FORTNITE
Minecraft meets The Walking Dead in Epic’s team shooter
Format PS ETA 25 Jul Pub Epic Games Dev Epic Games/People Can Fly
Epic Games’ heritage on PlayStation is one of nimble and simple shooters, with games such as Unreal Tournament built around the thrill of hammering a trigger. However, this survival game curiosity takes Epic and its long-time collaborator, Polish Bulletstorm dev People Can Fly, in a new direction. It’s a mashup that has you and up to three friends defending yourselves from zombies by mining materials and building shelters.
This may all sound mad, but as we watch the veteran developer unleash a torrent of ideas, it becomes clear why it deserves a spot on this list.
ERECT DEFENCE
The rounds we play are split into three distinct stages. The first is devoted to exploration and resource gathering – ’cos you’ve got to build your sturdy defences out of something. This involves a scavenger hunt through procedurally generated worlds to harvest parts to build grand traps and structures by whacking things with a pickaxe. So yes, it’s a bit like Minecraft in that sense, and it only gets more so when you move onto the next stage – actually building your fort.
With an easy-to-grasp controller setup, constructing your defences against the army of colourful cartoon monsters is surprisingly painless. Just tap w to go into build mode, find the piece you need in the quick menu and hit i to get your amateur architect groove on. It’s so simple to pick up, it takes about as long as popping off a few headshots.
And headshots are what the the final stage of a mission focuses on. As the undead start to swarm, you can either retreat into your fort and let them wander into the traps you’ve set up, tower defence-style, or take the fight to them thanks to some fast and zippy shooting using weapons that include a rapid-firing Gatling gun and a massive hammer. Personally, we prefer making sure the drooling zoms don’t sully our gorgeous creations.
With paid early access coming to PS4 later this month, followed by a free-toplay release next year, you can decide how long you want to wait for Fortnite. The undead can wait forever.