PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS UPDATE: A NEW MAP MIGHT BE IN THE WORKS !!!

Hyped about everything happening in the world of  Playerunknown's Battlegrounds? Well, a NEW MAP Might be just at the Horizon. Continue reading to find out more. 

Original Venezia Concept Map

If you are not living under a rock, you are probably aware of the whole "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" or "PUBG" (as most people prefer to call it) thing. The game (PUBG) which brought the Battle Royal genre into limelight & revolutionised Mobile gaming, is almost a pop culture in certain countries like India and China nowadays.
Though faced by fierce competition by the likes of Fortnite and the newly launched Apex Legends the game holds it's own with over 400 Million Players worldwide on all platforms till June 2018.

PUBG Update

Pubg Corp. Released a New snow map a few months back pushing the total number of Maps to 4 (Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok & Vikendi) but that isn't the end of it. A new map Concept is floating around the internet named Venezia 2.0. The concept map was posted on Reddit by the Reddit user IamEzalor (Link to his Reddit Profile Here) way back in May 2018. The Redditor who is praised by many for his work on Nordheim (Which inspired the Creation of Vikendi snow map) fan-made snow map, explained that his new concept (Venezia) is inspired by Venice, Italy.

Venezia Map Details & Gameplay Ideas

Venezia is the same size as Sanhok, i.e. 16 square Kilometers (4X4) with plenty of buildings (probably the most building dense map in PUBG). The concept map also shows a bunch of Hotspots (hot drop locations). Castle, Harbor, Main Square, Mariwa are to name a few. Looking at the size and design (Buildings and other structures) of the map, it's safe to say that close-quarter battles are going to be fierce on this map.

The Map Concept creator (IamEzalor) took the liberty to add a few fancy gameplay ideas such as the players will get spawned at the aquarails (The gray dots on the concept map), a UAV surveillance drone which reveals the position of the players in its range instead of a typical red zone are to name a few of his ideas. The idea that really excites me is the addition of an underwater weapon as it will be a major change to the gameplay aspect of PUBG. I wonder how they will implement underwater combat.

Here is a list of New weapons & Vehicles which will be available in this Map according to the Redditor

Weapons

HK-P11 (Underwater Pistol)
Benelli M4 semi-auto Shotgun
Beretta ARX 160 (Italian Modular Rifle)
C4 Explosives (can be found in airdrops Maybe?)

Vehicles

Jet-ski (Aquarail as some prefer to call it)
Vespa (the iconic Italian scooter)
Bicycle (WHY???)

Read More: How to Play Any Game Without Downloading Huge Obb

Updated Venezia Map

A few days after the original post, IamEzalor posted an updated version of his Concept Map (Which he named Venezia 2.0) as the original concept got a mixed reaction by other Reddit users regarding his ideas and some design aspects the Map itself. You can read The Reddit post Here.

Venezia 2.0

In the update log, he discarded his idea of surveillance drones instead of Red zones and C4 explosives with some considerable Map design changes. Here is the list of Some Major changes.

   

Change Notes:

•     66% of buildings Removed.
•     50% of bridges removed.
•     Surveillance zone (red zone idea) discarded.
•     Removed C4 Explosives.
•     Added a car – Fiat 500.
•     Some islands are combined to reduce the number of canals.
•     Water in canals are shallow that lets you wade through the water.
•     Elevation changes added.
•     More natural cover (parks, trees, rocks, walls) added.

 You can read more about the changes on the Reddit post Here.

Here is a side by side comparison of the two versions.

How does the new concept map fair against available Maps?

Looking at the concept in details, I think this map will be pretty challenging compared to other Maps. Here is why?

1. The is Map small like Sanhok (smaller map = more fights compared to other maps except for Sanhok) 
2. It doesn't have the grass or mist cover like Sanhok. 
3. The buildings will provide cover but No grass camping in the final circle.
4. Running towards the zone is hard as the bridges will act as choke points where conflicts are bound to happen. 
5. You can't run from enemies with a vehicle as you can't drive fast enough through the city allies. Even if you have a boat, the rivers are pretty narrow, to begin with making boats easier to spot.

 

  Real challenges of this Map

I think there will be 2 main challenges.

1. This map is based on Venice! It's easy to imagine that there will be a large number of half-submerged buildings with tons of Canals/bridges to connect them. So running to get in the zone in the last moment will be a nightmare. Better watch out for Nasty bridge campers and snipers waiting for its prey in the buildings near a bridge. Maybe a bicycle or a Vespa can help you to get past the enemies through the narrow allies of the city?
2. The building dense(even after removing 66% of the Buildings) map will give pubg a more tactical aspect as Nobody knows who is waiting for them as you come out of a corner or You rush into a building only to find out the enemy has moved to the building next to it. Maybe it is time people start practising speedrunning in pubg? We will just have to wait and see. 

I can bet dogfights will be crazy as hell on Venezia though.

 

Release date

Rumour has it that the update is confirmed, but we failed to find any official statement in support of the rumour as of writing this article. Some sources say that the release date is sometime in April or June this year. Take those rumour with a grain of salt. Do keep in mind that most maps come first on the PC version and then ported to the mobile version.

 

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

Although I am sceptical about the map, I wish the rumours turn out to be true, and we do get a new map as early as April this year. This map has a lot of potential bringing more tactical gameplay in PUBG and a fresh new underwater combat system. The underwater combat system is exciting enough for me to want to try the map. I Can't wait to jump in this map with my squad and explore the map. If This map gets a green signal from developers, it might bring streamers and players back to PUBG who lost interest in the game. If I speak my heart, this concept map is giving me vibes of Modern Combat V mission where you are chased by a chopper while you are in a boat. What are your thoughts?

I hope you enjoyed reading our Article "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds Update: A NEW Map Might Be in the Works".

What do you think? Did I miss anything? Do you agree/disagree with the points I mentioned? Want to add some information to this Post? Feel free to comment below and share with friends, and we will see you in our next post.
Peace