This is a review for Chapter 2 Season 3 of Fortnite Battle Royale. After the Device-Event of the previous season, CH2S03 featured a water theme. In the beginning of the season major parts of the Fortnite map got flooded and totally changed the battlefield. I have to say, that I really enjoyed the first 2 weeks of the season, when so many parts of the map were changed. It was possible to truly explore the map again and the whole season got a totally new vibe with the water theme, which has last been done probably by season 8 and its big environmental changes.
In week 1 Slurpy Swamp, Weeping Woods, Dirty Docks, Risky Reels, Camp Cod, The Shark and the Grotto were completely covered by water. Other locations like Steamy Stacks, Craggy Cliffs or Salty Springs had large parts of them under water and only the higher buildings had areas which were still accessible. Some places like Sweaty Sands, Pleasent Park or Frenzy Farm were still there, but a lot of their buildings were swimming on life raft platforms in the water. This gave those 3 locations a very different look and feeling, which I found pretty entertaining. Other areas were not really affected by the water at all like all of the higher up locations in the south east of the map (Misty Meadows, Lazy Lake, Retail Row) and interestingly enough also Holly Hedges.
Chapter 2 Season 3 of course also introduced a couple of new locations. The most significant was probably the 'Fortilla' in the southwest of the map, which also took a prominent role in the new Seasons trailer. The Fortilla is based on a complex of different swimming buildings made out of junk pieces. A lot of the buildings are connected through footbridges, but players can also swim between them. The Fortilla is a pretty large area and also includes some small islands with palms and garbage containers on them (The whole area reminded me a lot of the movie 'Waterworld'). Most buildings in the Fortilla area also have multiple floor levels, which include a lot of Chests and even a vault full of Loot. The Fortilla therefore was also one of the hottest drops on the map. The Fortilla furthermore was important for the storyline, because it was the new HQ for Team Ghost and the new character Ocean was its guardian. The Ghost henchmen were accompanying her and Ocean upon defeat dropped two mythic weapons in the form of a mythic Burst Rifle and a Bottomless Chug Jug. The Chug Jug replenished both Life and Shield and can be used infinitely, which makes it very useful, but it is also very loud and slow, which can be difficult to use in a fight. The Mythic Burst Rifle was also a pretty decent weapon, but I personally definitely preferred the Mythic Assault Rifle from Chapter 2 Season 2.
Team Shadow meanwhile took over the Agency and transformed it into 'The Authority'. The main Authority building got even bigger with more floors and more rooms. The building also changed its colour from a neutral grey into badass black, which also fits Team Shadow much better. Surrounding the Agency/Authority island a complex of large walls has appeared into the water giving it the looks of a real fortress and made it generally feel pretty menacing. The Agency was already one of the best POIs, but the Authority is in my opinion even an upgrade to that and it logically became one of the most popular spots on the map. Jules was apparently the mastermind behind the reconstruction of the Authority complex and she also became the guardian of the POI (The Authority was also obviously the HQ of Team Shadow in CH2S03). Shadow Henchmen were stationed at the area same as the Ghost ones at the Fortilla and the Authority main building logically kept its underground vault. Jules dropped a Mythic Glider Gun and a Mythic Drum Gun. The Glider Gun had infinite ammunition, which gave its user a mobility advantage over every other player and it was a pretty useful tool. The Jules Drum Gun was disappointingly weaker than Midas Drum Gun, but still a good weapon.
Another new major POI was Catty Corner, which replaced the Meowscles Box Factory from the previous season. Kit was the new guardian of the hideout and interestingly enough Catty Corner remained independent of Ghost and Shadow and used their own robot henchmen. The former Box factory main building received a surrounding metal wall, making it a small fort (The POI is generally much smaller than the Fortilla and Authority) and giving it some containers and a house trailer. One of the containers also "contains" a small vault. Completely new is also a small gas station just across the street. Kits mythic weapons are a Charge Shotgun and a Shockwave Launcher. The Shockwave Launcher could be used to catapult the player into the air, to stop a fall or to push other players away and was together with Jules Glider Gun probably the most sought-after weapons, because of their mobility advantages. The Mythic Charge Shotgun of course was also pretty good for players, who got used to the new gunplay of that weapon (More to charge shotguns later on).
