15 votes

Fortnite's new season has brought the game back to its roots

For at least a year I'd been rather disappointed with Fortnite. It kept appealing to the lowest common denominator and the game that I fell in love with in the end of season 2 (which is almost two years ago) kept changing for the worse. It became less of a Battle Royale game and more of a playground where you never knew what you were gonna get. It kept getting worse through the seasons and I played it less and less. So during season 9 I was only barely hanging on - and once season 10 launched with even more proverbial bullshit, I finally decided to uninstall the game. That was in the beginning of August and I never looked back for a second - I was done with it!

With Chapter 2 however (season 11), it's back to basics. The many weapons have been trimmed and there are only very few left - and none of the crazy ones. It's simpler and easier to navigate, and all the vehicles and movement mechanics have also been scrapped almost entirely. There are no more hover boards, ATVs, golf carts, airplanes, jump pads, rifts, etc. There's a harmless boat, and that's it! So when I saw the trailer for this new version of Fortnite, I reinstalled the game immediately. I've played 9 games now and this is the version I fell in love with - if not better! It's so good in its simplicity. The mechanics with building and whatnot have stayed the same, but the gameplay itself is much improved. It went from chaotic and action-packed to feeling more like a survival game. And the aesthetic of the new map is also just beautiful.

I'm no game reviewer but I thought that this overhaul of a pretty massive game is worth talking about!

Edit: not to mention the marketing stunt they pulled before launching this new version of the game was insanely clever. It made headlines all over the world, they even talked about it on the evening news here in little ol' Denmark!

5 comments

  1. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. smoontjes
      Link Parent
      You're probably right and I think they're going to ramp things back up again too. I just hope not. All the craziness genuinely ruined the game for me and I reckon I'm not the only one - however,...

      You're probably right and I think they're going to ramp things back up again too. I just hope not. All the craziness genuinely ruined the game for me and I reckon I'm not the only one - however, they do have a target audience that's younger than me and I guess that audience enjoys all the crazy parts.

      Either way, I would definitely recommend trying it again! It's quite a different game now.

      4 votes
  2. [2]
    babypuncher
    Link
    Have they made the gunplay good yet? I last tried the game about two years ago and was rather shocked that the studio behind Unreal Tournament and Gears of War put out a shooter with such...

    Have they made the gunplay good yet? I last tried the game about two years ago and was rather shocked that the studio behind Unreal Tournament and Gears of War put out a shooter with such lackluster feeling guns.

    Apex Legends is the only Battle Royale I've played so far that seems to get this key component of a shooter right.

    4 votes
    1. smoontjes
      Link Parent
      Gunplay has definitely improved since then. There is still a lot of randomness if you fire continuously, but if you stay still for a second (or half a second) you will be able to get a 100% hit...

      Gunplay has definitely improved since then. There is still a lot of randomness if you fire continuously, but if you stay still for a second (or half a second) you will be able to get a 100% hit with your first shot. The gunplay leaves a lot to be desired though, in terms of shooting mechanics - I would love to see CS:GO style spray patterns in Fortnite. You do need to be able to aim and shoot in order to get good, but you also need to be able to build properly. You can shoot amazingly well but you'll never get truly good until you learn how to build as that's the only mechanic in the game that is 100% reliant on skill and 0% random.

      1 vote
  3. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. smoontjes
      Link Parent
      There isn't really a story beyond some events that happen when each season begins/ends. The seasons are more like a subscription of sorts, and a new season starts about every 2 months. The...

      There isn't really a story beyond some events that happen when each season begins/ends. The seasons are more like a subscription of sorts, and a new season starts about every 2 months. The subscription includes a lot of rewards that you can earn through challenges, like new characters and outfits for those models - everything is strictly cosmetic though. The challenges entail for example killing X amount of players with a pistol, do Y amount of damage with an assault rifle, search Z amount of chests in however many areas. And progress is saved from battle to battle so that's how that works :)

      5 votes
    2. DanBC
      Link Parent
      The "seasons" are mostly aimed at creating a game that anyone can play without getting instantly owned by the handful of people who spend all day everyday practising....

      The "seasons" are mostly aimed at creating a game that anyone can play without getting instantly owned by the handful of people who spend all day everyday practising.

      https://www.eurogamer.net/amp/2019-04-27-epic-on-fortnites-unique-balancing-act-and-why-siphon-made-90-percent-of-players-play-less

      2 votes