With the return to Naraka after a year, it still slaps.
There are little other battle royals that effectively mix combat, exploration, and characters in the same way as Naraka, the closest I can compare it to being Apex, which shares the exact same major issues. With the matches being 20 minutes however, it works as a great drop-in, drop-out game.

The gameplay majorly works with a few wonky parts (like parrying feeling very odd) and some characters being outright better than others, but that's expected in a hero-like game, so it's of minimal interest. I think the real issues lie in Weapons and Items, some Weapons are downright broken, chaining into infinite combos that make it near impossible to break out of, and if you do, grapple-followups tend to overwhelm you before you can react. I do think that the abilities do feel good and that the weapons feel good otherwise, including the new weapons. I do think the new Showdown PvE mode is quite fun however, really being a fun break from the ranked climb. I do think there is quite a bot issue in NA, as of hitting Platinum V today, I have just started seeing more players than bots, however the bots are really f--king good, so I guess fair play.

This is also one of the only remaining games where I enjoy the way they monetize it. While you still will find your Loot Boxes and similar, the only thing that is pay-to-winish is a rune-like system (think old league) that is nearly essential, but does carry over, and they offset this by making newer players naturally better and placed against more bots. I think the rest of the monetizing (being skin and event-based) is really good and still rewarding for free-2-play players (especially being the game is now free-2-play entirely). With my return I did also get the "hero returns" event which was also quite rewarding, giving me max-tier rarity items for playing the game everyday for a week. Really just the team respecting it's players and their time, I like it a lot.

I don't think it's perfect, but the gameplay being decent-to-solid and the new PvE only adding to it, it is probably the best Battle Royal I've played as 95% of other games are gunplay and aim-first, and visually lacking intrigue. I think Naraka has some major issues, but far less than it did a year ago and I only look forward to keep playing and ranking up, as well as seeing them patch and update the game more consistently.

Overall, strong recommendation for my second review.

When it comes to Battle Royales, there are only two that have ever caught my attention. Spellbreak; and Naraka Bladepoint. I remember that, on first viewing, this game looked just okay, and really, that is what I thought for the 4 seconds I saw, then never saw again... until 2022. I picked up the game and really spent a long time with it, as I was immediately hooked. The gameplay was quick and matches didn't drag on long. Most fights being more a display of timing and skill than "who had better loot". I can't wait to try it again in the future being I really enjoyed my time with it. One of the best Battle Royales I can recommend.