Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2 (PS4) Review

This is an update to my review of Fortnite (PS4) from December 2019. (https://gamereviewnation.blogspot.com/2019/12/fortnite-ps4-review.html) Meanwhile the Chapter 2 Season 1 and the following part Chapter 2 Season 2 have ended.

I have already characterized the majority of aspects from Chapter 2 Season 1 in my previous review of the game and will only add observations, that I failed to mention or aspects and events that occurred till the end of the season. 

Chapter 2 Season 1 had a Star Wars Event, but no real Story Event. This was probably the most disappointing aspect of the season. Between Season 3 and Season 10 there have always been map changes and story events, but CH2 S01 took a break from this tradition. (The next season thankfully brought this exciting element back) The other really disappointing aspect was the seasons extreme length. CH2 S01 went on for over 4 months and was even extended to end 2 weeks later than originally planned. This is why 'A new world' is also being referred to as 'the endless season'. 

A small replacement event was the yearly Halloween episode of Fortnitemares. It allowed players to battle the Stormking from Fortnite Save the World in an LTM of the BR mode. It was a giant boss fight on the Isle of the Storm and brought some PVE elements to Fortnite BR. 

Challenges were an essential element of CH2 S01 and weekly challenges and daily quests in addition to daily punchcards rewarded players with XP to grind through the battle pass levels. The XP-rate got drastically buffed through the season to enable players to reach Level 100 of the battle pass to unlock all cosmetics and to have a realistic chance to also get to Level 350, which unlocked a secret skin. (The alternated skin of 8-Ball called Scratch starts to get corrupted after level 100 and completes his transformation at around level 350) At the first weeks of the season, the XP-rate was so low, that even reaching Level 100 of the battle pass would have required massive amounts of grinding. 

The Alter Ego Challenges enabled users to unlock a second style (Alter version) for every battle pass skin. The Alter versions look drastically different and got names of their own, making them something like 'evil twin' versions of the existing characters. The last two weeks of the season additionally brought the overtime challenges, which allowed battle pass owners to get Purple Remedy, Purple Sludge, Gold 8-Ball and Yellow Chic (A third version of these 4 characters). The secret character of the season was Sorana, who could be unlocked through finding Fortnite letters, which got hidden in the different loading screens of the season. The Christmas event 'Winterfest' also gave 16 cosmetics away for free (including 2 full character skins) to all players, who logged into the game during the event. I have to compliment Epic for both giving away free skins on Christmas as well as introducing these alternative skins, that are more than just a different iteration of the same character, but like 7 new characters in addition to the regular battle pass skins. This increased the diversity of skins and gave players and incentive to play/grind for the unlocks.

An aspect that I didn't fully cover in my previous review was the strict reduction of the weapon selection in Chapter 2 Season 1. 25 weapons and items like the Slurp Juice and some sniper rifles got removed at the beginning of Ch2 S01. Some items like the launch pads however got reintroduced later on. These changes were probably undertaken in order to reduce the complexity of the weapon selection and to help define Chapter 2 as a new simplified restart of Fortnite. 

Even though no story event or much story progress (aside from the loading screen images) took place during the season (The Ego and Alter versions of the characters have been fighting each other, especially 8-Ball and Scratch. The Chaos Agent seems to be the leader of the Alter Team and he apparently has some kind of vicious plans with the purple cube at the power plants in Steamy Stacks.), there were some very small hints towards Ch2 S02. During the last days of Ch2 S01 some furniture in a house on the Eye Land (Small island in the middle of the island) turned golden. Foreseeing the introduction of Midas in the next season.

Overall Ch2 S01 had some great elements like the brand new and well designed map, that offered a fresh and calm restart, the cool new characters and alternative skins, the free gifts from the Christmas event and the XP-Buff that allowed even casual players to complete the battle pass. The biggest weakpoints were the lack of story progression and the intolearable length of the season. One of these aspects would already be bad, but in combination they created a real monotony in the last 1-1,5 months of the season and many players lost interest. The weapons and vehicles reduction and the loss of snowy and desert elements on the map may have also angered some players, but the simplifications (at least for the start of a new chapter) were mostly appreciated and I would agree with that. Despite the flaws Fortnite managed to restart the game in a successful manner. 

