Adventures in Fortnite

Yup, you read that right. I’ve been playing Fortnite. I know, it surprised me too. But the world is a confusing and frightening place, so here we are.

Fortnite has never appealed to me for two major reasons: the first being the signature “Build” mode. In the words of my blogging bestie, Kate, “I don’t want to deal with 6 year-olds building apartment complexes in my face.” And you know what? Same. This element of gameplay has never seemed fun to me personally – its a lot to juggle for my three brain cells (on top of actually trying to shoot people) and the act of building itself just didn’t seem particularly entertaining. The second, and more obvious issue for me, was the shooting. Unfortunate, I know. Any kind of game that involved guns (whether it was Medal of Honor or Uncharted) was my go-to when I was a teenager. But I hit a certain point, and that genre just didn’t appeal to me anymore. I’ve since moved away from this style of game. This is my formal way of explaining that I don’t play shooting games at all anymore, and my aim is probably on par with a legally blind Stormtrooper. The struggle is real, and I do feel bad about myself. But as with many multiplayer games I’ve played lately, the power of friendship has helped me transcend my self-doubt and try things that I’d never otherwise consider.

Thankfully, my friends were happy to explain how the game works to me, and show me the ropes. I wasn’t entirely aware of everything you could do in Fortnite – beyond shooting people and Flossing on their corpses, that is. But there’s a surprising amount of stuff to do. You can fish, you can drive around in cars or on a bike to cause mayhem or perform some stunts, and there are even certain locations where you can defeat a gaggle of NPC’s to steal their keys to a nearby vault, and earn yourself some nice loot. Fortnite has a bunch of these kinds of events to shake up gameplay, and they’re all quite smart, because they’re always designed with the roots of Battle Royale in mind – they’re meant to incentivize players to come together, which means you have to weigh the risk versus reward of going head to head with other players. If you’re feeling spicy (or just a lot more confident in your skills than I am), you can try to capture the flag at a specific locale, or grab a weapons cache which alerts other players to your presence. Sure, you’ll get some great weapons, but you might get jumped by Eren Yeager with an explosive assault rifle, who also wants a piece of that sweet weapon pie. C’est la vie. My favourite of these “events” is probably the loot island – this floating island has both a vault full of goodies, and a flag to capture. So as you might expect, this island attracts players like throwing a french fry in a parking lot full of seagulls. You will have to fight for your life.

But another one of my favourite things about Fortnite is the fact that you don’t have to fight for your life if you don’t want to. This game is quite forgiving (possibly due to the fact that their fanbase skews younger) and given the fact that I am babby, this was a pleasant surprise. I appreciate the fact that you can engage as much or as little as you want. You can approach the game with a much stealthier style, or, you can drop in the more popular areas and enjoy a guns-blazing, maximum-sweat-shoot-out from the minute the game starts. When I’m playing solo, I definitely don’t seek out any fights, and I try to avoid other players as much as I can until the last 25 or so remain. I feel a tad more confident while playing in a squad, and I’ll be a bit more brazen – not only because I know my friends can carry me while I fail to do anything useful, but because if I do end up dying, I can be Rebooted and continue playing. This is a great feature while playing in duos, trios, and quads; if you get knocked down, you get back up again, so to speak. Your friends can revive you before your health completely drains away (a process that takes about 10 seconds), but if you’re killed outright, they can still pick up your Reboot Card, and carry it to a Reboot Van to bring you back. Of course this comes with a risk, as you’re likely to be attacked while at the van, but saving the homies is always worth the danger (this opinion is not based on the fact that I’m the one who is dead 90% of the time).

I wouldn’t normally talk about a game’s monetization, but I did want to address this one briefly: the way that Fortnite handles its in-game exchanges is super smart. The currency within the world of Fornite is called V-bucks, which you can use to purchase emotes, skins, gliders, harvesting tools, and more. Fortnite‘s store has new daily content, which refreshes every 24 hours, as well as items for purchase that will stay in-store for a more extended period of time. The daily refresh obviously plays on the concept of limited time availability – if you see something you want, you better pick it up ASAP, or else it will disappear for who knows how long. Things do rotate back, but it might take weeks or months to return. From a business perspective, it’s a smart way to encourage players to spend money on the game, but it’s also a fun way to get your audience engaged. Hey, it’s 8pm and the store has refreshed – better go check it out! I feel very bad for any parents who have young children obsessed with this game – I’m sure they have to deal with a lot of “but mom, it’s a SHARK GLIDER with a LASER BEAM attached to its head!”

