FORTNITE – BATTLE ROYALE
If you’re going to steal, do it from the best
Outside of the world of PlayStation, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a Steam Early Access phenomenon. In it, 100 players parachute onto an island to fight until there’s only one left breathing. To ensure wusses don’t hover at the edges, letting everyone else do the dirty work, a blue sphere slowly shrinks around the map. On the wrong side of it? Good night and thanks for trying. Fortnite, Epic’s zombie-shooter-meets-building-sim, lifts this framework and slaps it as a free to play experience on PS4.
It’s a naughty but shrewd move by Epic, as this gives Fortnite’s complex systems some much-needed purpose. The building mechanics are now much tenser, as they split your attention between getting up a wall and scanning the environment for danger. The same goes for harvesting resources, where using your pickaxe to gather materials makes an uncomfortable amount of noise. Instead of the base game’s waves of bland zombies, there’s a real sense of danger when it comes to getting into firefights, which suits the hefty handling of weapons. You can’t pray ‘n’ spray your way out of encounters here. Basically, if Fortnite’s first mode is inventive but boringly complex, Battle Royale is a fun knock-off. While PUBG players won’t be swayed, newbies and the curious should try this.
IT’S A NAUGHTY BUT SHREWD MOVE, AS THIS GIVES EPIC’S COMPLEX SYSTEMS MUCH-NEEDED PURPOSE.