Fortnite was released in 2017 and has evolved a lot since then. Find out here what has happened so far.
What were the beginnings? Fortnite was released on September 26, 2017. At that time, the game was still a pure co-op shooter. A solo player or a team are out and about here and collect resources during the day to fend off powerful zombie hordes at night.
The fun game concept was expanded to include a Battle Royale mode on September 26, 2017. It played in a similar way to the then very popular titles of the genre, but kept building from the PvE mode as a special feature. In Fortnite you could build your own cover and over time, a completely unique way of playing emerged that differed from other shooters.
Instead of just relying on shooting skills, good Fortnite players had to master the art of building massive forts in frenetic skirmishes while dismantling enemy structures.
Fortnite: Chapter 4 Season 1 gameplay trailer
Those were the first two chapters
The new Battle Royale game mode was well received by players. This was mainly due to an innovation that is now common in all games of the genre (and beyond): the Battle Pass. This feature motivated people to keep playing, because the more you gambled and achieved success, the more cool skins you could earn, some of which were only available during the pass period.
Here you can download Fortnite for free.
From now on, new seasons with new passes, each with a special theme, will follow every few months. In chapter 1 there were a total of 10 seasons with the following additional aspects:
At the end of Season 10 there was an event called “The End” and after that Fortnite was actually offline. Many a fan feared that Epic had actually deleted the game.
But shortly after, the game was back, but in a fundamentally new form. This was followed by “Chapter 2” with 8 more seasons:
The finale of Chapter 2 saw a grand battle against the aliens and the “Queen of Dice”. The island ended up being literally flipped over and play continued on the other side.
It all came lately
This was chapter 3: The short 3rd chapter brought a lot of new features that made the “modern” Fortnite that you are now experiencing in chapter 4 possible in the first place. Once again the entire map was reworked and there were completely new places next to well-known places. The slide movements, which have been very popular up to now, also came into play here.
An armed conflict then broke out in the second season. The “Imagined Order” invaded the game world with an army of villains and massive tanks. In addition, the enemy created a force field that made any construction impossible. Suddenly you had to look for cover yourself and anyone who had previously fully relied on their skills as a master builder now had serious problems and had to adapt.
The Zero Build mode was later removed with the defeat of the Order, but since many players enjoyed it, it remained as a separate game mode.
There were also other movement methods that made Fortnite even faster. In Season 2 you could climb and sprint tactically. This gave Fortnite a lot of extra pace and dynamics.
In the third season, there was a peaceful good mood time in the game world, until in a massive event of previously unimagined length, the whole game world was smashed to pieces by a new villain.
The current world of Chapter 4 was formed from the rubble, but that wasn’t the only major change.
This came in Chapter 4: The end of Chapter 3 not only brought a new map as usual. This time everything was actually different because the game was upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.1. This gave the game a whole new look.
The new graphics features Lumen, Nanite and Virtual Shadow Maps made Fortnite look like a new game. There are now much more detailed textures, awesome new lighting effects and shadows never seen before in the game. Since all of these features can be seen in this abundance for the first time in a game, Fortnite also became a showcase project for the possibilities of the new engine.
Gameplay is now noticeably smoother than before. On the one hand, you have more options for movement, including motorbikes, mounts and the already familiar sliding and climbing options. The map is also smaller and therefore offers faster action. Hotspots are generously distributed and offer daring players lots of action and fat loot at the beginning of the game.
Building is still possible in the regular Battle Royale mode, but there is also a separate lobby in which building is disabled and you have a little more shields. The weapon selection is less wacky this time than in previous seasons. You shoot mostly with pistols, assault rifles and shotguns.
But there are also some crazy weapons, including a sword cannon or a massive hammer, with which you can also cover great distances.
Here you can download Fortnite for free.
Since Fortnite dares a kind of fresh start in Chapter 4 and does not flood players with a multitude of new features, the current Chapter 4 is particularly suitable for newcomers and returnees as well as people who have not had any desire to build the game before. Tips and tricks for newbies can be found here: Useful tips for anyone who hasn’t tried Fortnite yet