Hey Crumpets, Toasty here. If you have had your ear to the news recently, you may have heard that a few days ago, Fortnite vanished. It ended. Poof. You could no longer play the game and players across the globe lost their collective minds. This made headlines with news outlets worldwide, with reports of children literally falling into a deep depression with their favourite game no longer existing. This was of course made even worse when the Fortnite Twitter account decided to basically delete itself. Well, luckily for Fortnite players everywhere, the game is back and it turns out Epic was just trolling one of the largest communities on the planet. Bravo!
I reviewed Fortnite early on in my blogs life and we gave it a pretty good score. It was an enjoyable experience that kept me interested for a good couple of months. You can check out that comparatively retro review here, if you’re interested. I have to admit, I did eventually drop the game and haven’t really touched it since around January this year (2019). Needless to say, this PR stunt grabbed my attention (partially due to the fact I have a son who loves the game and couldn’t stop complaining!) and I have jumped back into the questionably aviatory battle bus (bringing back the some old Toasty adjectives!) and honestly, I have had a blast.
Whilst on the surface this may seem like the same game, it is in fact a soft reboot. The old island is gone, the game is now sporting a wonderful “Chapter 2” sticker and instead of being Season 11, we are back to Season 1. Like the mythical phoenix of old, Fortnite has risen from the ashes of Season 10 and is blazing a trail through your childs brain as we speak.
Name changes aside, the game has underwent some massive alterations oin the gameplay front too. First, and most obvious is the new map. Gone is the map of old, this is a new island with a bucket load of new places to explore. Secondly weapons have been scaled back to the bare basics. Roughly 30 weapons/items have been removed from the game leaving you with a fairly basic set of equipment (more on that later). Vehicles are now mostly gone, with the exception of the brand new Boat which despite its name, can function on land with a bit of nitro. Finally they have added some new interactions. Namely swimming, fishing and carrying.
Swimming is fairly self explanatory. Now you can glide through seas, rivers and lakes like a majestic dolphin. Time your elegant leaps correctly and you are rewarded with a spiffy speed buff. Awesome. Fishing allows you to fish up materials, weapons and even super powerful fish-based consumables. Finally carrying lets you carry downed allies and enemies. Needless to say, carrying a downed enemy before running in circles until they bleedout, is one of the most satisfyingly trollish things you can currently do. Thanks Epic.
To quickly touch back on the barebones item selection, this is absolutely perfect for the games lasting appeal. Scaling it all back gives you the core Fortnite experience. No crazy weapons and items that can distort or confuse the newbies. Just basic guns that anyone can understand. This might confuse longtime players, however let’s not forget the PR Stunt. That stunt caught the attention of the world. Players old and new have Fortnite in their minds, meaning a lot of people are jumping back in for the first time. Of course, it also gives them a lot of room to grow. Providing Chapter 2 is just as lengthy as Chapter 1, we have 10 seasons of new STUFF that Epic can now add. This could be old stuff brought back, or new and innovative items that wouldn’t have worked with the old loadouts. This was a brilliant idea.
The last thing I am going to touch on in this brief. although ever lengthening, look at all the new “stuff” Epic has brought us, is Bots. Bots have been a rumoured addition to Fortnite for quite some time, and they have finally had their debut. This has gotten a lot of flack on the Internet, however this was quite possibly Epic’s most masterful play yet, if a humble piece of Toast can be believed. When you boot up Chapter 2 you are pushed into a game almost instantly. 99% of players will win this game. This is a bot game, and you are expected to win. Even new players will win this game with very little effort. When you win you are given loads of snazzy, cool things as a reward. You did the thing, congratulations. Enjoy your dopamine. You’re next few games will also contain bots, however the number of bots will decrease as you get better at the game. Basically, Epic gave new players (or just enthusiastic, but bad long time players) a tutorial on how to play the game, without actually taking you out of the experience and reward you for doing it well. You get the opportunity to taste victory, learn the mechanics, and get a feel for the game in a safe environment before it slowly ramps up the difficulty. This combined with the limited arsenal gives the game an accessibility factor it had previously been lacking.
I know I just said I was wrapping up, but damn it there is more I want to talk about. What if you suck at Fortnite, like me? How are you supposed to level up your battle pass if you can’t play the game very well, tutorial be damned. Punch Cards my friend. Punch Cards. In short this system injects you with a huge amount of experience every day by literally doing anything. Survive until the top 50? Exp. Kill a dude? Exp. Loot a chest? Exp. Cut down a forest? You guessed it: Exp. Now just playing the game casually can net you mountains of points and lets you progress your pass without having to become Fortnite Jesus.
I think I am actually going to wrap this up here. Finally. If you want a full breakdown of the Chapter 2 patch, then you can check out the Unoffical Patch notes (because apparently there are no official notes yet) here. Chapter 2 is a great patch for players of all skill levels, so hop back in and give it a whirl.
Are playing Fornite Chapter 2? What are your thoughts on the changes to the arsenal? Do you like the new map? Let me know in the comment section below!
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Games With Toasty 
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