Chapter 2 Season 2 features a special agents theme, called 'Top Secret'. The season was supposed to be only about 2 months long and therefore a lot shorter than the endless season (More to that later on...). 5 new POI locations were introduced in the season, bringing in 5 secrets hideouts of the two new agent organisations. These two organisations are Shadow and Ghost, that represent dark and light mirror versions of each other. (It is unclear whether Ghost and Shadow are just rebranded versions of Alter and Ego, or brand new groups of their own) Some of the Characters from previous seasons (like Peely, Journey or Lynx) are part of the agents, as well as 5 new characters from the Ch2 S02 Battle Pass. Each of these 5 new characters is the guardian of one of the 5 new POI hideouts. Battle Pass owners can upon reaching a certain level and completing the majority of weekly challenges from one of these characters (In CH2 S02 the 5 guardian characters feature 2 weeks of challenges each) unlock an additional Shadow or Ghost version of the Character. The choice however is permanent and can not be reversed (Each character can be chosen separately). 

4 of the hideouts are located at the outside points of the Fortnite map, which can make them very dangerous places. Not only can other players land there as well, but every hideout also features around two dozen Henchmen, which are Bot players who attack real players upon sight. Human players can avoid that, by using one of the multiple clothing booths at every hideout and dressing up with a henchmen outfit themselves. If disguised players open fire or are being shot on, then they lose their disguise. Furthermore, every hideout also features a variety of turrets and cameras, that will attack enemy players or alert the hideout guardians and henchmen (These turrets and cameras can also be deactivated through the destruction of the main power system of each hideout). 4 of the 5 hideouts are also dangerous places, because the likelihood of the next zone being further away is much higher at an outside point. Only the agency is an exception to this, because it is based right in the middle of the map. It otherwise however operates in the same was as all the other hideouts. The guardians of the hideouts all possess a golden rarity special weapon, which they drop upon defeat. These powerful weapons in combination with the Vaults (A treasure chamber in every hideout), who can only be opened with the vault key from the 5 guardians, are a great incentive to balance the higher risk/danger of the new POIs. 

Every hideout also features multiple secret passages, which are mobile toilets that allow to secretly enter the hideout through these shortcuts. This can be a great way to perform an undercover infiltration of one of the hideouts or to sneak up on a group of enemy players. Aside from the vaults, the hideouts also feature multiple id scanner protected chests, that usually contain rare weapons. Players can open them by either using a henchmen disguise or carrying downed henchmen to the chests to scan them. 

A new feature of the season also comes in very handy at the bases. Downed henchmen or human players can be scanned in order to reveal the position of the other henchmen/ teammates of the enemy player. Another new addition to this season are throwable consumables. Potions or bandages can now be thrown to teammates, instead of dropping them, or even be used as a throw attack on enemy players. Season 2 also brought for the first time Gliders, on which the players can stand, while dropping onto the map.  

Now lets talk a bit more about the Battle Pass characters and the new hideouts. The level 20 character Brutus is kind of a door man/ security guard, and he is located at the 'Grotto', which is a secret hideout in the shape of a empty volcano in the east of the Fortnite map, north of Retail Row and south of Dirty Docks. The underground base has a water entrance from the sea, an opening in the top of the volcano and a side entrance south of Dirty Docks. Half of the Grotto consists of water and beach areas, while the other half are mainly underground tunnels (The Grotto reminded me a lot of Blofelds secrets underground volcano base in the James Bond Movie 'You Only live twice'). Brutus feature weapon is his mythical minigun. After week 2 of the season the majority of players choose the Shadow version of Brutus and therefore made him join that faction and the whole Grotto including the there stationed henchmen also defected to Shadow (Permanent switch of Outfits and Logos in the Grotto). The Grotto even received a giant Shadow skull building at the mountainous side of the volcano. (Brutus Ghost skin looks a lot like a Stormtrooper from Star Wars and his Shadow Skin seems to be a homage to Call of Duty Ghosts or the character Ghost in Call of Duty Modern Warfare.)

