Z1: Battle Royale Review (doldrumCalamity)
Aside from the fact that this game is a shell of its former self, it died because the developers were too nearsighted to see that the battle royale genre could be more than just the cheapest unity assets in existence tossed onto a map you barely put any thought into.
I remember the peak of H1Z1, I remember when the battle royale genre took off, I remember how Fortnite came to the scene and either got laughed at or latched onto and I remember when PUBG, H1Z1, and countless other BRs that existed for a week tops started bleeding players because Fortnite simply had more to offer.
You could say that Fortnite beat everything else out because it was made by a AAA company with oceans of money to back it, but it still remains that Fortnite is a more "Kid friendly" BR, something more accessible, and the existence and popularity of Warzone proves that there's a desire for a more mature BR game, where H1Z1 and its peers shot themselves in the foot was in thinking that they were too good to step up to the plate, polish their game a bit, and offer that mature alternative.
There is no reason for a game that was raking it in as much as H1Z1 was at the time to still be using the cheapest possible models and lighting engines you could buy in the late 2010s, hell even the emote animations are god awful and the skins are all either incoherent or completely awful, helmets that just replace your characters head and add sparkly effects that took at most 2 seconds to make? If you're gonna put cosmetics in random crates at least make those cosmetics somewhat worthwhile.
Overall I give this a "Silly devs, you're supposed to CARE about what you make" out of ten