Of course, there’s also the Battle Pass, which I’ve paid for. Feel free to judge me. But in my defense – it’s the equivalent of about $10 here in the Great White North, and not only will you get 100% of that investment back, you also get access to items, skins, etc. that are exclusive to the Pass. Again, the game is pretty smart about incentivizing players to invest here. At set levels, which you reach by getting EXP from matches, completing quests, and generally just playing the game, you’ll get access to a new page of the Pass – on each page, there are items available to buy for Stars (which you also earn by leveling up). Even when you haven’t purchased the Battle Pass, the game will still reward you with “Stars,” AKA, the currency which nets you items and skins within the Pass. Look at all these Stars you’re collecting, says Fortnite. Don’t you want to put them to use? You might as well, right? Sigh. All right, you’ve sold me. I am nothing if not a sucker for customization options in a game.

Anyway, one of the items on each new page of the pass is just straight up V-bucks, which you can use on whatever your heart desires. Anything in the store, or even additional “free” levels in the Battle Pass, to alleviate some of the grind if you haven’t been playing as much. For the amount I’ve been playing (i.e. obsessively) I feel like I’ve gotten a fantastic amount of value from it. I’d even consider getting the Battle Pass again next season, simply because of the nature of these rewards. I’m getting more customization options (which, lets be honest, is the real reason I’m here) and more “value” for the amount of hours that I’m spending on the game. It’s kind of a win-win for me. Curse you, Fortnite.

This game really has been a unique experience for me, which I’m sure is old news to anyone who has played this before. I wholeheartedly apologize for my past snobbery in regards to Fortnite, I really played myself. But beyond the smart (i.e. annoyingly tempting) monetization style and genuinely entertaining gameplay, as always with multiplayer games, the real fun here is getting to play with friends. Whether it’s Kate and her partner, Eric, who hype me up constantly and make me feel like I’m not a total scrub, or Ash, who manages to be a goddess Gamer Grill™ at whatever she plays (I wish I had her skills), or Cotie who is always amazingly positive, and will cheerfully tell me I’m doing a great job even when I’m objectively Not Doing a Great Job. Or my boyfriend, who insists he enjoys playing with me, even though I let him down constantly. Or my other blogging pals, Nathan from GamingOmnivore and his lovely wife, Jenna, who are both ten thousand times better than I am. It’s always nice to find more games to play, and ways to connect with blogging friends (even when you’re not writing as often) in a community that’s felt distant post-pandemic.

As with a lot of online games like this, it’s the goofy moments that really make the experience for me – like Kate casually running over another player at the start of the game and getting the death notification that she “called said player a cab.” Or when the two of us attempted to pass through a rift and land on the loot island with a motorcycle (which went rather well, by all accounts – we didn’t make it to the island, but we also didn’t die). I also live for the moments when Eric starts chanting, “sacrifice, sacrifice” after downing a player, and picking them up to yeet them off a high building or into the ocean. That One Time Ash led Kate, Eric and I up to the Citadel using her choo-choo train emote. I’m sure this had the other teams quaking in their boots. I’ve been murdered by someone named “Lt.DanIceCream” which I couldn’t even be mad about. Please enjoy this clip that GamingOmnivore posted of a game he played with his wife (this had me in tears):

These games like Fortnite and Dead by Daylight have been helping with my weird struggle to commit to games lately – I can’t seem to focus on anything lengthy or story based at the moment. Maybe it’s Maybelline, but maybe it’s also Depression. Either way, having a game like Fortnite that’s easy to jump on and off whenever I want to has helped my desire to at least play something. Getting to experience this with friends is also a huge bonus. The lighthearted nature, and gameplay that can be as competitive as you want it to be have really grabbed me. So I guess this is my very inexperienced, ancient Millennial endorsement of a game that I never thought I’d play, let alone enjoy. I really can’t believe I’m looking forward to more Fortnite sessions in the future. Sigh.