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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Game On: Fortnite Chapter 4 brings new thrills to the unshakeable battle royale

Initially launched in September 2017, Fortnite: Battle Royale entered its Chapter 4 phase on Sunday, bringing with it loads of new content – weapons, vehicles, skins and an all-new island to explore. The game is free to play on all major consoles and smartphones.  (Epic Games Inc.)
By Riordan Zentler For The Spokesman-Review

Chapter 4 Season 1 of Fortnite: Battle Royale launched on all platforms on Sunday, bringing with it a brand-new island to explore, fresh vehicles, a swath of imaginative weapons to use and of course, new cosmetics – including costumes for characters from other franchises such as the Incredible Hulk, the Doom Slayer from Doom and Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.

New weapons include the Red-Eye Assault Rifle, Thunder Shotgun and the amusingly named Ex-Caliber Rifle. The new Shockwave Hammer is similar to the Gravity Hammer from the Halo series. Besides adding a dirt bike, Epic Games also added new methods of movement, like jumping inside a tumbling snowball or automatically hurdling over waist-high fences while sprinting.

Epic Games also upgraded Fortnite’s engine to Unreal Engine 5.1 on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. It doesn’t change the gameplay itself, but the game’s graphical fidelity sees a massive bump up, especially lighting, shadows, fire and other effects that are notoriously difficult to implement. For example, your character’s hat will cast a shadow now. It’s nothing hugely important for a cartoony game like Fortnite, but impressive nonetheless.

I call Fortnite unshakeable because even though it’s been around for a little over five years, it absolutely refuses to lose momentum. Sure, it’s waned in popularity a little, but it’s still an undeniable juggernaut on the video game scene. Kids are drawn to Fortnite’s chaotic goofiness, casual gamers can pick it up and put it down whenever, and pro streamers enjoy its high skill ceiling. It has something for almost everyone.

I feel Fortnite is simultaneously the most overrated yet underrated game of all time. I’ve met plenty of kids who think it’s the best game ever, of course – and I’ve met plenty of edgy teens and young adults who hate the game for the sake of being contrarian. Honestly? It’s popular for a reason. Fortnite controls very smoothly, and latency is minimal despite most matches starting with 100 players on an island – the netcode is fantastic.

And despite having a very blatant cash grab side to it – the quantity of cosmetics you can buy with real-life cash is disgusting – the game itself is anything but soulless. It’s ambitious in scope, with new game modes popping up all the time, and Epic Games is constantly adding new ideas to the mix. Most games of similar caliber update at a glacial pace by comparison.

There’s also nothing discouraging gamers from coming back if they haven’t played a match for months. I’ve spent all of $10 on Fortnite since I started playing in 2017, and I’ve never felt like I was missing some vital component of the game. And whenever my friends say, “hey, it’s been a while, want to hop on Fortnite again?” I’m not worried that so much time has passed that attempting to play the game again is a fool’s errand.

Because of that, I would argue Fortnite is something of a “comfort” game. Yes, it can get very competitive, and in most game modes you’ll spend a lot of time losing, but it’s a blast all the same. The matchmaking seems solid too – the last few times I hopped on, I rarely found myself up against players far and away better than myself. Comically, online gamers often refer to these types of players as “sweaty,” “tryhards” and “no-lifers.” The lingo is ever-changing.

As always, Fortnite: Battle Royale is free to play, downloadable on all major consoles and smartphones and runs smoothly even on mediocre PCs. It’s a goofy but fun game that I feel every gamer should try at least once. Shooters aren’t the most beginner-friendly genre, but Fortnite is about as intuitive as they come. If you’ve ever been curious, or you’ve taken an extended hiatus from the game, now is a great time to jump in.