Fortnite Reload — a new version of the battle royale in the vein of Call of Duty: Warzone’s Resurgence — came out of nowhere last weekend, a surprising shot in the arm for a game it badly needed after its summer-oriented vehicle release fell. smooth for multiplayer – especially with people who prefer construction mode. This included many prominent streamers who struggled to adapt to all the new changes in Chapter 5 Season 3 that were at odds with normal playstyles in build mode.
Reload looks like Epic’s fastest possible build response to a weak start to the season. And while I’d like to be bummed 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 this right.
The reason Fortnite Reload works is because the idea is a good one that Epic probably had in mind for a while. Call of Duty Warzone’s Resurgence was created as a sort of bridge between Call of Duty’s standard deathmatch and Warzone’s battle royale, allowing players to automatically respawn after dying, as long as they have companions alive. It was a great hybrid between Call of Duty modes, the best of both worlds.
Fortnite’s version of this is pretty simple. It’s squad-only, maxes out at 40 players, has a set of weapons and items from Chapters 1-4, and takes place on a compressed version of the Fortnite OG map from last November, populated with landmarks like Tilted Towers and without much desert in the middle of cities. With the smaller map, fights tend to be heated from the second you hit the ground, but the risk for these fights is lower – as long as one of your teammates survives for 30 seconds after you die, you’ll automatically respawn in mid-air with a gray assault rifle to drop for more. However, at the end of the match, respawns will be disabled and you will have to fight the endgame more carefully.
The result is the fastest and sweatiest Battle Royale version of Fortnite ever. If you land on the Tilted Towers in the center of the map, you’ll fight non-stop from the moment you drop until your time in this match ends. And despite the lack of cars or Nitro Fists, there’s plenty of flying in the air in Reload thanks to the OG versions of shockwave grenades and crash pads, which are much more powerful and send you flying much further than the modern versions. .
The replay mechanic also drives the action in many interesting ways. You’ll often have enemies shooting at you from all directions, and respawns have a habit of falling behind you while you fight with their friends. Keeping your head on a swivel is a must. But while these fights are usually out of control, reruns allow you to play in a looser and freer way, as the stakes for each random fight are significantly lower. Accidentally flying into the middle of a full 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 probably get you killed, at least until the replays are turned off for the endgame.
But my favorite little quirk in Fortnite Reload is how personal combat 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 catch you either, and you end up in a seemingly perpetual war until another team wanders in and upsets the balance. And when you’re finally able to finish off these mortal enemies, the satisfaction is immense – and when you lose to them, it’s that much more painful.
I’ve always been wary of Epic’s idea of adding new, permanent Battle Royale modes, but Reload hits a unique sweet spot because it’s so sweaty and intense, much more so than a normal round of Battle Royale. To me, it fills a void: This is Deathmatch’s version of Fortnite, but it retains enough of the core Fortnite Battle Royale experience that it’s still far more intellectually engaging than just shooting people down the hallway over and over again.
And while I don’t have any particular love for the Chapter 1 map or the old weapons since I didn’t start playing until the end of Chapter 2, I love that Reload has a completely different map and a completely different set of weapons than Battle Royale- -and they sprinkle in enough newer weapons, like the Stinger SMG or the Hammer Assault Rifle, to keep things from being too stale. It’s a significant change of pace from the normal Battle Royale mode in every way.
And while some people don’t like Reload being played only in squads, I actually think it’s perfect that way for now. With the map full of four-player squads, it keeps things crowded and frantic from start to finish, because it’s not easy to quickly wipe out an entire squad when there’s a 30-second cooldown timer. And it’s a very reload-friendly mode, even without comments, because of how “deathmatch-y” it is – since Reload moves so fast, it’s more about fighting than winning. As intense as these matches are, victories are definitely sweeter in Reload than in Battle Royale. Even just wiping out a team is comically satisfying, inspiring a squeal of enthusiasm from me every time.
So yeah, I love Fortnite Reload, and I wasn’t one of those people who hated Chapter 5 Season 3 either — I’ve been a huge fan of the entire season drive, actually. But Reload is so distinct from Fortnite’s Battle Royale, with its OG map and completely unique loot pool, that there’s room in my heart for both, and I can’t wait to see what new wrinkles Epic adds to it over time. times.