Preface
Let me start by admitting that my Star Wars knowledge is limited and loaded with blind spots. When the first two Star Wars movies were released, I was in the US Navy submarine service. My Star Wars knowledge has mostly come peripherally from pop culture. One of my sons urged me to watch the original movie and The Empire Strikes back. I recently watched them with he and my wife. We all enjoyed them.
Fortnite Star Wars Challenges
I have empathy for Fortnite’s creative staff. They were challenged to create something new and interesting based on an original movie that is almost 50 years old. Fortnite has also had Star Wars themed seasons in their past. This means that much of Epic’s creativity on this genre had been tapped earlier.
Epic’s biggest challenge is that many (myself included) simply are not very knowledgeable about Star Wars. Here’s a link to a TikTok post made by one of Fortnite’s biggest streaming stars; SypherPK. In this clip, SypherPK makes very valid points about why this has been such a rough season and Fortnite Battle Royale play is down. He also mentions that he himself has never seen Star Wars.
Fortnite Star Bores
- The Weapons – Changing all weapons to be Star Wars themed has drawn much scrutiny. The weapons all seemingly make “pew-pew” noises and carry unlimited ammo that never needs reloading. Managing ammo inventory and timely reloading of weapons are strategic aspects of the game that were completely eliminated this season.
- The Map – Fortnite took the allure out of locations like Masked Meadows and Crime City but left them standing. I suppose this was to make the new Star Wars themed POIs more compelling. This should not be the case. My advice to Epic is to make the new drop spots more compelling so they can stand on their own two feet. Make them so players will want to go there. Another map problem is that all of the new points of interest (POIs) are on corners of the map. Within the first few moments of the game, most of the new fun POIs are already in the storm.
Fortnite Star Wars
- Darth Vader – This was a fun integration of technology advancements and game play by Fortnite. Darth Vader could be recruited by defeating him in battle. Once recruited, players on his team had the ability to speak to him and get entertaining AI responses (for the most part).
- Star Destroyer – A portal would open and the first player to enter would get to command the Star Destroyer. This was an indestructible flying weapon that wreaked havoc on anything in its way. It was especially fun that when playing as a squad, the entire team was transported there and participated.
Conclusion
For me, and most that I play with, unless you’re a huge Star Wars fan, this season can’t end soon enough. Adding in Darth Vader and Star Destroyer provided short-term entertaining distractions to a very uncompelling season.
Many Battle Royale players fled from Battle Royale to Reload or OG so they could enjoy more Fortnite-like game play experiences. On a side note, I believe Fortnite has too many game modes. This is making it increasingly more challenging to find enough players for all of the ranked varieties of the game.