TNTina is the level 40 character and she resides at the 'Rig', in the southwest of the Fortnite Map (West of Slurpy Swamp). TNTina is, as the name heavily suggests, an explosives specialist (Further emphasized by her shirt label 'Boom' and a grenade, that she always has equipped at her pants). Her special weapon is the Boom Bow, a bow that shoots explosive arrows. The Rig is a large oil rig with multiple platforms of tower cranes, cargo boxes and some office rooms. After week 4 TNTina also defected to Team Shadow and so did the Rig. In Comparison to the Grotto, the Rig changed a lot more after the switch, because TNTina (accidentally?) blew up a large portion of the site. The one big Rig is now split up into three different much smaller parts, that are interconnected through parts of debris. It looks like a giant bomb blew up on the place. I do like that Fortnite implements some of the map changes during their season and especially, that the agency affiliation of the characters (that are influenced through the players) impact the map, but I liked the original version of the Rig a lot more than the blown up one. The Rig therefore is certainly my least favourite Agency hideout. (TNTinas Shadow Skin is the same as her original, just with a black shirt, black pants and some new tattoos. Her Ghost Skin is the same, just in white. Brutus actually had 3 noticeably different skins, which was in my opinion much better.) 

On Level 60 players could unlock Meowscles, a half cat, half human guardian. He has a lot of muscles and seems to physically be very strong. Meowescles fur is brown and white coloured and his face consists of a brown, white and blue part. His heart tattoo of Lynx indicates a romantic connection to her and in the season trailer Meowscles also seems to be a close ally of Midas. His special weapon is a mythical heavy assault rifle, and he resided for the first half of the season on the 'Yacht', at the northeast of the map (just outside of Steamy Stacks). The Yacht has different levels on it, including a storage space basement, a dance floor at the ground level and different decks with bars and sunshades (The Yacht generally looks a lot like the one from the COD Black Ops map 'Hijacked'). In the middle of the dance floor there is a giant golden Midas statue and one of the rooms on the higher floor is actually a kitten room of Meowscles with a big cat toilet and a cat flap. After week 6 the Yacht turned to team Ghost and Meowscles joined their faction. This however only lasted for a short time, till Ghost kicked Meowscles out and replaced him with Deadpool. Deadpool changed the entire decor of the Yacht and replaced everything with his logo (The Midas statue is now even wearing a Deadpool mask). Deadpool also replaced Meowscles as the guardian of the POI and his special weapons are his trusted mythical double pistols. Meowscles is since than residing at the box factory (southeast of Lazy Lake) and has switched from Team Ghost to Shadow. If players approach him cautiously, they can see and hear him cry. It is unclear whether he is crying/ switched the factions, because he was kicked out of the Yacht or because of Lynx indicated death on the hands of Midas. If Meowscles gets killed at the Box factory, he will still drop his Yacht vault key, which is pretty funny. (Meowscles Ghost skin wears a purely white fur and a blue jeans. His eyes are shining in gold. Meowscles Shadow skin on the other hand consists of a black fur colour and he is wearing a black jeans. He has various scars on his body, including one over his left eye. Both eyes are shining in a bright red colour.)  

The fourth guardian is Skye, who unlocks at level 80. Skye seems to be an adventurer, who was largely inspired by the Legend of Zelda games (She wears a Jeans jacket, a back pack, a hat with wings and a photo camera). Even though she also wears a sword, that looks a lot like the Master Sword from the Zelda games, her special weapon is actually a mythical grappler, that has infinite ammunition (She often drops, a second mythical weapon in the form of an Assault rifle, upon death). Skye is the boss at the shark, at the northwest side of the Fortnite map (The island northwest of Sweaty Sands, a bit west of the lighthouse). The Shark is a large mansion on a smaller island aside a rock in the shape of a shark. There is an underground base below the mansion, that is connected to a cave in the shark rock (You can enter and leave seaways through the sharks mouth). The island also contains a large swimming pool and a beach side with a couple of sun loungers. Skye became after week 8 a part of Team Ghost, although the majority of players actually picked her shadow outfit (Apparently the choice was altered by the developers in order to create a more balanced storyline, in which not every character is part of Shadow). The shark probably got the biggest change of the 5 hideouts after being taken over by Ghost. The shark rock remained the same, but the mansion got completely removed and replaced with a large prison complex. There are multiple guardian towers, surrounded by high walls and within the prison building there are a lot of jail cells, some of them even got tunnels to the outside or a broken wall, where prisoners could have escaped. The swimming pool area also got replaced and there is now a small basketball court there. (The Ghost and Shadow version of Skye are just recolours of her default outfit. The Ghost outfit wears green pants, a green shirt, a green hat with a brown jacket and a green sword. The Shadow version of Skye consists of black pants and leather jacket mixed with a purple hat, shirt and sword. Same as TNTina these alternate outifts of Skye aren't all that special.)

