Fortnite Battle Royale, a game developed by Epic Games, had record-breaking player numbers last season. On one record-breaking day, 45 million players logged back into Fortnite just to feel the rush of nostalgia that the OG season brought. The update brought back the rush I felt when I was in 6th grade playing Fortnite, and I have never had a better experience playing Fortnite than the time during the OG season. Now that it’s come to an end I wondered: would the upcoming season be able to bring back this experience?
Like all seasons, a new season means a new battle pass with hundreds of cool cosmetics that are unlockable as you play. This season’s battle pass includes multiple skins, the most notable of them being iconic comedy pop-culture figure Peter Griffin from Family Guy, as well as a Solid Snake secret skin. There are also some pretty cool dances and emoticons but overall, other than Peter Griffin, the battle pass wasn’t doing it for me. I didn’t notice anything too unique about the other skins so I didn’t like them that much. I appreciated the skins that weren’t collaborations more in the OG Season.
The main experience that Fortnite has to offer is the Battle Royale game mode. While this was the highlight of the OG season, it isn’t in Chapter 5 Season 1. The main problem that the new Battle Royale experience has is the fact that they completely changed the way you move. Now, while playing, you can run out of stamina and be forced to start walking. This has cost me the game a couple of times, so I dislike this change.
The map is also pretty lackluster. All of the points of interest are mediocre at best, the only cool change to the map is the train. However, I consider this pretty tame, considering what we have had in the past. The only somewhat redeeming feature that the Battle Royale experience provides is the loot pool. They added a cool grapple weapon, which you can use to get on top of someone’s builds. They also added a riot shield and weapon mods, which make the way you fight much cooler. Overall, the Battle Royale experience isn’t nearly as fun and I would consider it a downgrade.
Fortnite contains many other experiences which include a limited time mode and creative game modes. Ever since Fortnite’s creative engine evolved into something like Unreal Engine, a game-making software, the creative game modes have become extremely polished. Other than creative and the limited-time game modes, the new season has introduced 3 new ways to play: Rocket Racing, The Festival, and the LEGO mode.
Rocket Racing is a racing game but put into Fortnite graphics. It contains many cosmetic cars that you can buy, which I find pretty cool. I think the prices are a bit extreme though. The game mode itself is really fun. The first time I played I did pretty bad, but after looking at the controls I started to get the hang of it. I think the game is pretty easy to grasp and engaging enough to hold your attention.
The Festival is a music-based game where you press buttons to the rhythm of music. The best part about this game mode is that you can play actual songs. The genres of music range from pop to hip-hop. You do have to use virtual currency to purchase these songs but all the available songs are cycled each week so if you time it right, you can play the songs you like without paying for them. Fortnite even collaborated with artists Eminem and The Weeknd for this game mode. Now you can play as both of these characters in any game mode. Although I find the game mode very challenging because I am not very coordinated, it is undeniably entertaining. I often found myself nodding my head to the music while playing.
Last but not least is the LEGO game mode, which has been highly anticipated ever since the event at the end of the OG season. I was very excited to play this mode because it looked awesome to play a LEGO game with all of the Fortnite characters. Upon choosing the game mode I found that many Fortnite skins that you may already have were given LEGO variants. I think this is great because instead of going and buying LEGO skins, you are given some for free just for owning the skins previously. Gameplay wise, it’s pretty easy to say I was disappointed. I felt like there wasn’t much to do. The game has a Minecraft vibe, except there aren’t nearly as many things to do. I found myself spending most of my time harvesting, which made the game mode pretty repetitive. It is a fun concept but it definitely needs to be revisited and updated.
Overall, The Battle Royale game mode and the battle pass were lacking in multiple areas. I also thought the LEGO game mode wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be. The Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing were the highlight of the season’s additions, so I recommend that if you want to try anything out, you should start with those two. Overall, I believe a 6/10 is a deserving score for the season.
