PUBG: Battlegrounds is a very different game to the one we first set eyes on five years ago and its latest map, Deston, is a clear of example of that change. With high rise buildings, new traversal mechanics, and several biomes in play, Deston, which was first pitched four years ago, is the 8x8km map players have long been asking for. However, while the general reveal of the map went down well with the majority of the player base, there was one new gadget shown that had people turning their heads for the wrong reason.
In PUBG lore, every combatant is tagged with a blue chip so that they can be tracked at all times. In Deston, this is taken to a new level with the addition of a Bluechip Detector, which allows players to see the proximate location of nearby enemies. It acts a little bit like a Heartbeat Sensor, but unlike Call of Duty Warzone, this little gadget isn’t a stable part of the meta – and players are understandably concerned about its inclusion.
However, studio head Dave Curd tells The Loadout that the Bluechip Detector won’t be as overpowered as it looks. “We understand that the initial reveal of the Blue Chip Detector may sound and look overpowered, but there are drawbacks,” he says. “Due to the delay in detection, it does not display the opponents’ position in real-time and when used in urban districts, it does not show the opponent’s exact vertical position, either.”
This means that in the densest parts of Deston, you shouldn’t be able to identify where your enemies are right away. You’ll need to rely on map knowledge and audio cues to track them down. And, like other tactical gear, the gadget will occupy a primary weapon slot which Curd argues will “force a player to choose their secondary carefully.”
Although Curd is confident the Bluechip Detector won’t disrupt the meta too much, there’s a reason players are so concerned. In the past, newly-added tactical gear, like the Spotter Scope, have had to be nerfed fairly quickly after being added because of the way they influenced a game. In the Spotter Scope’s case, players argued it was too overpowered in its first iteration, tagging players behind cover for far too long.
However, Curd insists that the development team will keep a close eye on things, especially in the early days of Deston, which is out already on PC. “We’re always concerned about the core gameplay of PUBG, so we’ll watch player feedback closely once players get to try it out and adjust accordingly,” he says.