Developers today have all the freedom in the world to experiment and create different things, unthinkable a few years ago, or even today with a great publisher behind them. Lately, we've seen survival simulators go one step further and become experiences that many players embraced, and especially those they spent hundreds of hours on. Now, the creators of the famous Garry's Mod move on to this genre, and offer us a proposal that, even in its alpha phase, has already sold more than many superproductions.

But let's start at the beginning. What's Rust?

As noted above, Rust is a survival simulator. In a hypothetical post-apocalyptic future, man struggles to survive, and basically, that's what we have to do. Released in an unknown world, inhabited by other humans like us and animals, we will have to seek life to see another dawn, using everything in our power to do so.

To illustrate your gameplay a little, we think it might be useful to compare it with Don't Starve. From a first person view, we start with a stone, two first aid kits and a torch, and from there, taking advantage of the surroundings, we will have to try to progress. With the above-mentioned stone we can extract wood from the trees, break rocks, and build tools that allow us to get more and better materials, food, etc..

Of course, unlike Don't Starve, Rust is a "simulator", which also takes place in a permanent world. This means that, even though we managed to assemble our booth and collect very useful objects when we left the game, when we returned from a walk to look for resources, they could have destroyed everything or looted us, leaving us, as they say, with one hand in front of us and another behind. Or with one in the mouse and the other in the WASD, as you wish.

The key: cooperation

Rust's permanent world makes it a cooperative game, preferably with plenty of people. The idea is to form a community, in which each character has his role and allows humanity to rise from the ashes. For example, we can form a group of players that have explorers, hunters, builders... to make progress much easier and safer. Keep in mind that, in this world populated by other users - the average number of players on official servers can range between 100 and 200 - anyone can try to kill us.

And what does it mean to die, you wonder? Well, it implies reappearing in any part of the stage, which means, almost certainly, that we will not be able to find our supposed community again. Yes, we can make ourselves a point of respawning or reappearing with a sleeping bag -or a more resistant bed-, which, if someone breaks, will vanish leaving us, again, defenseless.

If you are thinking of playing alone, the truth is that it is not impossible, but it is much more complicated. We can be lucky and find an area where the inhabitants respect each other, where we can build our cabin there and be safe, or we can try to look for a remote corner of the map where we think we will be safe from possible intruders, and try to build our small fort there.

Alone or accompanied, but survive

As an open world game, the decisions in Rust are made by us. As a survivor, the environment will be the one that sets the pace. The most basic thing will be to eat. We will have to hunt animals - with the basic stone with which we started it is possible - whose meat will have to be cooked in bonfires so as not to catch infections. Apart from that, we will have to warm up when it is cold - with clothes or the bonfire mentioned - like at night, to prevent our bodies from consuming more calories.

We will also have the danger that surrounds us, such as areas that emit radiation, which we will not be able to explore without adequate protection. The fiercest enemies - for example bears - can also destroy us. But the greatest danger will be the other humans. Being characters controlled by other players, we never know what their true intentions are, and even if they tell us one thing, in the end they can end up being the other. This can create quite interesting moments of tension, although in most cases we will see ridiculous stony fights that are decided more by luck than by something else.

Survival, but with patience

Rust is still in alpha phase, and that looks like a league. The game is very, very simple in the graphic section, and the animations of the characters and beings that populate their world come to touch the comic. In addition, it has a lot of errors, which will gradually be solved. Obviously, even if all this improves in the future, the visual aspect is something completely secondary in Rust, where surviving in a world inhabited by other players is the real incentive.

What's new about the creators of Garry's Mod is a game whose success will be shaped by the community. At the end of last January, and as we say, still in the alpha phase, Rust had already sold more than 750,000 copies, so it seems that this one is clear. In addition to the default mode - in which we are warned that if we cheat we will be banished forever - this title offers support for mods, which will surely create even more attractive experiences than the base.

Anyway, Rust may already be the beginning of a phenomenon that we see absorbing players as few games get, bearing in mind that also the frequent official updates determine the future of the experience. The first contact with the proposal of Facepunch Studios has seemed to us, at least, interesting, although you are warned that it is not a traditional game, but a kind of parallel world that requires our attention, or other players, to allow us to advance in the adventure.