Rust

Rust is a ruthless multiplayer-only survival game developed by Facepunch Studios that drops players onto a procedurally generated island with nothing but a rock and a torch. There is no linear story or cast of main characters; instead, the narrative is entirely emergent, driven by the struggle to manage hunger, thirst, and health while enduring the elements. The premise is simple yet brutal: gather resources, craft gear, build a base, and survive against wildlife, radiation, and, most dangerously, other players.

The game maintains a massive, dedicated player base and is a staple on streaming platforms due to its high-stakes gameplay and volatile social interactions. Rust is defined by its un unforgiving PVP mechanics and the adrenaline of "raiding"—breaching enemy bases to steal loot. The competitive scene revolves around wipes (server resets), where clans and solo players race to establish dominance. The constant threat of losing days of progress creates a tension that keeps players engaged for thousands of hours.

For hardware benchmarking, Rust is known for being notoriously demanding and often unoptimized due to the immense number of player-created structures and entities loaded on the map. It is heavily CPU-bound, relying on strong single-core performance, and is a memory hog, making 16GB of RAM the realistic minimum despite official specs stating lower. To achieve stable frame rates, especially on high-population servers, players often need a fast SSD to reduce stuttering and may need to lower settings like shadow quality, particle effects, and draw distance.