Rust will never be forgotten, and it will never be at peace. I told myself I would wait to do this review, that I would let it settle, that it would one day be finished and then I could write my thoughts. Well, too much time has passed for me to wait any longer, and for some reason, today seems to be the day.

I'm not even sure now how I discovered this, "new game with a cool idea". A friend, DayZ-exploring, a flashing Steam store page, who knows. But once I installed it, and loaded it up, I had found a new, exciting video game. The music when loading was incredible, eerie and atmospheric; and this was 'alpha' music? Once I loaded into the world, an island of apparent great size, I enjoyed the experience from the start. Nature, trees, vast distances, animals, ruins, and...people.

For that is what makes Rust tick, people. The first moment, not knowing whether to hide, fight, or try to communicate, is telling, and this is a common thread. And with these first moments, come the first deaths, both expected and not. And so comes the first rule of Rust, don't trust anyone. And with this rule comes the choice you have to make, do you strive to live a solo life? Do you have Steam friends that play and can band together? Or do you try to find some team to take you in? Be ready, you are going to die, a lot.

I made a shelter, and built, and harvested, and hunted. I ventured into dangerous places and survived. Or died. In the end, it was a great experience. Then came the version changes, at first it was good, bugs were fixed. Then, they started over from scratch, and things started getting different from what made it good in the first place. It was good, then bad, then good, then bad.

The game today is worse than it was, a new thing we are seeing in games when they are made to be a service. A game with a golden age, something we used to only see in MMOs. That is why I can no longer recommend this game. I am going to give it a thumbs up, because of my experiences, and that it was worth the money I paid, but now is a different time. Rust is over for me.

Graphics:
Apart from certain updates and small periods, Rust has always looked fantastic. As they moved into Beta and the modern Rust era, the game both looks great, and takes a great system to run. It's one of the games that gets my PC as hot as it can get. Beware!

Sound:
Great music and sounds at first, but inconsistent sound production. Seemed like the staff never settled on consistant sounds/music during the process. To me, this shows a lack of focus, which has been clear from every player since the beta started. This developmental blurriness seems to coincide with when Rust had already made huge sales. Pretty much the team had success, and just went in slow-patch mode. It was less about a work of art, a work that could have defined the team of producers and developers for the rest of their lives, and more about making the project akin to updating the software in automatically flushing toilets.

Community:
It's a multiplayer game, and the community can be tight-knit if you're in good, but overall it's as toxic as it gets. The sadness with Rust comes from both the community and the developers. Nobody is happy, ever. This has bred conflict between players I've never witnessed before. In short, Rust has the worst community of players I have ever seen, and the clear lack of maturity in most players is almost depressing.

Overall:
Rust was a pioneer, a flagship in a tattered lot, but what made it great also destroyed it. When new games are made in it's shadow, I hope that someone can capture that essence just once again, and hold it tight until a perfect time to share it with the world.