REVIEW | Fortnite: Battle Royale (Version 5.20)
Written by Michael Richardson
Published 17 August 2018
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All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Opinions expressed in this review are of the reviewer alone.
Game Copyright 2017 Epic Games Inc.
Available on PS4, X1, NS, iOS, macOS, Windows
Reviewed on NS
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Victory Royale
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One hundred and twenty-five million active players. Millions of dollars in prize money. Six current platforms. Cross platform and free to play. Needless to say, Epic Games’ Fortnite has taken the world by storm. To put that into perspective, Fortnites’ popularity soared so rapidly in my high school that within days the game went from seldom mention into long conversations among many students in study hall. Hearing so much about Fortnite, I wanted to give it a try and immediately downloaded the game for the Nintendo Switch after it was announced for the platform. Even after spending eighty hours looting, building, and shooting, Fortnites’ superb and strategic gameplay experience keeps me coming back for more despite an unoptimized Switch performance.
Epic Clashes
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In Fortnite, players fight alone, with friends, or with strangers against ninety nine other individuals and a shrinking play area to to be the last one standing at the end of a match. Matches start by skydiving from the battle bus onto an area of your choosing. Players are only given an axe upon landing, which deals minimal damage but salvages materials. Up to nine hundred and ninety-nine wood, brick, and metal can be separately collected to build structures. Building feels incredibly versatile and fun, with offensive and defensive capabilities that prove essential for survival. Along with crafting staircases or tall structures, materials can be edited by the touch of a button to best fit scenarios, such as a partially open wall or rotating staircase. The varied crafting options opens up many options for combat that I found enjoyable. Attempting to flank or outsmart opponents with materials was some of the most stressful and fun times I have had playing, but like all aspects of Fortnite building rarely feels one sided because, apart from playing with friends on different platforms, you have the option to only play with players on your console. Furthermore, I found building in Fortnite to not only be fun, but intuitive in the ways it opens up a wealth of possibilities for traversal and combat.
However, materials are not the only weapons at a player’s disposal. Fortnite successfully utilizes its varied arsenal to allow for satisfying and balanced combat. Whether it be firearms such as assault rifles, snipers, shotguns, grenades, rpgs, or bouncers and spike traps they all control well and justify combat use. All firearms have a corresponding rarity, ranging from common to epic, that incorporate improved attributes such as damage per second and fire rate the more rare the item. Additionally, while players only start the game with one hundred health, healing items such as bandages and shields can be obtained, the latter of which improves armor allowing players up to two-hundred health. Because only five items can be carried at a time, each match feels different, limiting, and balanced since weapon drops are random. Therefore, players are seldom able to spam high powered weaponry. Additionally, since players accumulate damage inside the increasingly growing storm, Fortnite mandates a system of constant momentum that allows for little down time. As a result, choosing which weapon to equip is vital and changes per scenario. If you intend on maintaining high ground, have a sniper. If footsteps are nearby, take out a shotgun. Combined with building and shooting, fights are often riveting, and underlying pressure that one mistake could be fatal makes every successful hit energize. Furthermore, I really liked the limitations Fortnite presents the player with which makes decisions constant and feel important.
While the combat and building mechanics are superb, Fortnites’ biggest strength lies in its map design. Even though the map is sprawling, it feels dense enough to warrant one hundred players. Locations vary with unique topography, biomes, or loot concentration. From the busting warzone of Tilted Towers, to the scorching desert of Paradise Palms, to the sparsely populated Haunted Hills, I enjoyed the variety and look forward to what Epic Games changes with upcoming seasons. Also, with areas being so close to each other, player's seldom walk in dull environments for minutes at a time. Traversal also benefits from faster methods of locomotion, the shopping carts and all terrain vehicles, which offer a shocking amount of excitement.