The last new POI at the start of the season was Rickety Rig. It was built out of the remains of the previously destroyed Rig and mainly contained 3 bigger islands made out of junk, containers, cranes and rusty metal pieces. In a lot of ways it looked like a smaller and less combined version of the Fortilla. One of the islands also included an opened vault without any loot and the POI seems to have generally been abandoned.
Not a new POI, but a slightly transformed one was the Deadpool Yacht, which switched from its original position north east of Steamy Stacks to the northwest of Craggy Cliffs. The Yacht has been partly breaking apart and received a new side ship filled with cargo containers. The Yacht is now much more colourfully painted, but also looks significantly more rusty and decrepitated than the polished luxury Yacht from the previous season.
Outside of the new POIS there were also a couple of new smaller junk islands containing very little loot south of Holly Hedges and Salty Springs, west of Pleasant Park and one between Frenzy Farm and Steamy Stacks. Some smaller and bigger boats with loot have also appeared around the map. The only other place worth mentioning is the Sweat Insurance Boat east of Frenzy Farm, which contained a large storage facility with some pretty good loot.
During the season every week the flooded water areas were beginning to dry out till the end of the season, where most parts of the map were accessible again and the water level has sunk down to the preseason level. I was personally a bit disappointed that the water level was sinking so quickly, since I really enjoyed the 'new' map style in first 1-2 weeks. It was however also nice to see the old POIs like Slurpy Swamp again after it had been covered by water for nearly 2 months and the introduction of the cars was also pretty exciting.
The junk islands and boats have completely disappeared at the end of the season and POIs like Sweaty Sands, Pleasant Park and Frenzy Farm got back to their old looks. The Grotto sadly remained flooded for the entirety of the season. The Yacht, the Fortilla and the Authority remained unchanged and at least the Shark reappeared after its sinking under water, but was mostly left in ruins of the former prison complex. Rickety Rig sadly also suffered a disappointing fate. 2 of its 3 main islands have sunk during the course of the season, leaving only a small area remaining (SPOILER ALERT: In CH2S04 it gets even worse and the rest of the Rig sinks as well...).
The sinking water however also brought a completely new area in terms of Coral Castle, which is like the Atlantis of the Fortnite World. The Coral Castle area is located between Sweaty Sands and The Shark and has been shifted 10 meters below the surrounding sea giving it some 'Moses splitting the sea' vibe. The POI consists of one major stone castle and a couple of surrounding stone buildings and ruins. The whole area is filled with different coral flowers and sculptures. There is a lot of loot in Coral Castle and the environment here is very different to all other parts of the map. I believe it is a great addition to the map and totally in synch with the water theme (Curiously enough the place has still not really turned into a hot drop).
Apart from the map changes there were also a couple of significant gameplay changes in Chapter 2 Season 3. The challenge and XP system got some drastic changes. The amount of weekly challenges was reduced from 10 to 7 per week and the XP reward was lowered from 40.000 to 35.000 per challenge. Some weeks also had challenges, that could be performed by the whole squad instead of just the individual player. The reduction of both the quantity of weekly challenges as well as their rewards would have led to a significantly slower leveling process, if the devs hadn't changed the daily challenges and Punch card system as well. Instead of one new daily challenge per day there were now 5 Quick Challenges every day, which rewarded 14.000 XP. Players could however complete an infinite number of Quick Challenges per day, just that all additional challenges after the fifth were only granting 1400 XP per challenge.
The daily Punch Card System of Chapter 2 Season 1/2 got removed and was replaced by an Achievement based Punch Card system. The regular achievements (Introduced in Chapter 2 Season 1) are still in the game, but now there are also over 50 different Punch Card Achievements. Some of them were individual tasks like 'Riding a Loot Shark' or 'Using a Whirlpool', bust most of these Punch Cards are stackable. These stackable Punch Cards have multiple levels like getting 3 Shotgun Kills, than 10, 25, 100, 500 and 1000. Each stage or fully completed Punch Cards reward the player with another 14.000 XP (Some Punch Cars got added along the season with the Content updates). Most of these Punch Cards come naturally from playing the game, but completing all of them in one season would certainly require a devilish grind. I still think the Punch Cards are a good addition to fresh things up and reward players for other things than just daily and weekly challenges. But if you ask me, I also believe that they should still significantly increase the XP gains for regular wins, top placements and kills.
