Essentially a building expansion for Playerunknown’s

Max Schomber, Staff Reporter
Originally Published March 30, 2018

Epic Games was not the only company to jump on the battle royale hype train with their release of the free to play “Fortnite: Battle Royale” on July 5, 2017, they just seemingly did it the best as evident by the game’s massive following.

It seems as though games in the battle royale format, like “Fortnite,” are all the rage these days, and if a game doesn’t have one of these modes then it’s meant for casual players. The game also proves that releases don’t have to be unique to soar to mainstream popularity.

There’s no real story in the game’s battle royale mode. 100 players jump out of a flying battle bus and fight to the death using whatever weapons and items they can find in a shrinking play area. This premise is ripped straight out of Bluehole Studios’ “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds” without anything changed in the slightest.

While it doesn’t have anything unique in premise, “Fortnite” has several differences in gameplay, such as its building mechanic. This ability allows players to quickly build platforms and walls around the arena provided that they have enough resources, which can allow for tactical play and chaotic firefights.

The setting less based in realism also grants “Fortnite” freedoms that other games like it do not, such as using outlandish items and cartoonish areas. This change in realism is nice for those less than enthusiastic about such dark and harsh settings often seen in other battle royale titles.

Despite these differences, however, “Fortnite” still feels just like another standard battle royale title. During my time playing I couldn’t stop thinking about how similar the game is to “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds.”

“Fortnite” suffers many of the same problems of other battle royale games, such as the poor matchmaking and little instruction on playing the game. This combination allows someone who has never played a shooter game in their life to be matched with someone who has locked in hundreds of hours in the game. Without any knowledge on the game they will die repeatedly, give up and stop playing for good.

Despite these glaring flaws in the game, there is still hope for improvement. Updates are frequent,  Fortnite” is still in early access and somehow it is more functional than many other fully-released games on the market.

The popularity of this game can be attributed to its genre, and it rose to such heights due to being essentially a free “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds.” I can’t state enough how the game needs something more than the building feature to make it something really unique, as well as rewarding the player for actually playing.

To be quite frank, “Fortnite” is really everything wrong with the modern gaming industry. It has everything you would expect out of a notorious Electronic Arts’ release, a distinct lack of originality and everyone’s favorite microtransactions. I would wait to give this glorified mobile game any space on your computer or console until they bother to program something truly unique or worthwhile.