Fortnite refreshingly exudes color and vibrancy unlike numerous modern shooters, allowing areas and players to stand out. Character models animate well, sound effects are top notch, and the game permeates itself with personality and charm, especially with the humorous emotes. And while the game includes few compositions, Fornites’ successful execution of isolation never had me wishing for music. Hearing the approaching storm, gunshots or footsteps immediately ramps up tension and succeeds in making the player hesitate after not encountering another player for a while. Therefore, once you do succeed after fighting for upwards of fifteen minutes, it feels all the greater. Furthermore, Epic absolutely nailed Fortnites’ map design with dense environments and a sublime audio and visual presentation that leaves me excited for how the map will change with future seasons.
However, Fortnites’ presentation struggles on Nintendo Switch. While the game still pops, and the user interface and matchmaking is fast and smooth even with friends on different platforms, performance is anything but. The game hardly maintains thirty frames per second in docked or handheld mode, and textures often take seconds to load after landing which restricts going into buildings, wasting valuable seconds. Given that Fortnite runs on Unreal Engine which supports dynamic resolution, it baffles me why Epic did not prioritize sixty frames per second while incorporating a dynamic resolution similarly successful to Splatoon 2. Sixty frames is essential in a shooter and puts lagging players at a severe disadvantage, particularly Switch players versus PC. To add to the irritation, motion controls are often unresponsive and fail to recognize subtle gestures, likely because the controls are centered on a grid, making it so the feature is better off untouched. The only positive aspect regarding Fortnites’ Switch performance was that it never crashed in my experience, but that's it. Furthermore, Switch optimization to ensure a steady sixty frames per second and improved motion controls would have greatly benefited and balanced the experience.
While entirely optional, I want to point out Fortnites’ overpriced microtransactions. While the game thankfully solely includes cosmetic purchases instead of pay to play gambling, Epic ruins the system with overpriced skins that range upwards of twenty dollars. Given that cosmetics are the only items available to buy in Fortnite, it is disappointing that they did not supplement the shop with other substantial purchases such as a campaign mode. As it stands, there is little incentive to buy cosmetics because of expensive, game-level purchases for cosmetics. It truly bewilders why players support greedy and passive microtransactions, which makes me fearful for what other companies will charge next for insubstantial purchases. After all, why should I pay for a twenty dollar cosmetic when I can spend the same amount for the excellent Celeste, Steamworld Dig 2, or INSIDE? This is not too say the cosmetics themselves are lifeless, because they are unique, colorful, and well designed. Moreover, less expensive cosmetics would have ensured more value proposition and had me more interested in the cosmetics.
While battle royale is the main attraction in Fortnite and rightfully so, supplementary modes such as save the world and periodic events such as fly explosives change up rulesets weekly. These modes offer variety into the game and kept me coming back to see what different ones would pop up. While they all get stale after a few matches, they are a novel addition and appreciated nonetheless.
Verdict
It feels like every summer since 2015 with Splatoon, some new multiplayer game comes along that grips me at least until school starts. Fortnite: Battle Royale was my 2018 summer game. With a varied arsenal, great building mechanics, thrilling fights, sublime art direction, and memorable map, Epic Games proved to me what makes their battle royale so special and popular. Especially with friends, you will not find a more chaotic and stressful multiplayer game out there. Whenever I got a victory royale, I literally screamed in joy to the point where I lost my voice, and that should absolutely be commended.
If you are a non-Switch player that has not experienced Fortnite yet, download it immediately. It might captivate you in ways few other multiplayer games do, and given its free to play nature, there is little to lose barring you are not one for overpriced cosmetics. On the other hand, if you are a Switch player willing to deal with an unoptimized performance than give Fortnite a try. Granted, that might be more forgivable in single player games, but lacking a smooth sixty frames per second really is detrimental to a multiplayer experience. If Epic resolves issues with performance and motion controls only then will I recommend the Switch version. The platform is great for multiplayer games with the ability to play anywhere and it's a shame Epic has not fully capitalized on the opportunity yet. As it stands, Fortnite is one of the best modern multiplayer experiences that will likely dominate the household as long as Epic supports the game. It is a shining example of how to create a blockbuster genre that frequently invites players back for just one more victory.
