As I stated last week, I’m doing a Q&A all week l my followers on Twitter. First question comes from my top viewer on Mixer, DARTH_Purp (worth a follow): Why do you hate Fortnite so much?
Listen, if you’ve been following PartyChat for any amount of time, you know how much I fucking hate Fortnite. I seriously think its one of the best and worst things to happen in the gaming industry in the last 2 years. And I’m not just saying that because I suck at the game; I’ve been playing since the game was first released as a Beta in 2017. I still remember all the old locations, playing without skins, and the “zero kill” challenge. In fact, I actually used to win on a very consistent basis in all three modes. And I’ll admit, during those early days of the game, it actually was fun. But now, it’s become a completely different title and I have zero desire to play another minute. So let’s break down the reasons why:
#1: The skill curve
As it is with all competitive video games, there is a skill curve associated with Fortnite. Originally, the curve had more to do with strategically timing your run at the final team and landing your SCAR shots. Then, it was all about being able to hit double pump shots while building, and that’s when it started getting ridiculous. Now, you literally have to grind the game for 10+ hours a week to even have a chance at consistently win games every night. Which would be fine, except Fortnite is a 2 year old game and there’s a ton of other stuff that I want to play. Now you may read that and say “but any competitive game requires you to play for 10+ hours a week to stay good at it”. False. You’re wrong. Go back to bed dumbass, you’re drunk. I can pick up Overwatch, Halo 5, or even Apex Legends right now after not playing for a month and still win probably 60-75% of my games. Am I playing at Grandmaster or Champion levels in those games? No, but even winning in “platinum” in Fortnite would require at least 10+ hours a week due to the constant changes. If I had to choose between being good at Fortnite and playing all the other games coming out this fall, give me the latter every single time.
#2: Building
This is directly correlated to reason #1, because the skill curve in this game is 90% building/10% shotgun aim. I cannot think of a more boring way to play a video game. I have absolutely zero desire to cause my arms to have a seizure all over the controller every time I see an enemy. It’s not fun! It really isn’t. The whole game is “who can build on top of the other person the fastest”. Why is that a fun and interesting mechanic? Again, I say this as someone who absolutely sucks at building, but I really don’t care how good you are at it. Are you honestly gonna tell me that you’d rather build your way to a win instead of snipe the fuck out of someone 200m away? You can’t.
#3: Inconsistent gun mechanics
This is a really really big one for me, and if you tell me it isn’t real or isn’t that big of a deal: you’re lying to yourself. You’re drinking the Kool-Aid. It’s happened to all of us. Pump Shotgun a guy from point blank range and deal only 9 damage. Unload a whole clip on a guy standing still with a purple SCAR and miss almost everything due to bloom. I really don’t understand why these mechanics are necessary. Just make every gun a hit scan with bullet drop and let’s be done with it.
#4: It rips off literally every other game in the last 10 years
Name a shooter franchise that Fortnite hasn’t stolen something from. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. You almost can’t anymore. Hell the whole reason that there is a Battle Royale mode is because of the success of H1Z1 and PUBG. They were never planning on making the game with a Battle Royale in the first place! Orignially it was gonna be some stupid Minecraft meets looter shooter meets cartoon land. But that was just the beginning. I mean let’s just go ahead and name all the different franchises that Fortnite has stolen something from. They stole planes from Battlefield, mechs from Titanfall, “smart ping” and respawns from Apex, the bubble shield from Halo, Wrecking Ball from Overwatch (the Baller), vehicles from PUBG, and literally every skin that isn’t a pop culture reference is a direct ripoff of one of the previously mentioned titles or Call of Duty. I’ll credit that Fortnite does occasionally come up with some original content, but come on guys…
Those are my top 4 reasons, but there’s something else that bothers me even more. I want to be clear that my hatred of Fortnite is not reflective of the developer at all. In fact, I think Epic Games is shaping up to be the best gaming studio in the world very soon. For all the idiots who only associate Epic with Fortnite, they’re also the creators of the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War (stopped after Gears 3/Judgement). Neither of those franchises are as big as Fortnite, but they’ve shown that Epic knows how to make really good games. But I can’t get the idea out of my head that if you took the team from Epic and put them in charge of literally any other game, battle royale or not, it would be the best game out right now. Put them in charge of Apex Legends and remove EA from the equation? It’d be on top of Twitch forever. Same with Black Ops 4 and PUBG. The only exception I think is Overwatch because I do believe that Blizzard has done an excellent job with the title post launch to keep the community alive. But instead, we have the most talented studio in the world working on the worst game in the last 5 years. And unfortunetly, there’s no end in sight unless Modern Warfare or Halo: Infinite dethrone the beast that is Fortnite.
