All that just makes Swordsman X stand out even more. Most other Chinese battle royale games follow PUBG’s template pretty closely, with a modern military theme and weapons that mirror the real world.

When the game begins, a flying boat tied to hot air balloons in the shape of a dragon will take you to the battleground itself -- a large and varied land with bamboo forests, wheat paddies, arid deserts and a lot of wooden structures and temples.

In PUBG, you skydive with a parachute. But in Swordsman X, you simply leap out of the flying dragon with a bamboo glider strapped to your back, like an ancient Chinese Batman.

One unique part of the game is the focus on close combat. Even though Swordsman X has items like a bow and arrow, most of the combat involves close-range weapons -- swords, blades and spears.

And while the game allows players to scavenge for weapons and clothing, they can also pick up martial arts skills via booklets scattered around the world. You can learn up to three different moves per weapon, allowing you to use more complex attacks than standard slashes.

Other skills allow you to enhance your moves -- sadly, walking on walls and bouncing off trees are unlocked this way, so if you were expecting to go full Crouching Tiger from the start of the game… sorry, you’ll have to find the right skill booklets first.

With the right moves in place, Swordsman X can even feel a lot like very different games. For example, a player can quietly creep along narrow wooden beams above a temple, before descending on another player and slitting their throat with a single click -- which felt more like a Chinese version of Assassin’s Creed or the Batman Arkham games than PUBG.

There’s a lot of promise in Swordsman X, but the game is still early and definitely felt unfinished. Beyond my own experiences, I also spoke with other players and one issue emerged above all others: For a game based around close combat, the map is just too big.

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PUBG’s map is big too, but players there can use guns to engage each other from a distance. In this game, players have to be right next to each other to fight with swords, so a lot of time is spent running around trying to find each other instead of fighting.

There also aren’t enough horses -- I found fewer than five in my six hours with the game. Most of that running around is on foot, which makes life difficult because the “circle of death”, a common feature in battle royale games to keep players bunched together, moves really quickly. One player told me he felt like he was always been chased by that circle, trying to stay alive.

But the upside to that is that it encourages group fights -- and those group fights can feel exhilarating. There’s less hiding behind cover than gun-based games, because players just need to keep their distance. The result is often a tense standoff, where you have to remain alert to make sure you can see your enemies on all sides.

Swordsman X occupies a weird position: Sometimes it feels extremely similar to other battle royale games, and sometimes it feels a million miles away from PUBG. It definitely follows some of the genre’s staples really closely, but at the same time the wuxia theme and close combat definitely make it stand out in a very crowded market.

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