With the Gears of War 3 trilogy wrapped up, Epic Games entered this past Saturday night’s Spike VGAs with a big announcement to make. Some speculated it might be a Gears of War spin-off, while others thought it would be a new IP with the same emphasis on third-person combat.
Instead, Epic delivered the world premiere trailer for Fortnite. As the name implies, players take control of “forts” at “night” to defend themselves with weapons like baseball bats from a variety of monsters and critters that rise out of the ground. In that sense, Fortnite should deliver quite a bit of action powered by the latest Unreal Engine.
During the day is where Fortnite takes its chances. The forts that players hide in appear to be built by the players using anything that can salvaged: signs, fences, lumber… you name it. How this mechanic will work logistically in terms of time of day, size, and multiplayer is still unclear, but the potential is there for Epic to deliver something, well, “epic” on the fun and creative scale.
Another shocker about Fortnite is the art style. It’s drawn to look like a three-dimensional CGI cartoon with exaggerated features. Think Bulletstorm, only a lot more cartoony. The reduced polygon counts should help beef up the fort building features, in theory.
Look for more on Fortnite in the future, including what console or consoles it is expected to appear on.
