Mittwoch, 21. April 2021

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 (PS4) Review

 

Another Fortnite Season is over and it is once more time for a seasonal review of the game. Chapter 2 Season 5 had Bounty Hunter/Zero Point theme and addressed a couple of my criticisms of Chapter 2 Season 4.

The season showed its story focus right at the beginning with a lengthy introduction video, that laid the plot groundwork for the season. In the aftermath of the Galactus 'Devourer of Worlds' Event of CH2S04 the Authority/Ruins have been destroyed and the Zero Points has been revealed. This destruction lead to the emergence of the crystal desert in the middle of the map (replacing the Agency Island and drying the whole area out), which spread till west of Salty Springs, south of Pleasant Park, to the edges of Weeping Woods and also covering the area, which formerly was Frenzy Farm. This finally introduced a new beautiful Biome to the Chapter 2 map (an element of which we saw extensive use during Chapter 1). The desert area didn't only look pretty gorgeous, but it also allowed players to swim beneath the sand and traverse the desert area quicker, if they stood idle for a couple of seconds. The sand effectively worked as drift sand. Unfortunately the drift sand function was due to technical issues being removed for multiple weeks. I would assume for at least a month this unique feature was unable to be accessed due to technical problems...

CH2S05 didn't only bring a new biome, but also more map changes than we have seen in any other season since CH2S01  and that one introduced a full new map. The developers apparently learned from their mistakes in CH2S04, which felt very lackluster in regards to map changes. The new center point of the map was the Zero Point, which replaced the Agency/Authority area. Players could jump into the Zero Point and receive 50 Shield Points. The area below the Zero Point was pretty open. There were no cover opportunities and the players who dropped first usually won the fight at this POI.

The surrounding crystal desert also contained a couple of other new spots. The big new one was Colossal Coliseum, which was placed in the area that formerly included Stark Industries and Frenzy Farms. The Coliseum was a really large Gladiator stadium with multiple levels below and above the ground. The interior of the stadium switched based on the chosen game mode (wooden structures in the stadium resembled those of the ancient roman gladiator arenas). The second huge new POI in the crystal desert was Salty Towers, which was a fusion of Salty Springs and Tilted Towers. The location was still based on the Salty Springs area and most buildings (including the fuel station) were taken over from Salty. Additionally some of the high-rise buildings from Tilted Towers and the famous clock tower were added to Salty Towers. The location was a cool mix of familiar with new and soon became the hotspot of the season. Two smaller old locations from the Chapter 1 map also joined the crystal desert. A half destroyed Dusty Depot (now called Dusted Depot) reappeared east of the Zero Point and Tomato Town was added to the southern part of the Orchard (now the Pizza Pit). Risky Reels was now covered by Sand, but otherwise remained mostly unchanged. The only other new spot in the desert at the beginning of the season was the Butter Barn. It was located south of the Zero Point and was like a mix of a wild west saloon and a horse stable.

Outside of the crystal desert, two large new POIs were Stealthy Stronghold and Hunter's Haven. The later one replaced the admittedly rather dull Sentinel Graveyard from the previous season with a complex of modern apartment buildings, which apparently hosted all of the Battle Pass characters of the season. The apartments featured little easter eggs to every character like a carbonite frozen Peely in the Mandalorian flat and Predator equipment in the Predator place. Stealthy Stronghold was one of the few completely new POIs, that didn't just replace an old one. It featured a sealed off Jungle biome within a walled cage. There are also a couple of ancient ruins, small huts and a crashed helicopter in this place. Stealthy Stronghold reminds me of both a Jurassic World inspired T-Rex cage and the Jungle from the Predator movie. Furthermore there were also a couple of other reappearing spots on the map. Flush Factory for exampled returned south east of Slurpy Swamps as the Flushed Building, the Durr Burger Restaurant from Greasy Grove was now located west of Weeping Woods and the Viking Vessel from Viking Village appeared on top of the store building west of Holly Hedges.

During the season some other spots were added to the map as well. Kit's Cantina was the Fortnite version of the Mos Eisley Cantina of the Star Wars movies (located between Butter Barn and Hunter's Haven). The Cantina was added in the course of the introduction of the Mando's Bounty LTM (a game mode in which players had to hunt down other squads in order to get the biggest bounties). That LTM was also really entertaining.

The other addition during the season was the Snowmando outpost. The main outpost of the Snowman Snowmando was located near the weather station south of Catty Corner. During the Snowmando Christmas Event 4 additional smaller Snowmando outposts were put around the map (Snowmando Event allowed to unlock a bunch of cosmetic content including 2 free skins, which is rare for Fortnite). These contained Christmas presents and had some airplanes nearby. The planes were nerfed versions of the Stormwings from CH1S07. The planes were a lot slower than in Chapter 1 and required a lot of fuel in order to fly. These changes prevented them from being OP as they were during Season 7. I really liked the addition of the planes, since they were both fun and much better balanced this time (some might even say they got nerfed a bit too much). Their removal after the Christmas event saddened me. All additional snowmando outposts were also taken out after the event.  

