opinion: You don’t have to play Fortnite to realise that Epic Games is miles ahead of its competition.
For me, Fortnite has always been this terribly colourful Battle Royale in which children blow their pocket money on their heads so that they can then bounce through the game world dressed up as a banana and roaring. A game that I simply couldn’t take seriously – until I tried it myself out of curiosity.
Because now I know: Fortnite is quite rightly the biggest shooter on the market – and exciting even if you wouldn’t touch it with a pair of pliers. Epic is doing a lot right here that the entire industry should take a leaf out of.
Why Fortnite is a good game
Of course, it took some effort for me to install Fortnite at all – especially when I think about how I would have much preferred to continue playing my new game in Rimworld during that time. And also because many of my prejudices came true straight away: In my first team, for example, I directly encounter three screaming youths. As a person over 30, you naturally feel out of place.
After I switched to solo mode for the rest of my rounds and more or less came to terms with the comic look, I quickly realised how much fun Fortnite can be. Of course, it’s still a Battle Royale – but it’s better than the competition in so many ways.
1. telling a story in multiplayer
It’s actually hard to imagine, but Fortnite actually has a proper story that runs through all 17 Seasons of the game. To be honest, I didn’t quite understand it: it’s about secret organisations, multiverses and time loops – because somehow you have to explain why 100 players keep falling out of the sky, there are new maps regularly and Lara Croft, Superman and Ariana Grande are running around at the same time.
Even though the story is probably totally stupid, I was very impressed by the way it was presented, because as a player I get the feeling of being an important part of the story through quests. During the alien storyline, for example, I had to uncover disguised aliens with a special device, set up bioscanners or visit the alien mother ship.
The whole thing culminates at the end of the season in the really impressively staged live events, which give a satisfying conclusion to what has been experienced so far. Other online games simply can’t offer something like this or don’t manage it as well. The biggest competitor, Call of Duty: Warzone, tried it with the Reveal of Vanguard, for example. But the 50 players who shot a train to pieces with bazookas weren’t nearly as cool as what Fortnite demonstrates every few months.
But see for yourself:
2. constantly changing
Through these constant events, the gameplay also changes regularly, the games are always varied through the different season mechanics.
When I first looked in a few months ago, it was all about a huge alien invasion. I could fly over the map with UFOs and fling enemies around with the tractor beam. In the alien mother ship, there was a mini-game every round, with lots of potential loot to be won. I was able to penetrate the bases of a secret organisation, where NPC guards and even a boss were waiting for me.
And with each new season comes new, similarly elaborate features: In the following season, everything revolved around some kind of cube monsters and everywhere on the map there were suddenly portals to another dimension where I could shoot dozens of zombie-like cube monsters in a kind of horde mode.
That’s exactly the variety I miss in other Battle Royales. Okay, CoD Warzone now has a new map with planes – after a year and a half of the same map in two versions. And Apex Legends has also got a new map. But that doesn’t change the fact that I really always have the same Battle Royale routine there every round: Landing, looting, killing enemies. Fortnite is simply the more dynamic Battle Royale and offers much more in comparison.
3. offer variety
Speaking of variety: Fortnite doesn’t just have the classic Battle Royale mode. Modders can create not only new maps, but completely new game modes in the creative mode. Of course, shooter standards such as Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag can be found here in countless variations. But there are also more unusual modes that could almost pass for a completely new game.
Here are a few examples:
- A horror game in the style of Dead by Daylight, in which a player as a murderous teddy hunts down his fellow players in a gloomy mansion.
- Role-playing modes à la GTA Online RP, in which players pursue normal professions or try their hand as gangsters and police officers.
- Dozens of Tycoon Maps, where Fortnite becomes a kind of economic simulation. In Holiday Tycoon, for example, you run a toy workshop as Santa’s helper and become rich by selling toys.
- Dozens of tycoon maps in which Fortnite becomes a kind of business simulation.
4. master the core discipline
Although it shouldn’t surprise anyone, but Fornite can also convince as a shooter. It’s important to me that the weapons are well balanced and the shots land where I aim. Not like in Battlefield 2042. In Fortnite, however, that is the case. Even though I can’t master building – actually the biggest unique selling point – at all and have always found it daunting, I’ve been able to get Epic Victory several times because of it.
After all, what’s the point of my opponent being able to knock out a ten-storey mansion with a pool in two seconds if I can just burn it down with a firefly grenade and then flatten him with the assault rifle?
The weapons in Fortnite do exactly what I expect them to do: Shotguns kill in close combat with one or two bull’s-eyes, assault rifles guarantee precise hits at medium range with good aiming, and sniper rifles kill my enemies instantly with headshots, but are not overpowered either due to slow projectiles and bullet drop.
If you aim for the head in Fortnite, you’ll hit it. Fortnite is exciting for outsiders too
Yes, Fortnite may not be my game. It may not be yours either. It may be a Tiktok generation game through and through. But watching how the developers keep setting new benchmarks here and the competition can only run after them is exciting to observe, even as an outsider.
Fortnite has made the Battle Royale genre suitable for the masses. Fortnite has made the Battle Pass, which is now available in almost every free2play game, big. Only because of Fortnite is there now crossplay between PC, PlayStation and Xbox. Fortnite creates trends that all PC gamers should have on their radar. Because if Epic Games does something new here, you can be sure that other developers will soon follow suit.