The final guardian and Level 100 character is Midas, who resides at the Agency (In the center point of the Fortnite Map). He is the leader of all Agents and of Team Ghost. The whole character is based on the king from the ancient Greek mythology (There was multiple Greek kings by the name of Midas, but the legend is based on the mythological version of Midas, who was fascinated by Gold). The Fortnite version of Midas wears a dark grey suit without jacket, but with a vest. He has a large characteristic scar over his right eye, while his left eye got a golden pupil. His hands and even some of his tattoos have turned golden, but the rest of his body has kept his natural skin colour. Midas also wears two golden revolvers at his holster and two golden grenades at his belt. His special weapon is Midas golden drum gun, which also known by the Nickname Midas Tommy gun (Midas Shadow Skin wears a black suit with a black tie and black shirt. His Ghost Skin has light grey suit combined with a white shirt. Apart from the recolouring they are nearly identical to his regular skin, with the twist, that his skin has completely turned to gold and all his tattoos have been removed). Midas also has a special feature, that separatas him from most other characters. No matter which version of Midas a user decides to wear in a match, all his weapon and all the vehicles he enters will always get a golden wrap. This is actually nice way to make the Level 100 skin unique, without giving him any gameplay advantages. 

The Agency is a large tower building with many different floor levels, including a big rooftop, multiple basement floors and a couple of different terraces. There is also big side building, which is larger than most agency safe houses, connected to the main building and two different wharves for boats at the Agency island. Through its central position the Agency is often a center point of attention in Fortnite matches (All rivers for example lead to the sea surrounding the Agency). The Agency replaced the Eye Land Island from the previous chapter and was without exaggeration a huge improvement in comparison to the three small cabins, that resided there before. The Agency is also the only location that didn't receive any kind of map change after Midas joined Team Ghost (Aside from flags and henchmen skins changing to Ghost).

Aside from the 5 major Agent hideouts of the two factions, there are also some smaller safehouses, that are occupied by henchmen. These safehouses contain smaller groups of henchmen from one of the factions, but the buildings are noticeably smaller than the hideouts and they don't contain any guardians or vaults. Ghost has only one safehouse in form of the Ghost House, north of Weeping Woods. It's an unnoticeably grey building complex with a lot of mobile toilets in front of it. Ghost House is a bit hidden within the trees near Weeping Woods. Shadow on the other hand has 5 different safe houses. The most low-key safehouse is the one between Sweaty Sands and Holy Hodges. It is a really small house in the nowhere, with very few henchmen. If you don't know the location, you're unlikely to ever come across it. More noticeable is the safehouse north of Misty Meadows. It is based on its own small island and players travelling north from Misty Meadows or south of Lazy Lake are very likely to come across it. Another high-key safehouse is the one east of Craggy Cliffs and west of Steamy Stacks. It lies on top of a mountain and does not only consist of four floors (including a basement and rooftop stage), but also has a separate chopper landing place (More to that later on). The most secret safehouse was probably the underground facility below Pleasant Park. Till the Chopper upgrade it was only accessible through secret passages in Pleasant Park and therefore hidden from plain view. Since the update however the football field in Pleasant has been removed, so that choppers can start from the underground facility. The last shadow safe house is also an underground facility below the gasoline station east of Frenzy Farm. It however has no choppers and is still only accesible through the secrets passages around the gas station.    

