'Fortnite' Is Throwing Away What Makes It Special: The Building Mechanic

Imagine the hubris it must take to believe your construction-based game is so successful it could do without the building part. Relax, this isn't about an upcoming minimalist version of SimCity or Cities: Skylines where players just get to stare at the in-game equivalent of the Windows XP wallpaper for the entire time. We're talking about the mindset of the people behind Fortnite. The masterminds at Epic Games are so confident at their player base that they've recently performed one of the largest flexes conceivable: the introduction of a temporary gameplay mode where players couldn't make use of the game's legendary building mechanics. This marks the completion of Fortnite's transformation from an original and promising concept that no one cared about into a worse-looking clone of every Battle Royale.

Yes, we must not “them” mess with our recollections anymore; Fortnite was once an awesome game about getting a bunch of builders working together against hordes of zombies.

Dataminers just found out that Epic Games won't let the wonky mode go anywhere, meaning that Epic Games seemingly regrets the damage they've caused to the gaming landscape so much that they're searching for the most efficient way to implode.

While “no building” won't be the only mode available, this sucks because Fortnite's gunplay can't stand on its own. The move sounds good only in the sense that it could potentially teach kids that guns suck because otherwise, it feels like a version of Minecraft where we can't mine or craft because we have to pay attention to the game's riveting story. Oh, wait, that exists! It's called Minecraft: Story Mode, and the company that made it went bankrupt.

Top Image: Epic Games