35/100
Players7 ratings

Where to get it

Steam

2016 · Xaviant · Battle royale · First-person shooter

The Culling 2

Xbox console exclusive

In a remote island paradise, 16 contestants have 20 minutes to explore, scavenge items, craft weapons, build traps, and hunt and kill each other. Only one will be crowned the winner. Do you have the guts to survive? Prepare for the most focused, brutal, and adrenaline-filled battle royale game you've ever seen!

Released: 4 March 2016
Platforms: Linux Windows Xbox One
Genres: Battle royale First-person shooter Indie Shooter
Developers: Xaviant
Publishers: Xaviant
Modes: Co-op Multiplayer
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action Survival
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Country: United States
Age ratings: ESRB M PEGI 16
Languages: English

About

The Culling is a discontinued first-person action battle royale game developed and published by Xaviant. Following a 2016 early access beta phase, the game was released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox One on October 5, 2017.

The Culling was initially popular, but in the wake of the release of two other battle royale games, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale, the player base for The Culling waned, and Xaviant halted future development in December 2017. The company later announced a sequel, The Culling 2, which was released in July 2018, amid the popularity of Fortnite Battle Royale. The game received a negative reception from players, leading Xaviant to pull the sequel from marketplaces, and instead restart work on adapting The Culling as a free-to-play title. The game servers were finally shut down on May 15, 2019, with the game no longer being purchasable on any platform.

Keywords

arena
competitive
game show
xbox play anywhere
pax east 2016

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Sixteen players are placed in an arena (either a small island or a prison) full of various buildings containing loot. The maps contain caves, bridges, poison gas, explosive barrels, and more. Upon completing various tasks such as surviving for a few minutes, selling items, killing other players, traveling certain distances or interacting with the environment, players receive "F.U.N.C", an in-game currency used to craft or purchase equipment and upgrades each match. When particular perks and air drops are put together, they can provide unique strengths and weaknesses.

Development

The Culling was developed by Xaviant. Having finished Lichdom: Battlemage, they saw the popularity of mods that created a battle royale game atop existing games. The Culling was envisioned to be the first standalone battle royale game on Steam, with the potential to tap into the esports market. The game, as developed, required players that had been killed off to remain in the match, which necessitated the need for Xaviant to provide a robust spectator mode for these players to watch the remaining match play out. Late in the development process, they also recognized this would help the popularity of the game in video game live streaming.

Xaviant first announced The Culling in February 2016. After a brief closed alpha period, the game was released into early access on Windows via Steam on March 4, 2016, where it quickly rose to one of the top ten games played on Steam according to Steam Spy.

Reception

The Culling received generally mixed to positive reviews. John Drawdy of XBLA Fans highly recommended the game saying that it "slowly started to grow on me" and described the game as "Each game brought a new experience showing over and over how you can never know what to expect."

The Culling 2 received generally negative reviews. Steven Petite of IGN gave the game a 2/10 and described it as a "royale mess" and that the game was "nothing more than a weak imitation of PUBG and H1Z1". Jason Stettner of Gamerheadquarters gave it a 0/10 calling it "the worst game on this generation of consoles".