   

The Battle Pass also brought 3 additional characters/skins. Maya was a unique introduction, since she is the first fully customizable character in Fortnite. Users can choose from approximately 3.8 million different combinations of outfits and hairstyles (At least according to the developers). Completing Maya challenges unlocks additional outfit options of her. She and Agent Peely are the starting characters, which unlock at Battle Pass Level 1. Agent Peely has gotten some criticism by experienced Fortnite players, since the normal Peely was already part of the Season 8 Battle Pass. There are also Ghost and Shadow versions of Agent Peely included in the Battle Pass, who don't require a special mission to unlock and who can both be acquired by all players. (The standard Agent Peely skin wears a brown pinstripe suit, whereas the ghost and shadow versions are Peely with a white/black tuxedo.) The third other Battle Pass skin was the secret character Deadpool (Not so secret, since he was not only in the reveal trailer, but also in practically all major parts of advertisement for this season). Deadpool is the first 'secret' character of a Fortnite Battle Pass, who is based on a movie/game corporation, which is probably a sign of the good relationship between Epic and Marvel (Multiple previous crossovers). Deadpool underlines his prominent position in Season 2 through having his own secret tab in the Battle Pass menu. Upon clicking on an air shaft in the menu, players will get to Deadpools secret lair in an underground bath room/toilet, where they can access his Computer to receive weekly Deadpool challenges aside from the regular weekly Battle Pass challenges. There are only 2 Deadpool challenges per week and they all are extremely easy and fast to perform. The challenges unlock cosmetic rewards, which include 3 different outfits of Deadpool. One of them is his regular outfit from the movies/comic books, another one is an unmasked version of Deadpool and his final outfit is the grey X-Force version of Deadpool. 

The 5 guardian characters and Peely also have a fourth unlockable purely golden version of themselves, that can be unlocked at level 100, 140, 180, 220, 260 and 300. The gold will at these stages start to slowly taken over their bodies and about 30-40 levels will be needed to achieve the fully gold skins. For Deadpool and Maya there are however no such skins available. The golden skins remind me a lot of the Scratch Skin from CH2 S01. It is nice, that there are incentives for players to level their Battle Passes beyond 100, but I dislike the high set targets. Even with the increased leveling speed above 100 it takes a lot of grinding and without vast extensions of the seasons regular length, the tasks seems kind of impossible. Part of the reason is, that the regular XP for matches (ridiculously low XP for wins or kills) is tiny in comparison to XP from weekly challenges. 

Aside from the weekly Challenges (20 challenges from every of the 5 hideout guardians, separated in two weeks each) and the Maya and Deadpool Challenges, there were also some special quests in CH2 S02. In the middle of the season along with the new 'Midas Revenge' skin set the 'Awaken Oro' challenges were available to all players, which allowed to unlock a golden wrap and a golden Scepter as a harvesting tool. There were also some easy challenges for participating in the Operations of the Spy Games modes. Aside with the first event of the season, the Travis Scott Astronomical event, they also brought some new time-limited challenges to the game. The event was not story related and instead a big commercial event featuring an admittedly pretty well orchestrated music show with a gigantic version of the musician Travis Scott in it. It was more than just a simple concert and instead let players even travel through underwater and above the sky. Players could also unlock a new dance emote, a loading screen, a glider and some sprays during the event. This was followed by another concert by some guys called Diplo and Major Lazer. 

Fortnite even created a new game mode for this concert called Party Royale, in which players could neither attack nor build anything. This mode uses a new island called Papaya, which is different than the regular Fortnite map and Prematch Lobby. The island features a large plaza in the middle of the map with a couple of buildings and green areas. It is the main hotspot for players to meet. The other two major locations of Papaya are the Main Stage in the east of the map, where players can watch concerts etc. and the Big Screen in the West, where movies or other broadcasts could be shown. Papaya also features a couple of smaller locations like a Pirate ship in the north, a race track in the southwest, a Football (Soccer for Americans) field in the northeast, a small pier in the south and a couple of smaller islands in the southwest. These locations can be used for some peaceful and stressless fun-time activities. There are also a couple of gliding, swimming and boat racing challenges scattered across the map. The whole Party Royale seems to serve to the function of social meeting place for friends ingame. Players could also participate alone in some of the activities, but probably get bored after a few minutes. There are no weapons in Party Royale and players can only use gadgets like paint guns or grapplers. Building is by the way completely deactivated in this mode. I personally wouldn't have needed a Party Royale mode and instead preferred, if the Fortnite developers would have invested that time in actually improving their gameplay in the regular modes (A lot less content overall in longer periods of time than in Chapter 1). I however understand that the developers are trying to appeal to bright casual audience and if you take that under consideration the creation of Party Royale does somewhat make sense. 

