The survival genre has been booming for some time now. Whereas plenty of games in the genre lean more towards stylized than realistic, Rust is one of the ones that’s grim and bleak, just like surviving off of the land probably would be. You have to catch your own food, build your own shelter, and defend yourself from scavengers and thieves looking to take everything you worked hard to get. And now Rust players face the greatest challenge of all: assembling a band.
Rust’s first-ever paid downloadable content adds an assortment of musical instruments, all jerry-rigged from items found in the environment. You can construct a wheelbarrow piano, a “canbourine,” and even something horrifyingly called a plumber’s trumpet. And yes, there is a cowbell. At the risk of obliterating a dead horse, you gotta have more cowbell.
The Rust Griefers Pack, I mean, the Rust Instrument Pack, runs for $10 on Steam, though if players snag it before December 12 they can enjoy a 10 percent discount. If you’re looking to try before you buy (let’s be honest, these will one hundred percent be used for griefing), anyone in the game can pick up and play an instrument. There’s also a new music stage in the Compound where everyone can check them out and see if it’s their jam. Players only need the DLC to be able to craft the instruments.
The music system is actually pretty complex, allowing players to play specific notes at different octaves. This isn’t just hitting a button to play a preset tune; you can actually craft in-game songs. Furthermore, if you have a MIDI-compatible device, you can even plug that into your computer and use that to play the in-game instruments to give yourself finer control.
The DLC pack allows you to construct ten different instruments, the most expensive of which (concerning in-game materials) is the wheelbarrow piano, which requires 200 wood and 100 metal frags.
This seems like a very niche addition to the game, but it will no doubt find its audience, and it’s only a matter of time before videos of epic in-game covers of popular songs show up on YouTube. This is the new way to form a band, and Rust is the new “my parents’ basement.”
For those not interested in the new DLC, this is still a good addition, because while everyone is forming bands and practicing their music, it gives you a good window to steal all their stuff.
