Fortnite: Battle Royale was once the favorite game of MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn. However, he stayed away from the game for a long time and has now checked back in after many months. But what was once a colorful battle royale now feels more like an MMORPG to him. And it evokes mixed feelings.
How long has it been since Jürgen was last in Fortnite? When Season 4 of Chapter 2 launched on the servers in August 2020, I decided to play Fortnite again. My favorite Marvel hero Thor was in it, and I didn’t want to miss out. However, it remained just a quick visit because I had other priorities in my games and preferred generally faster battle royale shooters without building. Like Apex Legends, which is still rocking hard in the current season.
Fortnite, on the other hand, felt increasingly outdated and sluggish back then and could no longer captivate me like it did at launch.
Nevertheless, about 9 months after my last visit to Fortnite, I wanted to check it out again. But this time the return turned out to be rather bizarre, as I do not recognize “my” game anymore.
Colorful Chaos, Dead Bananas, and Annoying Shop
This is how my return began: Shortly after starting Fortnite, it gets quite confusing. There is a bizarre trailer for an event in Season 6 of Chapter 2 that makes me think several times, “WTF, what is this?”.
The banana buddy Jonesy, whom I still remember, flies towards a kind of tower, and then a lot happens all at once. Suddenly, Xenomorphs from Alien, Terminator robots, the Predator, and the poor Banana Schali appears, who is then brutally crushed by Ryu from Street Fighter. Um… yeah?
After that, the asteroid known from the early Fortnite days falls from the sky, and again a strange space guy emerges from it, doing something. What the hell is going on? I catch myself saying, “I’m too old for this shit.”.
Here’s how it continued: Seamlessly following this chaos video, a mission starts, which I accidentally cancel, because the damn cat jumps on the reset button again! Bad Cleo, out!
After restarting the system and the cat safety, I immediately arrive at the menu selection, and everything looks different from what I remember. I have to search for a while before I can even get to the main menu and make it clear to the game that I don’t want to buy either the battle pass, or any bizarre Batman special skins or anything else.
The shop was not as intrusive last year. I just want to play!
Fortnite 2021 – Is it still a Battle Royale?
So many quests: I intentionally read nothing about the current Season 6 in Fortnite to experience the pure newcomer experience. At first, however, it turns out to be a great confusion. Already in the main menu, I am bombarded with a bunch of tasks. Every idiot seems to want something from me. “Hit X items with the hammer on the weak point”, one guy demands. Another dude wants ten headshots, and yet another demands that I heal myself while in the storm. Sure…
Well, I still remember the weekly challenges from my old Fortnite days, but they were not so intrusive and annoying back then. The sheer number of quests overwhelms me. I really just want to play!
That was my first session: At some point, I pull myself away from the endless list of quests and start a solo round. Luckily, my beloved Thor skin along with the hammer is still there. I land somewhere on the unfamiliar but strangely familiar map and search for the first weapons.
They are surprisingly familiar as well. The current season seems to have a kind of retro theme; I find old favorites like the pump shotgun and the old submachine gun.
With that, I harvest bloody yields among the opponents. They are – as I still remember from my visit nine months ago – mostly dumb bots that can’t do anything. They are so predictable that I just have to stand still and wait until they do their obligatory dodge jump. Meanwhile, they regularly shoot in the air above me, and when they land again, I land a perfect headshot with the pump. Every time!
Since there is no danger from these opponents, I disregard all caution and just wander around aimlessly, exploring the map. I really like that now you have to explore the hot spots before they become visible on the map. Exploring is simply fun.
Quests in a Battle Royale? But the annoying NPCs who want to peddle me numerous quests in the main menu are apparently also in the game now. Seriously, a farmer chases me in a farm wanting to give me some quest! But I don’t want to! I want to shoot opponents, not complete some nonsense for farmer buddies.
But the guy keeps following me, and I run into a pigsty, where I am attacked by the hog! Die, you pigs! Meanwhile, a bot comes along and wants to see what’s happening too. He almost gets me because I’m dealing with the pig gang. But the tried-and-true “do-nothing-and-give-headshot” tactic works narrowly here too, and I win again.
But the quest givers keep appearing, and I finally avoid places where I can see the icons of these annoying fellows. It may well be that the quests unlock something cool, but honestly, I primarily just want to shoot and kill opponents in a battle royale shooter. Not read and follow some tasks.
They only mask a problem that Fortnite has always had: Boredom in the mid-game. Because I still run for minutes through the countryside and encounter no one. Sure, I could do quests now, but if I want to complete annoying collection tasks, I’ll play an MMORPG and grind leisurely. A battle royale game is, for me, a genre that’s all about excitement and nerve-wracking action, and unfortunately, those MMORPG elements do not help me at all.
In the right moments, Fortnite is still fun!
Is Fortnite a bad game for Jürgen now? No, because after the dry spell in the mid-game, it becomes really exciting in the endgame as usual. The zone is now small enough that the last scattered opponents inevitably come together.
And things get really intense. The last opponents – perhaps they weren’t even bots anymore – build absurd fortresses like crazy and provide me with a tough battle. I still refuse to build. I’ve never warmed up to that in Fortnite. My opponents build like crazy, but I blow their fortress to bits, and my opponents fall one after the other, receiving a few loads of buckshot.
So I win my very first round after 9 months of absence with an epic victory. Wow! In the end, all of this turned out to be more fun than I initially thought. I think I will give Fortnite a few more chances. As a colorful alternative to Apex Legends, it’s definitely fun, and I will have to take a closer look at the quests and NPCs. I’m kind of curious about it, even though I still prefer to play my battle royale games as shooters rather than MMORPGs.
Do you feel addressed by my text or do you see it differently? Then write it in the comments! And if you – like me – want to start playing Fortnite again, you will surely like our article for new Fortnite beginners. Read here if it’s worth starting in the colorful battle royale Fortnite in 2021. Have fun!