Many players enjoyed these concert events and called them an entertaining addition to the game, for which they show a lot of understanding. I myself am a bit more critical towards these events. For one, I don't believe that Fortnite needs these promotional events (You could also call them shameless advertising, but Fortnite Hardcore Fans strictly disagree), they earn such enormous amounts of money with their overpriced skins, they should not host such things, that don't fit the game lore. I am also angry about the events, because they got announced after Fortnite out of the blue extended the season for a full 5 weeks (!!!). So instead of the planned 10 weeks, which would have been an optimal length, the season has now featured around 3,5 months. (Shortly before the Device Event the Season got another 1 week extension... and another week after that...) Chapter 2 Season 2 will therefore be nearly as long as the heavily criticized previous 'endless' season. This shows to me, that the developers of Fortnite are much more interested in milking their players wallets instead of delivering promised content. Programming map changes or storylines is far more work than creating the 1000th overpriced Skin and apparently the Fortnite Creators have completely switched their focus on the later one. Many people might now argue the Corona-epidemic being the reason for the delay. I sincerely doubt that. During the season, which was at the peak of the pandemic, there were absolutely no delays in content and many of Fortnites competitors delivered their new seasons at the promised dates or with minimal delays of a week, which would have been understandable (Apex Legends and COD Warzone for example). The 7 weeks delay is in my opinion not acceptable. 

After the announcement of the extensive delay of the season, the developers released some overtime challenges (Location Domination Challenges). These challenges are gradual, which means each got 3 different iterations. The first is the easiest and quickest, which gives 10.000 XP and the second offers 25.000 XP and the last 55.000 XP. Most of the challenges are pretty basic like collect this resource, open x chests at this place or kill x people in this location. The third iteration can also be pretty dull and monotonous, like collecting 100 fishes or gaining 3000 wood. If you consider that these challenges are aside of the concerts and the main event the only real content in the 7 weeks delay phase, than the impression is pretty disappointing. The XP might help some players to gain a few levels, but it won't be enough to get players from 100 or 150 to level 300+. Fortnite honestly performs very underwhelming at the end of this season. During the regular season I actually had a lot of fun with the different challenges and some map changes, but the extension period is kind of a mess. A small compensation were the Storm the Agency challenges, which were originally supposed to release alongside the main story event of the season, but because of the many delays already dropped weeks earlier. These challenges rewarded players with another unique glider (Shadow Image) and harvesting tool alongside some XP.

The Device Event (aka Doomsday Event) finally took place on June 15th. Midas used a Device in the middle of the Agency, powered by antennas from the 5 hatches in the sea around the Agency, in order to push back the storm (area outside the zone). It apparently was Midas goal to ultimately destroy the storm and break the cycle of every match. Powered by the antennas the device flew high up into the sky and successfully pushed back the storm. The storm however kept reappearing stronger after every attempt. In between these attempts flashback scenes appeared, which allowed players to investigate the Office of Jonesy in First-Person Perspective, which was the first time Fortnite enabled this perspective. Jonesy was in this sequence able to speak and his dialogue implied, that the Fortnite matches are just a huge simulation within the game. After the last flashback scene players were sent back to the Agency, that was now for the most part destroyed and surrounded by gigantic waves of water. Matches in the last 1,5 days of the season after the device event saw the giant water waves replace the regular storm (After the season ended these water waves apparently collapsed floating the map in the process for Chapter 2 Season 3). It is still important to mention, that Fortnite limited the accessibility of the event due to server problems to less than 50% of global Fortnite players. The developers asked players to login 30 mins before the event to securely participate. Nonetheless, they already closed access to the game 32 mins before the event started. Therefore most players missed the event and Epic Store users, who were not interested in Fortnite couldn't play any other games during the duration of the Event. Epic Games seriously need to improve this situation, so that non Fortnite players can still access the Epic Game Store during events and the majority of Fortnite players are able to participate in their events. The event itself was well done, but the technical support of Epic Games was unfortunately another epic fail.

