Fortnite: Battle Royale. It’s a title that has swept the public, the media, and much of the gaming population into a frenzy over the past few months, and the game has become as recognizable as titles like Halo or Call of Duty.
So much so that many people don’t know that Fortnite hasn’t always been a Battle Royale game. Before the update adding its most popular gametype, Fortnite was an odd mix of building and arena survival that pit a team of survivors against a horde of advancing undead monsters. It was a quirky, unique survival experience that gathered up a dedicated following of hardcore survivalists. Survivalists that have, for many months, been yearning for an update.
And it looks like they’re about to get exactly what they’ve been looking for.
The update will bring a new campaign, the “Canny Valley” campaign, as well as a new biome. Being touted as the v5.0 of the “Save The World” survival mode, it is set for public release sometime next month. The campaign will arrive in short segments (acts), focusing on desert, arid environments in the Fortnite world.
Epic released a blog post about the coming update, sharing a number of details on the direction of the story and on the content coming soon.
“The story will answer many questions —was Dr. Vinderman a hero or a villain? What happened to him? Who is ‘the real Ray’, and where is she? What really is the Storm, and why did it happen?”
The blog post also promises feature appearances from beloved characters as well as the chance to visit iconic locations and take on legendary opponents.
The bit about “legendary opponents” is welcome news for longtime Save The World players, answering their frequent complaints of limited enemy variety. Epic says they have two new completed enemy types that they will be adding in next month with the new content, and also assures users that they are continuing to prototype new opponents for the game’s PVE mode.
Epic is also keen on the introduction of several quality-of-life changes, such as the introduction of the ability to tag teammates for trolling and other disruptive behavior. In a game where a small team of players must cooperate to gather resources and build structures, one can only imagine how one destructive troll can truly derail an entire game session.
It’s good to see EPIC continuing positive consumer-friendly practices by staying true to the promise of free content updates that coincided with the release of the game’s Save The World origins.
But even if you’re reluctant to switch over from the Battle Royale mode, it’s likely that you will also get a chance to play with at least a few of the new toys in this new update. A whole new map and biome is a lot of new variety for a mode that engages only a fraction of the game’s total player base, so we’ll be surprised if a new desert-themed map doesn’t make its way over to the Player versus Player arena at some point. Battle Royales are known to release new maps from time to time, and Fortnite has stuck to a single map for a long time. The introduction of a brand new biome – and a bunch of ready for use assets – might be the push the Battle Royale team was looking for to expand the playing field.
Featured Image Via Flickr / steamXO
Torie Jones
February 18, 2019 at 8:01 am
Some interesting changes to the game.