Fortnite: What’s All the Buzz?

     If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past year, you’ve probably heard the word ‘Fortnite’ close to a million times. I’ve had my fair share of playing the game, so I think I’m qualified to write an article.

     Fortnite was released by Epic Games on July 25, 2017, for PC, Xbox 1, and PS4. The game started, not as a battle royale, but as a PvE, campaign experience. It was based around a zombie outbreak. You had to progress through missions while trying to survive the zombie horde. It wasn’t insanely popular, yet. It wouldn’t be the online powerhouse until September 26, 2017, when Fortnite: Battle Royale was released. This is when Epic Games struck a gold mine. Players across the world flooded the servers and have never stopped playing.

     Now that you know about the game’s history, let’s talk about the game itself. You start the match in a giant, blue, hot air propelled battle bus with 99 other people. You jump out whenever you want and land on the giant island. You loot houses and chests on the ground to get weapons and eliminate everyone you see. After about a minute, a circle appears on the map. Everything not in that circle, will be consumed by a storm flying over the map. You have to stay in the circle, or you will die from the acid rain. If you do survive, the circle gets smaller and smaller until the game ends. One person (or team) must be left standing.

     The big thing that really gets people to stay playing the game is the battle pass. Every 2 months, there is a new set of tiers to unlock. When you unlock a tier, you would get a cosmetic item. These could be dances, sprays, outfits, gliders, pickaxes, loading screens, menu music, and in the newest update, pets! This set of progression really drives people to play and unlock everything.

     Finally, there is an in-depth story line that goes back close to 6 months. I couldn’t explain the entire storyline without going an extra 500 words, so trust me, it’s really in-depth.

     All of these points come together and create an amazing, addictive game that has overtaken Twitch, YouTube, google searches, and every single school and household on the globe. Fortnite hasn’t slowed down since its release and shows no signs of stopping now.