Fortnite is changing. Of course, this is hardly a new realisation. We distinctly remember when Thanos started popping up and things became a little cash-grabby, or when the map was completely remodelled, or when, out of nowhere, a blooming 'Creator Mode' made it a challenge in itself just to find the blasted Battle Royale bit. But the latest change in Fortnite feels different. It feels bigger.
Because Fortnite is no longer just a game with different modes, it's a platform. And on that platform (the "Fortnite ecosystem" — a name that we still can't write without squirming) now sits three brand-new games, shoulder to shoulder with Epic's Battle Royale: Rocket Racing, LEGO Fortnite, and Fortnite Festival.
Despite some whispers beforehand, these new games-within-a-game jumped off the Battle Bus and plopped onto the platform almost out of the blue, but boy have they made quite the splash.
We have been spending the last week getting to grips with what the new "Fortnite ecosystem" *shudders* has to offer at launch and, so far, we have been rather impressed. With the three games being so very different from one another, let's break down every new game in Fortnite, one newbie at a time.
You'll also find a poll at the bottom of the page — feel free to let us know which of these free-to-play games you've been enjoying the most.
Rocket Racing
Overview - What is Rocket Racing?
Coming from the developers of Rocket League, the Epic-owned Psyonix, this is exactly what you might expect. It's Rocket League, but instead of playing a giant game of football, the cars race now. Where do they race? Around Fortnite-inspired tracks, of course.
You drop onto the starting line with up to 12 other players and after a brief tutorial introduces you to the basics of drifting, boosting, and flying — yes, flying — you're ready to set off.
For the most part, this is a pretty straightforward arcade racer. There are no items or coins for you to collect along your way, just a good old-fashioned race to the finish line after looping the track three times. Simple, right? Instead of relying on consumables, you have to drift and boost your way through the competition, looking for shortcuts on and off the beaten track.
At launch, there are 26 different courses for you to race around, spanning locations like Anarchy Acres and Loot Lake which are divided into three different levels of difficulty: novice, advanced, and expert. In the main game mode, 'Ranked Racing,' you progress through these difficulties, completing races to award you points which are put towards upping your rank and the level of challenge.
Of course, this is Fortnite, and there are car bodies, wheels, and decals that you can unlock along the way to pimp your ride and help you stand out on the track. Alternatively, if you use the same Epic Games account for both Rocket Racing and Fortnite, you can pull all of your unlocked cars and items from the former over to the latter.
Our Verdict (at Launch): Not Bad
While there is definitely a good amount to look forward to with Rocket Racing, at launch the game mode feels somewhat soulless and in need of some extra revs.
The driving itself feels pretty smooth, with the whippy drift mechanic making speeding around corners feel particularly satisfying, but there isn't quite enough variation on display at the moment to make levelling up the ranks worthwhile.
The difference between a novice and an expert track is certainly noticeable, with the latter requiring a more nimble touch on the accelerator and drift buttons, but in terms of layout and aesthetic, there is little to get excited about for the time being. At launch, the track variants appear to be either 'desert' or 'watery,' with the different corners and flip points not providing quite enough differentiation to keep things interesting after the first few races. That said, this is Season Zero and we're sure that more tracks from more creators will be on the way soon.
What is less likely to be ironed out between seasons, however, is the mode's performance on Switch. The Switch has always been near the bottom of the pile when it comes to visuals and frame rates in Fortnite, but this is really amplified when you are speeding around bends at high speeds, with ever-changing scenery and other drivers to account for. Pop-in and clipping are commonplace on the easier circuits, but things get pretty clunky in the higher difficulties.
If you want to see a fair race (and if the option is there), you'd be better to take your car over to another console.
LEGO Fortnite
Overview - What is LEGO Fortnite?
For a game called 'LEGO Fortnite', neither the Lego nor the Fortnite connections are all that strong. 'Minifig Minecraft' might have been a more accurate description.
Lego Fortnite is a crafting/survival sim reminiscent of Minecraft or Stardew Valley, at least, it is for the most part. The main objective is to build a thriving village, complete with houses, crops, workstations, and just about anything else that you can imagine. Where it differs from other life/survival sims is in its levelling-up system, where you can only expand your village by casting materials into the totem in the middle of your community. Imagine if Animal Crossing's Tom Nook asked for planks of wood instead of Bells and you get the picture.
As your village grows, so too does your crafting catalogue, with more recipes and blueprints being added with each level. But more recipes call for more ingredients, and you will soon have to venture away from the comfort of your surrounding area to track down caves, biomes, and chests.
The world itself looks like Fortnite: green, cartoony, mostly empty, while its inhabitants and buildings are made out of Lego: plastic, blocky, full of life. You can play either by yourself, crafting a solo world with only the help of the Fortnite Minifig villagers who will occasionally stroll into town, or with friends, divvying up jobs to bring about the bigger picture quicker.
Much like the other block-based survival game out there, Lego Fortnite can be played in one of two ways: Survival or Sandbox. The difference is whether you want to feel like you are living in your world or merely crafting in it. Survival has you hunting for your ingredients, crafting your tools, and being susceptible to hunger, sleep deprivation, and weather changes — all of that jolly stuff. Sandbox, on the other hand, lets you create to your heart's content with all recipes at your disposal from the get-go.
Our Verdict (at Launch): Good
Although the launch version of Lego Fortnite is packed with jank, there is a lot of promise on display here. With a few tweaks to the UI, inventory management, and reward system, we can see this rapidly becoming one of the more addictive survival sims on Switch — and one that's not too bad on the eyes either.
At the time of writing, our town is still in the early stages of its development, but, with a willing group of friends in tow, we can see ourselves coming back to this one and spending a good bit of time getting things just right. The village inspo is already rife online, and with a handful of improvements to the base mechanics (specifically to do with what you unlock and when), we'd imagine that even more enviable designs will be appearing over the coming months.
It might not feel particularly Fortnite-y, nor Lego-y, but we haven't been filled with this feeling of early Minecraft-style wonder for a good many years now. Brick by brick, this has the potential to become something special.