Aside from the hideout changes after the Shadow/Ghost takeovers, there have also happened a couple of other map changes during the duration of the season. Most of them have been rather small, but entertaining to watch during the length of season. There for example has been a parked car in a small mansion, that crashed out of a window and multiple cranes have attempted to rescue it, but failed. A large sculpture made out of pipes ('The Pipeman') has been travelling to different places during the season and a truck full of chairs and a truck with pallets have been driving towards each other and crashed at the end of the season, creating a total disaster. Midas golden chair had been stolen from the Agency and reappeared in different hiding places. There have also been many other small stories during the season, like the war between the garden gnomes and the teddy bears. 

The biggest changes however were the addition of multiple helipads in all of the 5 hideouts and some of the shadow safehouses. The arrival of the helicopters/choppers didn't only bring some massive map changes, but it also significantly switched up the gameplay. The previous season had the speedboats as the only vehicle in the game (In chapter 1 there used to be planes, grappling balls, golf carts, trolleys and Brutes, even though most of them not at the same time). The helicopters are now the second attempt on a flying vehicle. In comparison to the planes from season 7, which were, because of their onboard guns, often seen as OP, the helicopters don't feature any onboard weapons. The choppers are therefore much more balanced and give less of a gameplay advantage. The choppers are on the other hand very useful to outrun the zone or to escape from a gunfight. The passengers can shoot their normal weapons from the sides of the helicopters, but it takes quite some skill to hit something during the flight. The helicopters therefore achieve a good balance between risk and reward and are a great addition to the game. In late game fights however helicopters are very rarely seen, because they can be destroyed easily by a well organized team in a small circle. It is therefore recommendable to only use them in early or mid game (It is also not possible to jump out of the helicopter and activate a glider, which prevents suicide attacks by helicopters).  

Aside from the Helicopters there was also one more major addition during the season. In tune to the Secrets Agents theme of the Season, there was the addition of 4 new Time limited modes. These modes are called 'Spy Games' and they don't feature the usual random weapons from the main game modes. Instead, Fortnite users get fixed weapons and have to choose between Team Ghost and Team Shadow and level up one of the factions. There are 50 levels total and each offers a new weapon, a new gadget or a new ability (like self increasing shields, more Pistol damage etc.). Players can switch between factions in the Spy Games menu, but each faction has 50 individual levels of upgrades. 

In 'Operation Dropzone' two teams of 20 players drop into a small circle and fight each other, similarly to the Team Rumble mode. The circle constantly moves around and every now and then Intel drops from the Sky in form of a Supply Drop. Every kill adds 1 point to the teams score and every conquered Intel gives another 10 points. The team wins, which reaches the score limit of 150 first. At the first spawn into the game players can choose one out of three different weapons and gadgets to spawn with. They can also roll the dice to get 3 new choices to select from. Every Intel rewards another selection of weapons/gadgets, that can be chosen upon the next players death. The more the user has leveled a faction in the Spy games menu, the bigger and better his selection in the game will be. Playing successfully, gaining many Intel and wins obviously speeds up the leveling process. 

'Operation Knockout' was the second Spy Games mode, but this time, limited to much smaller teams of 4 players each. The game mode works as kind of a tournament. The battles are fought in a small not moving circle in a select number of locations. In the first round the team will win, which gathers 16 kills first. The winning teams move to the second stage and the winners of that stage move to the third an so on. The winner of the fourth stage is the overall champion. The game is simply over for the losing teams. From the second stage onward there is no score limit, but a short time limit of about 2-3 mins and the team with the highest score at the end of the timelimit proceeds to the next round. At the start of every round players can choose another weapon/gadget in the same fashion as in Operation Dropzone. During the season Fortnite removed Operation Dropzone (The in my opinion more interesting mode) and replaced it with a version of Operation Knockout, that features teams of 2 players. 

After the end of the regular season (First 10 weeks of the 16 weeks season...), Fortnite introduced two additional Operations. Operation Payload has two teams of 8 players each escorting or attacking a payload truck. As long as enough players of the escorting team are standing in area around the payload truck, it will keep moving towards a checkpoint. If there aren't enough escorting players around the truck, it will suddenly stop. When the truck reaches the checkpoint within a certain time limit, than the escorting team wins the round. If they fail, the attacking team will get the win. There are 4 rounds per match and the teams alter after every round. To win the overall match a team has to succeed in at least 3 of the 4 rounds. If both teams get 2 wins, the match will count as a draw. 

