Fortnite is better without the forts

My first foray into the game’s battle royale mode occurred in 2017, months before Ninja’s famous Fortnite stream with Drake made headlines throughout the country. When compared to what you can accomplish now, the game was really simplistic back then, but the fundamentals were solid: shooting felt wonderful, construction was helpful, and the destruction was unlike anything else of its magnitude.

After some time, a pattern began to form that would come to characterize the way Fortnite is played going forwards. More and more construction became a matter of building intricate towers of brick or metal to deceive attackers and protect their occupants from oncoming fire. They looked less like two individuals shooting firearms and more like dueling carpenter sorcerers battling it out to build the largest mound of trash. This is very much the reason why I stopped playing Fortnite.

Playing Fortnite without the ability to construct structures has a distinct feel to it. For the most part, when I shoot someone, they no longer flee into a fortress of logs and bricks as their initial reaction. This time, they’re going to have to turn around and respond! It’s a fantastic thing because sometimes I hit more shots, and other times they hit more shots. The first few nights I’ve been playing, I’ve had a number of long-running fights with people I’m quite sure are other gamers (there have been lots of bots, too).

At least for a less experienced player like me, the lack of buildings has made in-building battles more intriguing. The damage you inflict with your harvesting instrument is now irreversible. As Sledge in Rainbow Six Siege, I’ve established a practice of smashing down building walls in an attempt to flush out my adversaries. Also, the treasure clutter on dead people is much easier to handle when there aren’t three separate building materials to consider.

The finest thing hasn’t even been mentioned yet. As an extra bonus, in addition to the no-building test, Epic has also introduced new mobility and health enhancements. Players are now able to sprint in short bursts and run faster by default. My favourite sprint in Fortnite not only saves me from sprinting through vast fields of grass but also has a lot of personality to it. The new sliding and mantling features, stolen directly from an FPS, make it much easier to move about Fortnite’s vibrant cities and undulating hills.

After this short no-build event, I think Epic wants to retain the new mobility suite in place. This raises some fascinating issues regarding the future of the game. Epic has effectively engineered its way around the map, which previously necessitated building your way around. Holding spacebar to grasp a ledge and hoisting myself up to a second-floor roof eliminates the need for steps. There are plenty of ways to perform more daring stunts, such as using a grappling hook, zipline, a launch pad, or bouncing Spider-Man webs.