On Sunday, Epic Games did the unthinkable – they forced everyone to stop playing Fortnite. As the season came to an end, the whole of the map was sucked into a black hole, leaving players to watch as literally nothing else happened.
The game, which has been a smash hit from the moment it came out, left millions of players with nothing else to do but talk to their families or catch up on real-world events (did you know there’s this thing call “news”? Where people sit at desks and just tell you what is happening in the world? It’s pretty crazy).
Now, we all knew that Epic wasn’t actually shutting down Fortnite for good. That would be like Disney randomly announcing that they weren’t going to make any more Marvel movies – you don’t shut down your money machine. What no one expected was that Epic would keep the game offline for so long. All of Monday, Fortnite was dark. This was, in the words of Jason Mantzoukas, bonkers.
But Epic was so certain that their audience would come back, that they didn’t sweat it, unlike the loyal Fortnite fans, who looked like this for well over 24 hours…
And then, early this morning – and we mean really early like 4am Eastern – the black hole vanished switched to a loading screen. A new update was available, and it was a big one, clocking in between 10 and 20 gigs depending on what you were downloading it on. That’s a no joke update right there.
Once the update was downloaded, players were welcomed to Fortnite Chapter 2 with this sweet trailer…
A new chapter and a new map! But that’s not all!
Along with the 13 new locations, Fortnite has added new functionality like hiding in haystacks and dumpsters and the ability to upgrade weapons using resources and an “upgrade bench”. Plus, players can now fish, swim, and use boats!
There’s also new weapons, like the bandage gun, which you can use to heal teammates or yourself.
And if that isn’t enough for you, there’s even a whole new Battle Pass with a changed XP system and in-game medals! The times they are a-changing indeed!
And if you think Epic didn’t add a bunch of new character skins and emotes, you’ve got another think coming! Here are three of our favorites…
Players who have excitedly jumped into the new and improved Fortnite are saying that the game is playing better than ever, and that they are finding themselves doing better than they have in the past. This is likely due to the long-promised fix of the skill matching system – Epic had said that they were working to make sure that players were put into servers with other players of similar skill levels, ensuring that casual players don’t keep getting caught up in maps with pros. The new skill match system also uses bots to fill out the maps.
All in all, it’s a bright new day in the world of Fortnite, and all the kiddies are sure to rush to their PCs and consoles to get in on all the action.
What do you think of Fortnite Chapter 2? Let us know in the comments!
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