I think this game has become too much of a trend and meme to ignore. While Fortnite: Battle Royale has only been out for a few months, it has taken Jesuit Dallas by storm. Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about Fortnite, watching Fortnite videos, criticizing Fortnite, and even playing Fortnite through school and during free periods. It’s so popular, that it has been an actual short discussion in one of my classes. At first, I was of the small minority at Jesuit that had not played Fortnite. However, I believed if the recommendations were true, then I would love this game. So I decided to try it out.
I wanted at first to review the whole game, but then I found out that part of it requires payment and I also heard no one plays it, so I’m just reviewing the Battle Royale section. Fortnite differentiates itself from games like Rainbow Six or Player Unknown Battlegrounds(PUBG), by instead of going for gritty realism, has a cartoony art style. I love when shooters of any kind have an art style that doesn’t scream “Put me on a 4K tv!”, and the style reminded me of Team Fortress 2 but in a higher quality.
The objective essentially boils down to this. There are 100 people on the map, and your job is to be the last one standing. You can collect resources with your pickaxe ala Minecraft and find an assortment of weapons such as shotguns or rocket launchers. The materials you gather create shelters, ramps, and traps to kill your
enemies. I also was surprised by the size of the map and just how much there was to explore. To keep the battle from going on forever though, the map size decreases continuously because of “The Storm”, a purple area that depletes health when inside.
There is only one big problem that I see in Fortnite, and it doesn’t have to do with the game. Instead, I believe that it is a fad. Only a month or two ago, everybody was playing PUBG. I find that this genre of the game tends to have one game that’s really popular until a new one is played by some popular Twitch streamer.
I did not think I would like Fortnite at the beginning. I think it is because of how similar to other games of this genre it is, but I think that the art direction and building concept help Fortnite stand out.
Final Score: 7.5/10
A fun game to play on most systems, but I see it as something that won’t be popular for much longer.
Reviewed on Xbox One (Because my computer won’t run online games)
