Fortnite Reload – a new version of the battle royale in the vein of Call of Duty: Warzone’s Resurgence mode – came out of the blue last weekend, a surprise hit for a game that badly needed it after the launch of the vehicle. -Oriented summer season didn’t suit many players – especially people who prefer build mode. This included many prominent streamers struggling to adapt to all the new changes in Chapter 5 Season 3 that conflicted with normal build mode playstyles.
Reload feels like Epic’s response as quickly as possible to a poor season launch. And while I’d like to be mad that it seemingly hacked something so quickly to appease streamers, Fortnite Reload is so much fun and such a dramatic change of pace from the Fortnite norm that I’m pretty sure I’m in love. . Epic got it right.
The reason Fortnite Reload works is because the idea is a good one that Epic has probably been thinking about for a while. Call of Duty Warzone’s Resurgence was created as a sort of bridge between the standard Call of Duty deathmatch and Warzone’s battle royale, allowing players to automatically respawn after they die if they have living teammates. It was a great hybrid between Call of Duty modes, the best of both worlds.
The Fortnite version is fairly simple. It’s squad-only with a maximum of 40 players, has weapon and item loot from Chapters 1-4, and takes place on a compressed version of last November’s Fortnite OG map, populated with and without familiar locations like Tilted Towers. a lot of wilderness between cities. On a smaller map, the fight tends to be heated from the moment you hit the ground, but the stakes for those fights are lower – if one of your teammates survives 30 seconds after you die, you’ll automatically respawn. air with a gray assault rifle to get to the next one. However, at the end of the match, respawns will be disabled and you will have to fight the ending more carefully.
The result is the fastest and sweatiest version of Battle Royale Fortnite ever. If you land at Tilted Towers in the middle of the map, you will fight non-stop from the moment you fall until your time in that match ends. And despite the lack of cars or Nitro Fists, there’s plenty of flying through the air in Reload, thanks to the OG versions of impact grenades and impact pads, which are much more powerful and propel you much further than the modern versions. .
The respawn mechanic also spurs the action in a number of interesting ways. Often, enemies will shoot at you from all directions, and newly respawned humans have a habit of dropping behind you as you fight their friends. Keeping your head on a swivel is a must. But while these fights usually get completely out of hand, respawns allow you to play in a looser and more free-flowing way, as the stakes for any random fight are significantly lower. Accidentally dashing into the middle of an entire enemy squad doesn’t have the same consequences in Reload as it does in BR, so it’s safer to try bold moves that will likely kill you, at least until the respawns are turned off. Game Over.
But my favorite little joke in Fortnite Reload is how personal fights can get when you’re trading kills with the same group of enemies for ten minutes straight. You just can’t seem to finish them off and they can’t quite get you either and you end up locked in a seemingly permanent fight until another team wanders in and upsets the balance. And when you finally manage to finish off these deadly enemies, the satisfaction is immense – and when you lose to them, it’s that much more painful.
I’ve always been wary of the idea of ​​Epic adding new, permanent battle royale modes, but Reload has a unique sweet spot because it’s so sweaty and intense, much more so than a normal battle royale round. For me, it fills a void: This is Fortnite’s version of deathmatch, but it retains enough of the core Fortnite battle royale experience that it’s still a lot more intellectual than just shooting people in the hallway over and over again.
And while I have no particular affection for the map in Chapter 1 or the old weapons, since I didn’t start playing until the end of Chapter 2, I like that Reload has a completely different map and a completely different weapon pool than battle royale- -and they sprinkle enough newer weapons like the Stinger SMG or the Hammer Assault Rifle to keep things from getting too dated. It’s a meaningful change of pace from the normal battle royale mode in every way.
And while some people don’t like that Reload is squad-only, I actually think it’s perfect for now. With a map full of teams of four, it keeps things crowded and frantic from start to finish, as it’s not easy to wipe out an entire team quickly when there’s a 30 second respawn timer. And it’s a very friendly mode to complete, even without communication, because it’s deathmatch-y – because Reload moves so fast, it’s more about fighting than winning. Even though these matches are intense, the wins are definitely sweeter in Reload than in battle royale. Even just wiping out a team is comically satisfying and inspires a rude squeal of delight from me every time.
So yes, I love Fortnite Reload, and I wasn’t one of those people who hated Season 3 of Season 5 either – in fact, I was a huge fan of the entire season this year. But Reload is so different from Battle Royale Fortnite, with its OG map and completely separate loot pool, that there’s room in my heart for both, and I look forward to seeing what new wrinkles Epic adds to it over time.