ROB RUN Launches in Steam Early Access Amid DDoS Attacks and Balance Changes

Kefir's shooter ROB RUN entered Steam Early Access on November 4. The free-to-play crime sandbox attracted thousands of concurrent players on its first day, but its reception has been mixed. A DDoS attack against the servers and urgent balance adjustments made for a rocky start.The game takes place in Looty Bay, a city where up to 5,000 players live through a seven-day cycle. You start as an escaped convict with a duffel bag and a rented car. A week later, a police raid arrives and the server's progression is wiped. In those seven days, your goal is to work your way up from robbing gas stations to hitting vaults and police armories, laundering money, building a base, and developing a business. Or you can join the police. Every cop, criminal, and passerby on the server is a real person. Clans fight over territory through a five-tier power structure, with a single Shadow Governor at the top collecting taxes from everyone below.The launch was anything but smooth. The servers came under a large-scale DDoS attack, leaving players struggling to connect. At the same time, the developers were fixing party-system bugs and restarting servers without wiping progress. The first round of balance changes arrived on November 5. The maximum number of police officers in a city was reduced to four, police salaries went up, and officers on freshly opened servers were restricted to pistols for an initial period. The in-game economy also received a broader rebalance.At the time of the original report, the game had Mixed Steam reviews, with roughly 52% to 59% positive ratings across nearly 2,000 reviews, although the number was changing from day to day. Concurrent player counts were around 28,000 at that point. Players praised the social mechanics and lack of pay-to-win features, while criticizing the grind and the balance of the recurring wipes. The developers expect Early Access to last six to twelve months, with new maps, modes, and progression systems planned.