CH2S03 also brought new additions to the game in form of Sharks, that are scavenging throughout the sea and Whirlpools, which allow players to charge themselves up into the air. The Whirlpools were a great addition to help players travelling per pedes to gain more mobility to outrun the storm or reposition themselves within a fight. It is just unfortunate, that Whirlpools had to be disabled multiple weeks due to some of the many glitches within CH2S03 (Glitches and Bugs seem to have increased within the last two seasons. I have already rightfully complained about this in my last seasons review and we have seen very little progress, if any...). Sharks were a new PVE element. They are traversing the sea and attacking players they meet. Killed Sharks will drop loot, but it takes a lot of Bullets to defeat one of them. In my opinion, it usually isn't really worth defeating them. Sharks will also eat loot, that has dropped onto the ocean and the loot can only be regained by defeating the shark. It is also important to note that the sharks are pretty aggressive. Once they have been aggroed by a player they will follow him or attack him, even if he is within a building or relatively far away from any water places. Sharks can however also be used as a vehicle if players throw a fishing-rod bait near them. The sharks will than begin to constantly launch forward, letting the player water ski behind them. Players can aim the direction the shark is heading, but they can not make him stop. It for sure is a fun addition to the game, but I would also see it as more of gimmick than anything, since the sharks are only really viable in Solo and outside of fights, unless they are exclusively being used for a surprise attack or against bad players/Bots. Nonetheless, the Sharks fit the theme of the season well and I appreciate their inclusion in Chapter 2 Season 3.
Another new addition were the Marauders, who function like the henchmen with the difference, that Marauders randomly drop onto the map via a landing pod crashing from the sky. There are no fixed times or places, where the Marauders will pop up, so that their appearance is totally random. They appear in groups of 5 and if they don't find any players they will start to traverse the map till they can start a fight. Some players really liked them, while others found them very disturbing (Marauders are more likely to third party fighting teams than the henchmen for example). I personally was leaning closer to appreciating their presence as a new exciting addition to the matches, but I can understand why other people might see them as an indication of a too strong focus on PVE elements within the BR mode.
A couple of old weapon and items got unvaulted in CH2S03 and added back to the weaponpool like the Compact SMG, Chug Splashes, Stink Bombs and Hunting Rifles. In Return some other weapons and items like the Pump Shotgun, Bandage Bazookas or Supressed Assault Rifles got temporarily vaulted for that Season.
Apart from new Mythical weapons the biggest brand new additions to the weaponpool were the Charge Shotgun and Firefly Jars. Fireflies are occasionally flying around on some random spots on the map and can be caught into jars. These Firefly jars work like Molotov cocktails and are very useful to burn down structures or buildings. They obviously also do fire damage to surrounding players, but are less dangerous than regular grenades. The Charge Shotgun on the other hand offers a completely new way of playing. It is the first gun that through holding the fire button will charge up its shot to do an increased amount of damage with one single shot. The introduction of the Charge Shotgun was certainly controversial, since it is a very deadly weapon, but it for sure extended the diversity of the weapons. On the other hand I can understand original players, who felt offput by weapons like the Charge Shotgun and the ever expanding amount of Mythical and Special weapons.
One of the content patches during the season also introduced the flare gun as a new weapon into the game. As a weapon itself it isn't that effective as other pistols, but it has two special abilities. For one the flare shots can, in the same way as Firefly jars, easily burn down structures or entire buildings and the Flare guns will also reveal the positions of players in the direction that it was shot. It is therefore a recon tool and needless to say was also controversial among the Fortnite community (To be fair in such a big and diverse community nearly every change is going to be somewhat controversial). I personally like the introduction of the flare gun most of all new weapons/items in CH2S03.
