Have you been reading or playing video games in the past months? If you're reading this you probably have. This means, you’ve probably heard of Fortnite. The Game was Developed by the creators of the Gears of War series: Epic Games. The Epic Games shooter-survival game has introduced a brand-new perspective on the Battle Royale genre. Fortnite:Battle Royale is a free-to-play online PvP game that was initially released back in 2017.
The publishers (Epic Games) initially released the ‘Save the World’ game mode which retailed at $42.99. The main objective of the gamemode was to fortify a base and defend it from the enemy zombies. As the player levels up, the zombies become harder to kill, however, your guns upgrade as well. The mode did not have much success as it was similar too any zombies game. The developers later added some more missions to the gamemode: defend the atlas, secure the van, and homebase defendings. The objective of ‘defend the atlas’ was to defend a ball of light by building around it and attempting to keep the zombies away from it. ‘Secure the van’ had an objective of again, building around the van and securing it from zombies. Lastly, the objective of ‘homebase’ was an updated version of the initial game which was to fortify your base and defend it from zombies. Unfortunately, this did not gain Epic Games the traction they were expecting. That's when everything changed. Epic Games saw the success the Battle Royale genre was having, especially PUBG; a Battle Royale game where 100 player would jump out of a plane and land somewhere on the map, they would have to loot-up and med-up and from there, it’s essentially a last-man-standing game. Epic Games decided to release a Battle royale game mode later that year.
Fortnite:Battle Royale. A co-op PvP game where, just like PUBG, 100 player would jump out a flying bus and somewhere onto the map and again, they loot and med up, and every man for himself. Last-man-standing would receive a ‘victory royale’ which is nothing more than a stat. However, although it very much alike to PUBG there was one difference, it's a free gamemode. This makes an ideal jumping off point if you have been wanting to play the Battle Royale genre but were hesitant to invest into PUBG, which retails at $50. Epic Games also added the building feature which allows you to essentially, build. Building helps defend your character from getting shot and taking damage, it also helps with getting to hard-to-reach places where your character couldn't jump up to. I strongly believe that Fortnite will continue to gain more popularity than PUBG over they years and, personally, I prefer Fortnite. Fortunately, this time Epic Games acquired great success as the game went on to have over 125 million users, granted some are bots but for the most part, real players.
Nowadays, the game has gained so much positive attention that there are ESport Tournaments hosted with the winner winning a large sum of money. Tournament examples are, but not limited to: PAX, Ninja: Las Vegas, Pro Am and many more. The latest tournament hosted was ‘PAX West’, a Fornite tournament with over $1.5 million dollars in winnings. The winner, Morgausse, won over $200,000!
Overall, the game has been a great success and it seems as Fortnite will remain popular for many years to come.
Written by Zaid Al-Obaidi
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