post-apocalyptic setting offers the same eerie feeling as PUBG’s abandoned island, and the third-person shooting/scavenging is similar to Battlegrounds. However, The Last of Us is simply much more polished than Battlegrounds at this point, and its crafting system adds another layer of depth. Plus, the game already has a single-life-per-round mode called Survivors. If Naughty Dog were to simply increase its player count, make it free-for-all, and deliver a huge map to run around in, PUBG would have some tough new competition. We’d also love to see them add clickers to the mix for some added drama, which could also be used to encourage people to move closer together.

With The Last of Us Part II's notable absence from E3 this year, maybe Naughty Dog has just been too busy adding this mode into the sequel to talk about the game. I wouldn't bet on it, but a man can dream.

Star Wars Battlefront
Star Wars Battlefront’s action and atmosphere have always lent themselves to massive fights, which makes the upcoming game’s 40-player limit a bit disappointing. A battle royale mode would deliver the sense of chaos seen in many of the Star Wars movie battles. Battlefront II’s battle points system is a great replacement for weapons and vehicles dropped across a map. People who do well in battle will be the first ones able to purchase a TIE Fighter or fight as a hero such as Lando Calrissian.

For the latest news about the actual future of Battlefront, keep checking back with Game Informer until the next game's Nov. 17 release.

Battlegrounds was never highly anticipated, so maybe what dethrones it will be something else nobody anticipates. Regardless, let me know what series you'd love to see implement a battle royale mode in the comments below. Ben Hanson, Dan Tack, and Leo Vader also had some thoughts on what games would do well with a battle royale mode, so be sure to check that out too.