Fortnite, the third-person crafting, building and shooting game from Epic Games, has already received one new mode via an update, but it’s received another one already. Epic has just updated Fornite and added a new PVP mode called Battle Royale, which is heavily inspired by surprise hit, Player Unkown’s Battlegrounds, as well as H1Z1. The mode is live for current Fortnite players and will be officially launch later this month on September 26.
There are a number of important things to note. First of all, this mode is separate from the regular PVE Fortnite experience. Your characters and gear don’t transfer over at all. When you start Battle Royale, you become a different hero at random at the beginning of the game, and have only your pickaxe with you. Players wait around in a massive lobby, until it’s time to board a massive flying battle bus, that heads towards the Battle Royale island. As the bus flies over you pick when you want to jump, and skydive down to the island. As soon as you land, it’s everyone for themselves as you scavenge for weapons and gear, and you can still farm materials for building purposes.
The experience is a frantic one, as you head to shacks and houses, on the lookout for whatever you can get to give yourself a leg up on your opponents. The weapons have all been rebalanced for the mode, and some changes were made, like weapons damage structures and an increase in fall damage. The mode has been designed by the Unreal Tournament team, separate from the regular PVE Fortnite team. The team will be constantly updating the mode and balancing things and adding squads down the road.
It was rumored that there would be a PVP mode heading to Fortnite, but Battle Royale on this scale was probably not expected. I managed to get in a couple of rounds, and it is a lot of fun, and pretty intense, and well worth checking out if you have the game. It should be noted that Fortnite is in paid early access right now, and will be free to play next year, which will also include this Battle Royale mode more than likely. Fortnite Battle Royale is playable on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Will you be trying out the new mode, are you looking forward to taking on ninety nine other players? Let us know in the comments section if Battle Royale is what you’ve been looking for from your Fortnite experience.
Source: PlayStation Blog