Fortniterecently celebrated a monumental occasion. Six years after it was launched, the game has just hit an all-time player count high thanks to the release of the latest season,FortniteOG.
In case you missed it,FortniteOG brings back the beloved original map, last seen in 2018 - and I say beloved through gritted teeth. Featuring fan-favourite locations like Tilted Towers and Greasy Grove,FortniteOG is a dream for anyone who enjoys singing ‘Chug Jug With You’, and that’s clearly a lot of people. On X, formerly Twitter, theFortniteteamannouncedthat Saturday 4 November marked “the biggest day inFortnite’s history” with over 44.7 million players jumping into the latest season, totalling over 102 million hours of play.
Take a look atFortniteOG in action below.
As an avid player ofFortnite, I’ve had several people message me to say they’ve redownloaded the game - eager to jump back into the classic map they remember after years away. It’s delightful to see, but there is one major problem. If you weren’t around in 2018, which I was not, you won’t be looking atFortniteOG with rose-tinted lenses of nostalgia and without those, the latest season is simply a major downgrade that may just be the most divisive and disappointing update Epic has ever released.
Advert
Advert
On Friday, I sat down with my usual chums, thrilled at the prospect of a freshFortniteexperience. It wasn’t long though before I was left feeling disappointed and underwhelmed. My issue isn’t necessarily with the map itself, although I do think it pales in comparison to Chapter 4 Season 4’s (We’re all going to have our preferred eras). It’s more to do with the fact that in releasingFortniteOG, Epic has stripped away so many features that ‘newer’ fans understand to be a key part ofFortnite’s identity.
Epic Games
Advert
Advert
These kinds of activities weren’t without risk. They usually involved fighting NPCs you needn’t otherwise fight. While Low Cards didn’t deal a fat lot of damage, High Card bosses - including the likes of the Diamond Dealer and Kado Thorne - could quite heavily deplete your health and shields. As for those vault turrets, they were lethal. There’s also the fact that triggering a vault alarm could cause player enemies to lie in wait and ambush you. We’ve also all started opening a cache only for it to pull in a large number of players to your position.
Epic Games
But these objectives were all about risk and reward. Overcome these obstacles and you’d likely end the game with an array of Epic, Legendary, and Mythic loot with a couple of Slurp Juices in tow too. Such items weren’t necessary to win. I’ve had wins against well-stocked players using the pathetic loot I’d picked up following a reboot, but these kinds of opportunities to better your position added an extra layer of interest into the game. All of the above are now gone.
Advert
Advert
I still enjoyed playing with my friends, but there was an element of magic missing. Instead of discovering something new, as you typically do with a newFortniteseason, I instead kept stumbling across something else that had been taken away. Oh, you can’t drive vehicles? Slurp Trucks don’t exist? No Slap Barrels? Where are the keys and Holo-Chests? Thank heavens you can still light a campfire.
Epic Games
While I wasn’t prepared for this season to leave me quite so instantly disappointed, I am now finding positives in it. Well, sort of. I can’t say that I enjoy the limited number of shield and heal items, but it does force you to become a better player - rationing your items more tactically and perhaps playing a tad more cautiously too. The pretty dire weapons line-up means that every shot counts. I won’t run off in trios or squads anymore because with this loot pool, there’s no way that I’m taking out a full team alone. It’s a different kind of challenge. Not exactly one that I was looking for, but one I shall rise to nonetheless.
Advert
Advert
I’m in a clear minority, I’m aware - although a quick trip to Reddit proves that I’m not alone, yet I’m glad to see that a record number of players are enjoying diving into this nostalgia-fuelled season but that’s exactly what it is: nostalgia-fuelled. Take away the nostalgia and you’re left with very little gas in the tank. Games evolve, that’s to be expected, and not everyone is going to feel fondness for a game ‘as it once was’. I would’ve loved to have seen the original map return with those aforementioned modern features current players have come to expect fromFortnite, but you can’t have it all.
Topics:Fortnite,Opinion,Epic Games