The fourth spy game was Operation Infiltration. It has a couple of similarities with Operation Payload. There are again two teams of 8 players each and one has to attack and one to defend an objective. Instead of a moving a truck, there is this time a briefcase. The defending team has to protect the briefcase for 3 minutes, while a player of the attacking team must grab the case and put it into a safe zone of his team. A player, who is holding the case, will move considerably slower than usual and be an easy target for the other team. The attacking team has to try to protect him. If the player holding the case gets shot, the attacking team has 30 additional seconds to retrieve the case or it will be ported back to its original place at the defending teams base. The timer of the match will only go down as long as the brief case remains in the defending teams base. There are again 4 rounds and the team which wins 3 rounds will be the winner of the match.  

Overall the Spy games modes were entertaining, but also disappointing. When they first announced the Spy Games and how it would affect the Fortnite world, I honestly expected some epic siege battles between the factions, or that all players could dress up with permanent henchmen outfits of Ghost and Shadow during these matches. Instead, Dropzone and Knockzone were actually just regular battles in smaller areas. Payload and Infiltration mix things up, but all these Operations don't really have anything to do with Ghost and Shadow. The different Spy Games are certainly a nice distraction from the usual game modes, but they are certainly more basic than what I was hoping for. I feel like Fortnite really missed out on using the potential of the Spy Games. 

The Battle Pass menu also got a total revamp in Season 2. It is now a 3D agency lair with interactable tabs within it (Instead of the old static version, which only displayed the different Tiers and rewards). You can also see all of the Battle Pass characters sitting in the background of the menu, underlining the thematic vibe of the season. One of the tabs in the Battle Pass menu still opens an overview of the different Battle Pass Tiers, but it has been significantly visually updated. There are also tabs to get to see all of the weekly challenges (There is actually a very helpful 3D-map, that shows you the locations of all the different challenges), the up to 3 different daily challenges (You have to manually activate daily challenges instead of taking short breaks from the game, if you want to get 3 dailies at a time...), to visit Deadpools 'lair', to get to Mayas customization menu, the Spy games menu or to take an elevator to the guardian menus. Every of the 5 Battle Pass guardians has a small menu of his own, where you can visit his/her home quarters to watch little background videos of them, to receive your loyalty quests (To unlock Ghost/Shadow Skins) or to simply interact with elements of the background in the quarters.     

The Victory Umbrella in CH2 S02 ('Classified') is made out of pure gold with some black embellishments at the sides. It displays a short agents theme sound effect upon opening the umbrella. The golden look is quite nice and the sound effect probably the best of all the Victory umbrellas so far (CH2 S01 Umbrella also looked quite well designed with its water fountain, it however didn't display any unique sounds).

Pro:

-New Hideouts

-Ghost vs Shadow

-Good quality Battle Pass

-Spy Games were entertaining alternative

-Addition of Choppas

-Fantastic Deadpool Crossover

-Spectacular Device and Astronomical Events

Contra:

-Endless Delays...

-Technical issues during Live Event

-Eternal grind for golden skins

(-Spy Games didn't use potential)

Chapter 2 Season 2 result:

Chapter 2 Season 2 gameplaywise did a lot of things right. The Agents Theme with the exciting competition between Ghost and Shadow and the Map changes in the manner of the new hideouts have truly upgraded the new Chapter 2 map and brought it back to the level of quality between season 3-9. The Battle Pass aligned well with the seasons theme and was generally probably one of the best. Deadpool as the secret BP skin was another ace upon Fortnites sleeve and the level of spectacle from the events in CH2 S02 also set a new quality standard. I would therefore upgrade my gameplay score from the previous Fortnite review to 7.5/10 after CH2S02. Only the service aspect from the Fortnite developers really disappointed me this season. Another season of endless and unexpected delays was a true test of nerves and the frequent technical issues need to stop in the future, especially in regarding the Live Events. The building aspect will remain the critical point, which will ultimately decide how much fun you will have in Fortnite BR. I can however state, that you could despite being a sceptic have a lot of fun in Chapter 2 Season 2 with all its gameplay improvements.

Epic Service: 3-4/10

Gameplay Fun: 7.5/10