Friday ‘Nite is a weekly Fortnite column in which GameSpot editor Mark Delaney takes a closer look at current events in the vast world of Fortnite, with particular emphasis on the game’s plot, characters, and lore. play.
A few weeks ago, before debut Fortnite Chapter 3, Part 2I put my hopes on the new season, say I am interested in playing Part 2 is more story-oriented After the launch of Chapter 3 there was a bit of a light-heartedness in that regard. After a full two weeks of story quests and other island events, it’s safe to say I’ve earned my wish; Fortnite Season 2 is packed with new characters that are important to the lore and seems intended to include a bunch of new story missions each week. Too bad the story told in this season is so similar to the previous chapters.
In Chapter 2, Season 7, aliens attacked. The arrival of a terrifying motherhood on the entire island of Fortnite means doom for all who live on Apollo, or so we think. Loopers find themselves ideologically divided between those who welcome the alien invaders, such as Sunny, the host of the welcome board’s dance, and those who vehemently seek to repel the relationship. extraterrestrial threats, as Doctor Slone and the Society imagine.
As players, we were brought into the resistance, even if that meant working with IO, a shadowy organization that, so far, seems to be playing the bad guy. Through our unlikely alliance, we must work alongside Slone each week, carrying out reconnaissance missions, surveillance operations, and daring sabotage missions, with the shared goal of learning – and finally weakened – The ultimate reality, the alien race that has touched the island of Fortnite.
It also works. Over time, we overthrew the mother ship and destroyed the alien spacecraft that invaded the most important island. But instead of being cast as heroes, Slone threw us out like trash. Our final sabotage mission, Operation: Sky Fire, was a suicide mission – we just didn’t know it until it was too late. Surviving merely by chance thanks to an intervening sentient block (of the Cube Legion, essentially the alien parent), we land back on the island, only to turn our attention we move on to a larger threat, a threat that will require an entire season’s worth (Season 8) of funding a war effort through donating in-game gold bars that will see weapons and mechs New to the game.
Fast forward to today. Currently, IO, not an alien threat, is looking to take over the island. Slone and company believe it’s their right place in diversity, but The Seven is the complete opposite of IO’s violent way of taking power, so players now find themselves in the middle of a movement. another protest, with an all-too-familiar play cycle at the heart of this narrative-game bridge.
During these opening weeks of the season, players have been cast as do-it-all protesters, once again running scouts and carrying out vandalism. Instead of researching aliens and their spaceships for IO and Slone, we’re supporting The Seven, led by a new (okay, new) face. mask), Source. While some of the specifics of donating to the war effort are giving way to new weapons, others are quite similar to the mounted turrets and return of some of the best weapons. of the game was funded just a few months ago in Chapter 2, Season 8, and now they are here again for Chapter 3, Season 2.
It’s a bit disappointing to see Epic return to this well, one of those powerful invaders and guerillas (and sometimes gorillas) who must tear down the power system one by one. . Of course, this is a video game as well as irresistible to drink. Ubisoft has focused the past 15 years on making games that are essentially the same in different settings – always with a tyrant at the top and a growing force of resistance to free the people.
However, it feels especially odd that Epic revises the Season 7/8 storyline so soon because that story hasn’t been the focus for so long in Fortnite. It almost makes me wonder if some of these same ideas were put together a minute ago when the studio struggled with how to present its war story in the context of the real-life war that is dominating the headlines. In the end, I think that amount of work wasn’t really completed in the few weeks that Epic had to work on, suggesting that this will always be how the season goes, even if the seasons are similar to the older seasons. It’s pretty obvious to the players involved in the game’s ongoing story.
However, I will reserve final judgment on this season’s narrative efforts until I watch the end of it. Oddly enough, I think a rerun of the Season 7 finale would really work wonders for the ongoing season. While Season 7 ended with Slone’s betrayal – which, in hindsight, we should see coming – I think a similar twist is exactly what the Fortnite story needs.
The origin voiced by Rahul Kohli is asking us to prove our cause, making it very clear in the first few weeks that he doesn’t trust us as supposed warriors. But the feeling is mutual. I wrote before about how I’m not sure I can trust The Foundation, and I get a similar vibe from The Origin. So far, he’s consistently asked for support, to the point where it feels like he’s setting us up for the wrong orders. Just as I think about The Foundation, I also wonder if The Origin’s intentions were right and kind, but also misguided. Since The Seven’s goal is to disrupt The Loop, I wonder what would happen if they did.
A twist that reveals everything we thought we knew about our arch-nemesis was wrong would look like an exciting next chapter to the Fortnite saga, one where we can finally encounters Geno, and perhaps reveals a power greater than Imagined Order or The Seven. But unless or until that happens, Season 2’s story is “there, funded for it.”