The biggest game changer was however the introduction of cars as driveable vehicles into Fortnite. Cars have always been a part of the game, but were mostly used as a source for resource collection (In Season 5 there were already Golf Carts). The Chapter 2 map has a more natural layout than the Chapter 1 map and the developers first introduced motorboats as the main vehicles in CH2S01 for traversing the map. The vehicle selection was extended by Choppas in CH2S02 and now finally lead to the permanent inclusion of regular cars as a source of mobility. Cars got ported into the game with the 13.40 Patch in week 8.
There are currently 4 types of cars. There is a Truck vehicle, which is pretty heavy and has the most health of the cars and a normal sized fuel tank. Its acceleration is however not the best. The OG Bear is like a mix of a truck and a car and also has the biggest health bar, same as the regular Truck, but the Bear has the biggest fuel tank of them all with 150 %. The OG Bear however seemingly has the lowest top speed. The Prevalant is an everyday car with a regular fuel tank and 800 Health points, which is the lowest of all cars (Truck and OG Bear have 1200 Health). The Whiplash is the real highlight. It looks and drives like a sport car. The fuel capacity is regular and it sits with 1000 health points between the Prevalant and the trucks. The advantage of the Whiplash however is that it can use a Nitro to be much faster than the others. I personally also like the Whiplash the most, since speed obviously is the most important component to traverse or surprise enemies.
A big difference to a lot of other Battle Royale games with cars (like Warzone, H1Z1, PUBG) is, that cars outside of streets will drive significantly slower. A car driving uphill on grass will be extremely slow and an easy target. I personally find this very controversial and even though I clearly understand the reasoning behind the decision (Not change the building and fighting meta too much), I would still prefer them to buff the car speed outside of streets significantly, since cars can occasionally be even slower than the storm, which doesn't feel right to me. A vehicle should always be faster than walking, otherwise there is no real point in it. Fuel can be restored via fuel hoses at gas stations or with portable gas canisters. Cars also have an optional radio with 4 channels playing different music tracks (Don't really care about it, but I am sure there is going to be a couple of people who really appreciate it). Overall I believe the cars are a great addition to Fortnite and they would be even better, if they decrease the 'off the streets' penalty.
The Battle Pass of this season was of mixed quality in my opinion. I remember that my initial impression was very underwhelming since a couple of the skins seem to have been recycled from previous seasons. During the course of the season I started to appreciate the Battle Pass more, but I would still in general rate it as one of the lower half of all Battle Passes.
The Tier 1 Skins were Ocean and Fade. Ocean is a pink haired swimmer/diver and part of Team Ghost. Her swimsuit outfit fits the season's theme 'Splash Down' well. She would probably not be one of my favourite skins, but I would still rate her as good. Ocean has two alternative outfits Riptide Ocean and Cover Ocean. Both outfits wear an additional life jacket and Brutus Ghost Helmet, which Ocean got in the Season Trailer. The Riptide version is pink and the Cover version more turquoise/aquamarine. In Contrast to last season players don't have to choose between the alternative outfits and get both through completing challenges.
The other Level 1 Skin is Fade. He is a purple headed (Why all this crazy hair colours?) everyday guy looking man. To be honest I find his outfit to be pretty boring and I actually dislike his standard skin. I also don't really see the comparison with Drift. On Battle Pass Level 50 he receives his second style 'Voyager Fade' (Fade has a reactive Skin in comparison to the alternative outfits of the other CH2S03 BP Skins). He wears a cool black leatherjacket and a daemonic face mask on the lower half of his face. I like Voyager Fade a lot more and can see the resemblance to some of the Drift Styles. His ultimate form is the Level 100 skin Masked Fade. This is one of the top Skins of the Battle Pass. He has now completely ripped off Drifts final style with the coat and face mask being nearly identical. That being said, it is probably better to copy a very good skin, than create a hideous original one. Masked Fade's whole outfit glows purple and his mask has two devil horns on top of it.
