Fortnite Review (Switch 2)

Listen. I'm not gonna dive into this review of Fortnite on Switch 2 with any ideas of pretending to know everything, or even understand anything, about a game that's grown from hastily retooled battle royale to...well...it looks kind of like Roblox now, in all honesty. What on earth is going on here?

Yes, since the last time I launched into a game of Epic's Fortnite, it's changed, I think it's fair to say, immeasurably. The menu system that you boot into is incredibly confusing if you haven't been keeping up with the changes, and looks exactly like the mess of game modes, fan content, and madness I watch my sons syphon through on a daily basis in the Roblox Corporation's behemoth.

Fortnite, it seems, has evolved into something of a lifestyle choice, and it's attracted all the big brands. Hey, there's LEGO, that's cool to see. And over there are lots of licensed superheroes in the main battle royale mode, there's a music festival going on, and there's even some sort of Rocket League-type racing thing happening. It's a lot. And, even though I may sound a little dismissive, it's actually all very impressive.

Epic has the mega-bucks to make things happen, you see, and it shows. All of the various games here are decently entertaining, great at times even, and they are collected together in such a way that it all feels, I'm sure, as though you are socialising in effect, dropping in and out of game types with your pals and getting chaotic on the mic. Again, it's basically turning into Roblox, as far as I can see.

This is all much slicker, though. You can feel the money in the bigger games, and even the fan stuff is much better. Hopping between games is fast and breezy now, too, and so there's always something, whether official or fan-made, to take for a spin without having to worry about a sluggish port making it much slower than it need be.

Let's dig in, just a little, to the core modes involved for those who are new to this 2016 game, or platform, such as it is these days. You've got the super-solid battle royale that started it all (pour one out for Save the World), seemingly available here in a few seasons at once, with superheroes and some classic older stuff all there to cycle through. It may have been around for aeons now, but honestly the building element to this — where you erect makeshift walls and platforms on the fly — just never really gets old, and having this one mode running smoothly on Switch 2 is probably enough for some to make it worth the download.

There's Lego Fortnite Odyssey, a fully fleshed out survival game that's managed to stick around and remain popular for quite some time (full transparency, I've been very excited by what I've played of this so far) alongside Lego Brick Life, a sort of multiplayer social-sim deal where you can probably spend hundreds of hours making an apartment just how you like it in a big Lego city full of other people.

Elsewhere, Harmonix gets involved with Fortnite Festival, which is a full-on rhythm game featuring rotating song selections, a song shop, and the choice to take control of one of four instruments in each song, meaning multiplayer is a go-go. What I played was, like everything in Fortnite, surprisingly in-depth and fully-featured, so I can imagine it's good fun with some pals.

Rocket Racing, meanwhile, is genuinely a pretty great online 12-player racer (by Psyonix!) that does a great job of giving you a fast-paced, flashy and very moreish arcade experience replete with everything from boost pads to drift techniques and more besides.

These offerings are the main pillars within the Fortnite zeitgeist at the moment, with all the other good stuff just gravy. You've also got a huge creative suite which has been powered up and added to over time, resulting in a flexible system that enables gamers to make impressively varied content, some of which is actually very decent - from the little I've tried.

There's freeze-tag games, co-op horror efforts, a Minecraft clone (which seems good?!), BMX games, sports stuff, sci-fi adventures and a game which I will even mention by name here, Octo Game, which is basically Squid Game online. Nice.

I'm sure none of us need a 46-year-old nerd's in-depth thoughts on every last one of the game modes and fan content bits and bobs here; we all know what Fortnite is and how it plays across the various aspects that have been added to it over the past few years. It's also free — the microtransactions, although annoying in quantity, are purely cosmetic, so ruining yourself financially is entirely optional — so I guess there's no loss to just jumping in and giving it a whirl.

Now, the big question. How does it play on Switch 2? Well, it's all very good news. Looking back on the original Switch version now, after years of iteration and several console launches, it really is a bit of a muddy, depressing mess. We all put up with it, because we're hard-as-nails gamers, but as soon as you make the leap to Switch 2, there's no turning back.

The blurred visuals have been eradicated to the point my son is happily playing it in docked mode on a big TV and thinks it looks "great". This coming from someone who baulked at the idea of just looking at the Switch version is surely a very good sign.

In both docked and handheld mode you are now getting 60fps and it looks way, way sharper. Resolutions, I believe, have jumped from 900p/660p (or thereabouts) for docked and handheld respectively on OG Switch — both of which were 30fps — to 1220p/900p at 60fps on the Switch 2. Result!

Geometry looks far more impressive, with way more detail and sharper, cleaner edges and textures have seen a big old boost all-round. Foliage has also returned to the map in the form of lots of lovely trees and details, an aspect which looked AWFUL on Switch 1 as you departed the Battle Bus and landed down onto a barren wasteland. Here it looks great. Is it as sharp as a PS5? Of course not. But it looks very nice, especially in handheld, and there have been no issues across any of the game modes as far as I have experimented. It's 60fps all the way, baby.

In terms of the modes themselves, just very quickly, I still love the main battle royale/building mode of this game. It's just very smart, and one of those timeless things that draws you in fully every time you return to it. Elsewhere, I have to say, I could also quite easily get fully addicted to Rocket Racing and all of the various Lego stuff is also great. I'd much rather my kids stuck to playing this than return to the dankness of Roblox, in all honesty.

Another cool aspect to this embiggened version of Fortnite, is all of the creative opportunities it offers to players through its various Creative modes. I should also mention that the Lego Odyssey survival/adventure mode absolutely got me hooked. I was not expecting it to be this involving.

Seasoned players will also be happy to hear that loading times are way sharper, and all of your various skins — which on Switch might straight up refuse to load in — now appear in a timely and orderly fashion. Heck, they even look good! These are the sorts of changes that take it from a fuzzy, low-end version, albeit one we put up with on Switch, to an eminently viable experience.

Whilst I've been playing Fortnite on Switch 2, it's also received an update to add mouse controls, and I...love them? I was not expecting to say that. Quite the opposite, in fact. However, the way the game handles it all is very cool.

Hopping into Settings, you can select a hand for mouse control, turning your chosen Joy-Con on its side and using the shoulder buttons as your mouse buttons. Sweet. The other Joy-Con then gets held normally for movement with your thumbstick, and combining these gives you a hybrid setup that feels ace. Yes, you'll need to have a little space to do it, but if you're sitting at a desk (or have ironed your trouser legs), this is now the way. A big surprise, and something that's now got me excited to use mouse controls for shooters on Switch 2 going forward.

Overall, then, this port may not be quite as slick as your powerhouse PC or Series X variants, which is fair enough and expected, but honestly, if I had to choose a console to go with, it's no longer straightforward. Portable brings a lot to the table, especially considering the gaming habits of the kids this game is primarily aimed at. I also now love mouse controls.

So, yes, it looks a bit shinier on other platforms, but sitting on the sofa to mess in creative mode, listen to tunes via Fortnite Festival, or get stuck into Lego or battle royale? I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm rocking the Switch 2 every time.