Game review: Fortnite

« Fortnite » is a mashup of a third-person shooter and a sandbox survival game which also includes creating fast buildings. It was developed by « Epic Games » and built with « Unreal engine 4 ». The game provides the players with two gameplay modes, « Save the world », which is a co-op sandbox survival PVE (Player Versus Environment) campaign, and « battle royale », which is a « last man standing » multiplayer mode. The second mode was added later and can be played separately from the base game for free.

The player base has gotten quite high since its release. The graphics, unlike other games built with « Unreal engine 4 », aren’t realistic. In fact, they’re quite cartoon-ish and funny making the game quite unique given that this age is all about ultra-realistic games.

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. « The storm », which turned almost all humans into man-eating zombies called « Husks » (they wear their victims as hoodies).

In the « save the world » mode, the player is meant to explore the map, scavenge for items, craft weapons and build fortified buildings at day, then fight relentless waves of zombies at night and complete quests to complete the storyline. There are four classes that can be played: Commando, Ninja, Constructor, or Scavenger, each having its own unique characteristics. It’s worth mentioning that the base game is not free to play, the prices range from 40$ to 150$ and that’s what made the « battle royal » mode shine given that it’s free to play.

The « battle royal » mode is quite similar to a recently released game named « PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds », simply known as « PUBG ». There can be up to 100 players playing either « Solo » or as a « Squad » (a party with a maximum of 4 players). At the start of the matchup, the players land in a place of their choice where they can start looting weapons (sniper rifles, shotguns, grenades, etc…). These weapons are characterized by a level of rarity that affects the damage inflicted. They also have to collect resources just like the in the first mode (bricks, wood, bandages for healing, ammo). After a while, « the Storm » starts limiting the area of the map. Anyone standing outside of the safe zone (basically the eye of the storm) will keep taking damage over time and eventually die. The main goal of the player is to be the last man standing.

This mode, as stated earlier, can be played for free and it is absolutely worth a try, especially when playing as a « squad », even though players seem to be complaining about the weird update system implemented at the moment, which seems to download much more than the update requires. But if you’re willing to overlook that problem, the game won’t disappoint you.

My personal rating:
Graphics: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Fun: 5/5

Hamza Kchok