Scuba Jonesy is the Level 20 Skin. There is not much to say, except that it's a long haired and fully bearded Jonesy in a diving suit. He is an okay skin and he fits the theme well. Scuba Jonesy has 3 different styles. His masked style wears the same purple diving suit as the standard Scuba Jonesy, just with an additional diving helmet. The other two styles also wear helmets. The tactical version has a grey diving suit and the advanced style a light blue one.
The level 40 Skin is Jules. She is a member of Team Shadow and a highly skilled mechanic/technician. Her whole body is filled with tattoos, which gives her quite a unique look. She also wears a mechanic outfit and was one of the biggest hopes for the storyline in CH2S03 (Not her fault, that Epic didn't want to give us much Story content this season...). Jules is also the central character on the cover of the season and I like her standard outfit. It is one of the better Skins in the Battle Pass. Her welder style is a green mechanic outfit with a welder face shield. Her shadow style, as the name suggests, is a black mechanic outfit with a dark bank robber mask, which looks a lot like Shadow Brutus mask. Jules additional outfits are okay, but I didn't like them that much.
The level 60 skin is Kit and he is certainly a unique looking skin. Kit is the son of Meowscles and looks like a Baby version of his father, with the twist that he is sitting on top of a motorbike robot. At first glance I was pretty shocked by Kit's apperance and he is probably a controversial pick, but after a while I really started to like the skin. His alternative skins are called 'Happy Kit' and 'Action Kit' and Kit looks like the Ghost and Shadow versions of Meowscles, which is a cool idea. Kit is for me together with Jules certainly the most memorable skin of the season.
The level 80 skin is Siona, a female astronaut. Her astronaut suit looks like more of beach version and she wears a green hair style with 4 buns, which honestly make her look a little weird (The hair colours and styles in this season are for some reason getting more and more cringy). Siona's spacewalk style has her wearing a full body astronaut outfit including a green helmet, which is certainly her best style option. This skin seems to be a homage to the Moonwalker skin of the Chapter 1 Season 3 Battle Pass, which is a nice touch. Siona's other style options Nova and Blue are on the other hand pretty hideous. The blue style has Siona wearing a dark blue space suit and dark pink hair, while the nova one gives her pink space suit with light pink hair. It is just my opinion, but I prefer more classic skins than extremely fresh and shiny ones, so I didn't really like the Siona skins at all.
The other level 100 skin (Masked Fade being the first one, making this the first season with two level 100 skins) is Eternal Knight. She is the female version of the Level 100 Battle Pass Skin of Season 10, which was Ultima Knight. The only difference is, that her standard skin is the silver version instead of the golden, but she also has a golden and red alternative style, just like Ultimate Knight. Even though Eternal Knight is just a female reskin, she is still a good skin. If she was the only Skin in the CH2S03 Battle Pass with copy allegations, it probably wouldn't be a big problem. With Kit and Fade however there are two more Skins, which are largely based on previous skins. Eternal Knight remains a good Level 100 Skin, but I personally prefer the original. As additional rewards players can grind to level 160 in order to get a silver, golden and red super style of Eternal Knight to reward the hardcore players. I personally find this super styles same as the golden skins from the previous seasons not all that exciting and prefer the more natural looking default versions of them.
The secret skin of the season is Aquaman (They should really stop calling it 'Secret Skin', if you can already see him in all promotionals for the season). Aquaman is based on the Jason Momoa movie version. His standard skin is the classic golden and green costume, that he also wears in movies like Justice League or Aquaman. It looks really nice and is for sure one of the top Skins of CH2S03. I would actually be curious, whether they decided to get Aquaman as the secret Skin for the water season or if they got a promotional cooperation with DC in regards to Aquaman and afterwards decided to create a water season for it. In any case a lot of DC fans and other players probably got their money's worth with the Battle Pass just for the Aquaman skin alone. Aquaman has to be unlocked by accomplishing 5 ridiculously easy challenges, which shouldn't have been a problem for anybody. If players complete an additional challenge they also get a shirtless 'Arthur Curry' version of Aquaman just as in the Aquaman movie (I personally wouldn't have needed that one, but I guess they also wanted to have a skin to appeal specifically to the female audience).
