Ever heard of Pong? Maybe played it too? How about Super Mario Bros or The Legend of Zelda? If you did, well, you probably lived to play some of the best video games of your era. Then you MUST have grown up with games such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, or some of the more creative games, Mario Kart or the ever so exciting world of Wii.

But have you heard of Fortnite? If you haven’t, you should spend a little time outside of the rock you’ve been living under. You don’t have to have played it, but with the COUNTLESS memes, videos, ads, and promotional videos, it would be really surprising if you hadn’t at least heard of this game, not to mention that it is available for free, (even if it’s just early access) across both the major gaming networks, PC, and now mobile too.

But, if you have played it, then you will know exactly what I am talking about. In this third person shooting game, you put together the excitement, and sometimes enduring task of surviving a match against incredibly good players.

100 players drop into the island, and only one can survive, to most this might seem completely illogical, and utterly discouraging. I mean your chances of winning this match are literally 1 to 100. Yet, you have to keep in mind other factors, despite this game being released for almost a year, there are still the occasional “noobs”, which are the easy kills and first players to go, some even because of falling.

Sometimes however it is not even the other 99 players you have to worry about. To spice up the game even further, the developers over at Epic Games decided to add “The Storm”. Which is literally what the name says, a massive storm of killer gas, that is deadly to any character stuck too long in the storm.

This again, mostly happens to new players, or distracted ones, in my first few matches, I fell victim to this too, and in one occasion I even ran towards the storm not knowing what was going on. But, if you are smart and know how to work the map, you will find yourself well armed and with plenty of materials, which are a huge part of the game. You can get materials, by breaking down trees to get wood, rocks to get brick, and cars or other metal items to get metal scraps. These materials are really important because you can build walls around you, ramps, to get a higher ground on your opponents, and full on forts to take protect you from incoming attacks, but what is great about this, is that they take damage and are broken so you can’t just hide forever behind them. Once you have mastered all fighting, building, and acquiring the proper guns and healing materials, you could end up on the top position maybe even win, which should take anything between 20-30 minutes (the average a whole game should last).

This all refers to Fortnite Battle Royal, but the campaign mode is a bit different. In the story line, 98% of Earth’s population has been killed and you have to fight of waves of zombie-like creatures that drop from the same storm rampaging through Fortnite Battle Royale, most people however, focus on the PvP mode.

Fortnite is compared a lot to PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battleground Game), because they are basically the same idea and same form of game play. The main differences are where you can play these games. Fortnite is available on both Playstation Network and the Xbox platform along with PC, and most recently, the developers at Epic Games, released Fortnite on mobile.

With so many users you might expect a really annoying lag, but that is a great part of this game, along with the graphics which make the game pop, the single map use, and the ability to personalize your character through the purchase of “skins” and emotes that create a style of gaming. I for one have not experienced something like this in all my years of gaming. Unlike many other games you can get the upper hand on other players by purchasing abilities, or weapons, everything you buy will only alter your appearance, not your gaming ability. Above all, what I enjoy the most, is teammate game play. If you have 1-3 friends you can play either a dual match, a 3 person team or a full squad of 4 against other teams or duos against duos.

Now, with the upcoming predictions of the Nuking of tilted towers, one of the most popular spots to land in the island, which at the same time corrupts the whole point of the game. Unless you are a really good player or great at hiding, you might die within a few minutes. As a result, the game is cut down to half of the players within 5 to 6 minutes, angering many players. This just adds even more excitement as to what this game will bring, personally I have played many different video games, with many different story lines, and I can easily place Fortnite above all of them. Speaking with full honesty, I can give Fornite a 9 out of 10. If you haven’t played it yet, I fully recommend it. You might just love the game that has take the world by storm *slaps knee*.

By Herklin Amaro