Something that I also really liked this season was the connection between the Battle Pass and the Story. After the Zero Point has been revealed and the crystal desert appeared, a mysterious organization called 'The Imagined Order' (IO) send their best agent named John Jones (Speaking Agent version of Jonesy, who got introduced in the CH2S02 Device Event) through the Zero Point into the Fortnite World to once again save reality. Jonesy has a portal device with which he assembles the best bounty hunters from all over the galaxy to prevent people from leaving the Fortnite World through the Zero Point. The 8 Battle Pass skins are supposed to reflect these best hunters. During the course of the season Jonesy recruits even more characters to support his course by using his teleport device. This has the negative side effect of an increasing destabilization of the Zero Point and Jonesy's clothes and his loyalty towards his employee also get more and more damaged during the season. The whole development leads to the Zero Crisis Event of CH2S06 (More on that in  a couple of months). The recruitment of famous hunters is however a good way of justifying the collaborations with various movie and TV franchises in the Item Shop. This time the collaborations even make sense (even though I am sure Fortnite will keep milking their players even when the skins make no sense, and they have definitely been way too many in the last seasons). Some of the most noteworthy introductions are the Terminator, Aliens, Street Fighter, Halo, God of War and Walking Dead collaborations.   

The Battle Pass itself was in my opinion probably one of the strongest overall. Tier 1 and Tier 100 skin was the Mandalorian from Star Wars. Like in the show he started off with his red standard armour and could collect various improved armour parts on levels of the Battle Pass, till he received his fully upgraded silver mandalorian armour on Level 100. All of the Battle Pass skins got either upgradable or alternative versions this season. Lexa for example was an anime character, that could turn from a little girl into a robot-like version called Mechafusion. Mave is an amazon warrior, who can wear medusa inspired snakes as hair and use fish tails to swim in the water. Reese is an intergalactic bounty hunter with glowing armour (she has no upgradable style, but just two alternative armour colours). Mancake was the new gimmick character of the season (replacing icons like Peely or Meowscles), because he was a pancake person. His alternative version was a sheriff style (including the fitting hat and moustache). Menace was a allegedly undefeated gladiator from Colossal Coliseum. His upgradable style gave him a golden armour set with a purple flaming glow on top of his helmet. The last Battle Pass character was the vengeful spirit of Kondor. The regular version of Kondor is a faceless shadow in the black suit of a parachutist. His alternative style can be accessed through a built-in emote (similar to Lexa), which transforms him into his 'unshackled' version, that looks like a mix of a demon and a robot. The secret skin of the season is the Predator (A second BP collaboration this season after the Mandalorian. It seems like they will from now on be a fixed part of the Battle Pass).

As I already mentioned I really liked the CH2S05 Battle Pass. Lexa was probably the only skin, which I didn't like, because I don't believe that anime skins fit into Fortnite. Mave was also just alright, but I wasn't the biggest fan of hers. Reese and Mancake I definitely did like quite much and the others I liked even more. I may not be the strongest supporter of all these collaborations, but it is hard to argue against Mando or the Predator, since they are both really cool Movie/Series characters. Kondor and Menace (especially his fully upgraded shining version) were also great skins.    

One of the biggest changes of the season was the implementation of NPCs into the Battle Royale mode. They had either one fixed or multiple possible locations, where they would appear in every match. Players could talk with them to receive informations, start new quests (like collecting x, getting kills with y, or to start bounty hunts), which reward Gold, or buy weapons/items from them with the Gold (Gold could alternatively also be found in treasure chests). Some of the NPCs could also either be challenged to duels or be assassinated in order to obtain their special weapons. Most of the NPCs could additionally upgrade the rarity level of weapons in exchange for Gold. Upgrade benches, who formerly fulfilled this function, were completely removed from the game in CH2S05. 

There were 42 NPCs in this season, who were all scattered around the map. All the current Battle Pass characters were NPCs and also some of the more memorable characters from former BPs returned as NPCs together with a couple of itemshop characters. Most of them were assigned to locations, which storywise seemed to make sense for them (like Tomato Head at Pizza Pit, Mancake at Butter Barn, Ragnarok at the Viking Vessel or Menace at Colossal Coliseum). Some of them were also less fitting (like Brutus at Dirty Docks instead of Grotto or Mave in the mountains instead of Stealthy Stronghold). Some of them like Snowmando and the Predator got added during the season. The Predator was a hostile NPC in Stealthy Stronghold, who dropped his cloaking device, which could make players invisible for a while (You however had to deactivate the cloaking device in order to use weapons, which was good since it otherwise would have been unfairly strong). The only NPC, who kept moving throughout the season was the Mandalorian. He started the season at his crashed Razor Crest ship and kept moving through the crystal desert till he found a permanent home at Kit's Cantina in the end of the season. Mando dropped his thermal scoped Amban Sniper Rifle and Mandalorian Jetpack (similar to the Iron Man Jetpack from CH2S04).