The Battle Pass also for the first time introduced and option to customize an umbrella. In the same way as Maya in the previous chapter, new parts for the umbrella could be unlocked at multiple Tiers within the Battle Pass. Players had to choose an option for every part of the umbrella and it was permanently locked and therefore couldn't be changed afterwards (Again, same as Maya). The Customizable Umbrella ('Brella') was a nice idea, but only a gimmick and not too interesting to me.
The biggest disappointment of the season was probably the relative lack of story or any events. Apart from the water level sinking throughout the first 7 weeks resulting in the introduction of the new POI Coral Castle and Cars as drivable vehicles there were no real story elements and even those hardly count. Chapter 2 Season 2 and the majority of seasons from Chapter 1 were offering much more in this department and even Chapter 2 Season 1 had at least loading screens telling a narrative. (Another disappointment was the lack of a Season Loading Screen. Chapter 2 Season 2 rewarded all participating players with it and the later seasons of Chapter 1 offered theirs through overtime challenges. The lack of a Chapter 2 Season 3 loading screen is especially disappointing since the Seasons wallpaper is actually one of the best looking.)
There were some hidden side challenges about a crashed space ship that could be repaired and helped to relaunch into the sky and a village of Coral Buddies (Small jelly bean creatures), who needed help to build pyramids and rockets, but those hardly count as 'Storyline' progress. (I nearly forgot. 1-2 mini rifts in the sky also appeared towards the end of the season, but there were no explanations given and the rifts were very small and barely visible)
At least it was the first Season in Chapter 2, that didn't last 3,5-4 months. There were absolutely no extensions (which is positive) and the season had an optimal length of exactly 10 weeks. Epic Games apparently read my Chapter 2 Season 2 review and took the right conclusion on this point. (They however should have definitely provided a Story event. Every Season since CH1S03 with the exception of CH2S01 had a story event and that one at least had a Fortnitemares and a Star Wars Crossover...)
It was also the last season for Apple Computer or mobile devices users. Epic Games and Fortnite had a big conflict and there are numerous articles online giving insights into the story. I personally don't really care about it, since I have zero interest in mobile devices or apple computers. The only thing I will say is, that I understand why Epic Games want's to break up the Apple Monopoly on their devices. The way they tried to do that however was doomed to fail.
Pro:
-Water changed the whole map (Water theme)
-Great new and reworked POIs
-Improved Punch Card and Daily/Quick Challenges
-Introduction of Cars
-Flare Guns give new strategic options
-Sharks and Marauders mix things up
(-No Extension...)
Contra:
-No real story development during the season
-No story event
-Still too many glitches and technical issues
(-A bit underwhelming Battle Pass)
Result:
Chapter 2 Season 3 had a fantastic start into the season with the giant flood changing so many places and making the exploration of the 'new' map truly exciting. The new POIs Fortilla, Authority, Catty Corner and Coral Castle were also some great additions/reconstructions. What really disappointed me was the lack of any kind of story development or a main story event for the season. Previous seasons have done a much better job in that department. I also would have preferred a slower process of the sinking water and more permanent changes to the map.
The Battle Pass was also a bit of a letdown with its mixed quality skins and too many reskins of previous Battle Passes. The revamp of the Punch Card and Daily/Quick Challenges however was a significant improvement and in CH2S03 was probably in a better situation than ever before. The addition of Flare guns and cars as drivable vehicles were also improvements in my point of view. The charge shotgun and the continuation of mythical weapons however were a bit more controversial. It is also positive that this season finally didn't last over 3 months, even though it is a bit sad it has to be pointed out as a positive factor.
Overall I definitely did enjoy this season quite much. I would despite some improvements not rate it as better than Chapter 2 Season 2 or some of the very best seasons because of the letdowns. The premise and start of the season were great and gave the hope of maybe being a Top 3 season. Unfortunately Chapter 2 Season 3 wasn't able to completely live up to the start, but it certainly turned out to be a memorable and good season. My rating therefore stays the same as in the previous season.
7.5/10
