It is insane to consider how much of the gaming culture of the past ten years has been shaped, if only partially, by Fortnite. The game started modestly but quickly grew into an enormous online sandbox where players can play as Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender and crash a sports car into a Stormtrooper outpost, then emerge and shoot Peter Griffin from Family Guy with a neon assault rifle before gliding away on a Cacodemon from Doom.
The extent to which Fortnite has shaped, at least partially, gaming culture over the past ten years is astounding. This is a humble beginning for a game that quickly grew into an enormous online sandbox where Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender can somehow smash a sports car into a Stormtrooper outpost, then emerge to shoot Peter Griffin from Family Guy with a neon assault rifle before soaring away on a giant Cacodemon from Doom.
Whether you choose to play the more conventional building-free battle royale mode, which focuses on smooth movement, powerful shooting, and entertaining vehicles, or the signature mode of Fortnite, which lets you and up to 99 other players mine resources and then magically build structures like ramps and walls for cover on the fly, the game stands out from others in the genre thanks to its abundance of extra objectives, scattering of NPCs and named locations, and in-game missions. Before the Battle Bus ever lifts off, each fight begins as you select one of the dozens of missions and objectives that give each of the roughly 15-minute rounds more meaning and direction.
Perhaps you want to complete some daily tasks to advance in your battle pass by a few levels, or maybe you want to locate a certain NPC, such as a centurion, who can assist you in combat by either selling you strong weapons and healing supplies or teaming up with you to help stack some eliminations and pursue the top spot.
Fortnite’s mission structure nimbly steers you toward engaging with its expansive, intriguingly laid-out map by sprinkling locations and quests throughout the island and naturally encouraging you to discover things off the beaten path as you run, drive, or glide from objective to objective. This is true regardless of where you choose to land on the island or why. It is more satisfying to stumble upon a character who can assist you in hiding or a vault containing extra gold that you can use to purchase goods and services from NPCs than it is to just run about collecting treasure and trying to survive as long as possible inside of a constantly dwindling safe zone.
As soon as you land, a mission or a randomly chosen match quest may precede your other goals. These missions require you to accomplish peculiar tasks, such as emoting at a designated spot or defeating an opponent with a particular kind of weapon, to accrue experience points for your battle pass. The problem, of course, is that while you are doing this, everyone else is out to get you, so you have to balance that with the need to arm yourself with weapons and healing gear.
Everyone is aware, of course, that the best of those artifacts will be found at certain locations, such as Doomstadt or The Underworld. Additionally, the knowledge of this makes such landing zones riskier to investigate because it is almost a given that you will encounter people who are torn between being bold and being foolish, which can result in feisty, no-holds-barred confrontations. However, Fortnite also allows you to play it safe, so even if you would rather land somewhere less controversial, you may still discover weapons and other useful items, like shield potions, off the usual road.
Unless you beat other players to a treasure chest or potent weapon that changes the odds in your favor, few players will, in any case, have a completely stocked and organized armory at this stage, making these early going extremely suspenseful and difficult. Sometimes that weapon is not available right away. On numerous occasions, I have landed at a hotspot only to have to use my pickaxe to gradually chip away at an opponent’s shields and health before I could even begin to loot.
This fight is far less violent than what Fortnite generally demands of you, yet it is nonetheless amusing because it is a funny side effect of you and your opponent staring each other in the eye when you realize you have no other choice except to hope that one of you wins.
Fortunately, there are plenty of weapons on the island; different kinds, suited for various circumstances, are hidden in every chest and structure. The primary weapons are somewhat standard: Although assault rifles are dependable in the majority of clashes, they are not as helpful in close-quarters combat as a shotgun or submachine gun. On the other hand, in long-range warfare, the DMR and sniper rifle outperform all others.
Epic is not scared to throw a more imaginative twist on the formula, though, and as a result, it also features a ton of awesome one-off weapons that are based on its numerous recurring events. For instance, you can use Stormtrooper blasters, Chewbacca’s bowcaster, and even a lightsaber if you are lucky enough to locate one at random on the map or beat a powerful Darth Vader NPC during the yearly Star Wars event on May 4.
You can still have fun in this battle royale even if you can not build well.
With quick keyboard commands and gamepad shortcuts that make it easy to construct a wall to defend yourself while you reload or build a ramp to aid climb a hill, Epic has made construction controls rather straightforward to understand. It is not required, though: Though I must admit that I am not a very good builder, I can see that I have managed to win without heavily relying on burying myself in metal, stone, and wood, so it is not like this battle royale cannot be enjoyed without learning that skill either.
You can either rush an opponent down with a shotgun and take them out where they thought they were safe, or you can learn to use high fire-rate weapons like SMGs or the drum gun to quickly take down their creation before sniping them through the gaps you produced.
The flow and tempo of combat are the primary differences when you join a no-construct match, which forfeits the opportunity to construct additional shields. Shootouts between players who are evenly matched in the default mode frequently continue longer because of the intense competition between the two teams to outbuild, outhead, and outshoot each other. These moments are usually suspenseful and leave me breathing a sigh of relief or frustration, depending on how I feel at the end. There are fewer hiding spots in No Build, therefore battle is significantly closer, and less room for missed shots.
These conflicts are also typically restricted to the close-quarters locations already present on the map, as constructing eliminates the need for additional cover. The winners of these fights are the ones who rush down their opponents instead of attempting to snipe them from a distance.
Verdict
Whichever version of Epic Games’ battle royale shooter Fortnite you choose, there will always be something new and exciting waiting for you, whether you are in or out of a match. You would have to strive to grow bored while playing to not be enthralled by the alluring glow and heavenly hum of a treasure chest full of loot, the distant glimmer of an opponent’s sniper sight on a ridge, a sports car in your favorite color, or an intriguing quest to finish.
And thanks to Epic’s commitment to continuous improvement, Fortnite has become one of the most well-maintained multiplayer games available, offering you the greatest upgrades possible, season after season, and chapter after chapter. Even while a new weapon, vehicle, place, or event does not always feel fantastic, there is typically something amazing to make up for it. A game of this magnitude rarely experiments takes chances, and enjoys itself so much. And while its ridiculous, extravagant crossovers with well-known video games, films, TV series, and more frequently carry a hint of corporate synergy with them, it is unquestionably exciting to team up as your favorite characters with pals and battle for that delicious Victory Royale.
