Naraka: Bladepoint Angers Players With Unannounced Bot Matches

The latest battle royale game to release on Steam, Naraka: Bladepoint, is facing criticism from players over the divisive and sneaky inclusion of bots in early game matches. Naraka: Bladepoint is a new PC title featuring a more melee-focused PvP system and game sizes of 60 players. The game has received mixed reviews in its testing phase but currently sits at “mostly positive” according to the Steam store page.

One of the big differences between this and other prominent battle royale games such as Fortnite is the price point, making players spend an entry fee of $20 on top of the game’s microtransaction system, which in itself has sparked debate among the game’s fanbase. While the game is praised for its gameplay, several issues such as frequent lag spikes and stuttering have been plaguing players. Another issue, however, is what some fans are calling a shady move on the developer’s part, tricking people out of getting refunds through Steam.

As reported by Kotaku, a major issue in the battle royale community is Naraka: Bladepoint‘s inclusion of bots in its early game matches. While several other games have used bots as a way to introduce new players to the experience gradually, players are more upset at the lengths the game goes to hide the fact that the opponents are bots. As noted by several negative Steam reviews, players see the move as a bait and switch, tricking players by making them feel skilled at the game for the first few hours of playing before introducing real people into the mix for the game’s actual level of challenge.

Steam’s refund policy states that refunds can be attained no questions asked as long as the player has less than two hours of playtime and has owned the game for less than two weeks. This means that by the time players have realized that they were only fighting bots in a PvP battle royale game and the real challenge hits, it’s likely that they’ve already passed the two-hour threshold for refunds. As stated by zer0x102, one of the many angered players on Reddit, “I don’t wanna spend 2 hours when I buy a new game fighting against robots who are literally programmed to miss me and run in a circle why does every battle royale do this I am very upset why are they in ranked too.”

While this method of tricking players into a false sense of confidence could be interpreted in a sinister light, players are also upset with the game’s reliance on microtransactions. On top of this, many players are still experiencing unplayable levels of stuttering on their high-end systems combined with extremely high ping, a fatal combination for a game solely focused on PvP. Despite these issues for a large number of players, Naraka: Bladepoint has still managed to hold a steady player base, a testament to the game’s fast, fluid, and addicting combat that shines in a sea of generic shooters.

Sources: Kotaku, zer0x102/Reddit, Stunning-Bite6173/Reddit

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Ryan Moos
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Ryan Moos is a writer for Screen Rant’s gaming news section. His main passion is horror and he spends his free time creating 3D artwork for Twitter and Instagram (@misspelledmoos). Ryan also runs an occasional Twitch stream and a YouTube channel under the same name dedicated to gaming content.

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