Aside from the chracter-specific weapons there were also a couple of other items added to this season. Some of the most important were the Zero Point Crystals, which could be extracted from the Zero Point Shards and allowed players to teleport a short distance forward for around 15 seconds. The Zero Point Crystals could be found all around the crystal desert and made traveling in this region a lot faster (also useful to escape the storm). Some of the other new weapons were for example the Dragon Breath Shotgun, which dealt extra fire damage and was very effective against player buildings, but less effective against players themselves and the Boom Sniper Rifle (similar to the Heavy Sniper Rifle). All other 'new' weapons were just variations of old weapons from other seasons. Some of the unvaulted weapons in CH2S05 included the Tactical and the Charged Shotgun. All of the superhero abilities from CH2S04 and some other weapons (like Pump Shotgun, Scoped AR or Bandage Bazooka) were vaulted on the other side. Choppas were also completely removed from the game, which I found rather disappointing. Overall I nonetheless did like the weaponpool for this season more than that of the previous one.

Since the story played a heavier role in this season, there were also some other new elements in regards to that aspect. The IO had some cool mysterious hidden underground facilities beneath the new POIs Colossal Coliseum, Hunter's Haven and Stealthy Stronghold. Additionally secret elevators have been hidden around the map, which randomly transport IO Guards (hostile NPCs similar looking to the Enforcer from CH1S05), who attack players in order to prevent them from leaving the Fortnite World through the Zero Point.

The weekly challenges and punchcard system was once again changed (I strongly believe they are right now only changing it for the sake of changing it and are no longer trying to find the best possible system). Punchcards were now hidden and were only shown, if the player got close to completing them. Weekly challenges also changed their form. There were now around 7 purple challenges each week, but they were classified into two different sets. The quests in each set had to be completed in succession, which means the next weekly challenge only unlocked if you completed the previous one of this season. There was also one set of golden challenges each week. There is one starting golden challenge, which rewarded more XP than the purple ones and 3-4 follow up golden challenges, which rewarded similar XP to the purple versions. The negative twist about this however was, that the golden challenges would disappear after 7 days and could no longer be completed. The leveling process was generally slower this season, which however can be explained with the length of the season. XP coins only started to appear in week 8. Overall the challenge/punchcard system and leveling experience was in my opinion worsened in this season.

Chapter 2 Season 5 was the first season of the Fortnite subscription service called 'Fortnite Crew'. It is completely optional and grants players 1000 VBucks (ingame currency) and a unique skin every month. This is skins are supposed to never reappear, same to Battle Pass Skins, the majority of this subscription skins however seem to be heavily inspired by old BP or item shop skins. Apart from Green Arrow every skin so far seemed, in my opinion, like a reskin. Crew members also receive the Battle Pass every season for free, if their subscription is active during the month. The price for this crew membership is 12 Euros. I have to say, that I personally find this concept absolutely absurd. It however makes sense, since there seem to be more than enough players willing to pay for this optional subscription. For hardcore players, who invest hundreds of Euros/Dollars into the game every year this might actually be advantageous and Epic Games is probably making a nice Profit too. I myself remain sceptical when seeing such a heavy focus on cosmetic content. At least Fortnite this time did manage to also deliver some nice story content for the season as well.

Another premiere of the season was the implementation of the Trio mode as a permanent regular game mode aside from Solo, Duos and Squads. I have no idea why it took them 15 seasons to do so, since the game mode is already being played in the ranked modes for quite some time and I also don't see how you could ever have a problem with splitting the playerbase, if you consider the millions of regular Fortnite players every season. In any case the addition of Trios was a good move and appreciated.

Chapter 2 Season 5 managed to once more being one of the longest seasons of the game with around 3,5 months duration (Only CH2S01 and CH2S02 were longer). The trend to much longer seasons than in Chapter 1 seem to continue on. The season itself unfortunately didn't receive a story event as a compensation for the long waiting time, but at least CH2S06 immediately started with a Story event, which honestly should have just been the CH2S05 finale. Since it isn't part of CH2S05 however I will not being talking about it in this article.

 

 Pro:

- Fantastic map changes

- Good story content (even though drying phase after the start...)

- Introduction of NPCs

- Great Battle Pass

- Strong Mando and Snowmando/Christmas Event (reintroduction of planes)

- Positive weapon-/itemselection (new crystal shards etc.)

- New regular Trio mode

 

Contra:

- Season length (never ending issue)

(- No story event during the season...?)

- Decline of the Weekly challenge/punchcard system; slower levelling

- Unnecessary Removal of Choppas (and Fortilla)

 

Result:

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 was in my opinion a clear step in the right direction and a strong season overall. Most weakpoints, like the season length or the continuous reform of the XP system  remained the same as in previous seasons. I also don't understand why a location like Fortilla or Choppas were removed from the game, even though they took nothing away from the game, but had something to give. The events during the season (story event however was delayed to CH2S06) as well as the weapon- and itempool were really strong and the addition of Trios was overdue, but positive nonetheless. The Battle Pass was one of the best overall and the addition of NPCs worked surprisingly well. The amount and quality of map changes in combination with the heavy story focus of Chapter 2 Season 5 made it one of the best Fortnite seasons I have played yet.

7.5/10

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