FragPunk is slowly but surely cementing its position among competitive shooters, particularly those following the CS2 formula. Unlike the Valve title, though, FragPunk has a strong anti-toxicity mechanism in the form of its honor systems, and players believe it might be the perfect solution.
“Nice to see this game takes toxic players seriously,” a March 9 Reddit thread reads, praising FragPunk‘s honor system that severely punishes toxicity by lowering disruptive players’ honor grade. At Grade E, the lowest of the low, players gain 50 percent less gold and XP from playing the game and are completely barred from queueing for ranked. Higher grades have less severe punishments, with high honor players rewarded, which is similar to League of Legends‘ system. Competitive shooters are known for less-than-stellar player behavior, especially Counter-Strike 2, where there are few systems in place to curb toxicity (the Trust Factor is a strong attempt, but unfortunately not enough).
Those replying to the thread were happy with the systems added to the game to make its competitive side that much more pleasurable. “I’m honestly impressed with the level of polish and care [the devs] have taken,” one player said, with others finding it at least “funny” to see toxic players banned from engaging with those who wish to improve their ranking.
FragPunk continues on its path to success, becoming one of Steam’s 20 most-played games, with over 116,000 players joining during peak hours, according to SteamDB. It’s bound to keep growing as the competitive shooter market isn’t all too saturated, with CS2 and VALORANT dominating that gamescape for years, with the former being around in some shape or form since 1999. New additions to the genre are always welcome, and it’ll be exciting to see if and what these two FPS giants will learn or adopt from the newcomer (hopefully the honor system—please, Valve?)
Published: Mar 10, 2025 09:07 am