Chapter 3 Season 3 of Fortnite Battle Royale was called 'Vibin' and was supposed to act as relaxing filler season after the stressful war between the IO and the Seven in the previous seasons. I have played a lot less in this season than in those before it and will therefore only write a shorter article about it. I personally found the vibin/relaxing theme of the season a bit boring, to be honest. Previous seasons had better themes. It seemed obvious that the developers just wanted to take a break during CH3S03.
What I will give the game credit for are the map changes, which were extremely strong in Chapter 3 Season 3. At the start of the season an entirely new flower biome replaced the south western half of the map. Its keypoint was the large reality tree (Reality Falls), which showed a big contrast to the previous season. In contrast to war and destruction it stood for life and blooming and was really nice to watch even from a great distance. Greasy Groove was also now part of the flower POI and Command Cavern (the previous HQ of IO) turned into the Rave Cave, a giant disco complex with a rollercoaster outside. The collider got destroyed and left a couple of buildings over at the shore of Loot Lake. Shuffled shrines was a new Indiana Jones inspired temple complex, which replaced the previous ruins on the same spot. For a couple of weeks a few POIs switched every match in Logjam Lotus and Lazy Lagoon. These spots replaced the previous Logjam Lumberyard and the Daily Bugle. Logjam Lotus finished the season as Logjam Junction (Wild West version of the place) and Lazy Lagoon replaced the Daily Bugle with the big pirate ship and surround area, which was already a POI in Chapter 1 Season 8. Additionally the unnamed POI Butter Barn turned into a Neo Tilted version of the POI called Neo Butter Barn, and Condo Canyon received a couple of antique buildings reminiscent of the Colossal Coliseum POI from Chapter 2 Season 5 (called Condosseum). Overall the map changes were really fantastic in Chapter 3 Season 3, if you consider the new biome and the many additional well done map changes during the season.
There were a lot of Story quests in this season, which is generally a good aspect, but unfortunately the story was really bland and quite boring. After the defeat of the IO in the Collision event, a giant reality tree grow on the Fortnite island and many POIs turned into relaxing places. Players got tasked to investigate this new tree and the Zero Point, which sank below Loot Lake before the start of the season, until the Seven started to disappear at the end of the season. There were a lot of "Vibin Quests", but very little going on in terms of actual storyline. In regard to lore the season was certainly a disappointment and consequentially also didn't feature any story events.
From the new weapons the Two-Shot Shotgun, the DMR and the Hammer Assault Rifle were very similar to previously existing Combat Shotgun, the Scoped Assault Rifle and the Combat Assault Rifle. The Grapple Glove was new version of the the Spider-Man ability, but didn't feel as powerful. Completely new weapons were the Ripsaw Launcher and Charge SMG. Both weapons were very situational (rarely enough time in a battle to effectively charge your SMG, Ripsaw Launcher strong against walls, but too slow fire rate), but at least nice ideas. The Dragon Ball Event introduced the Nimbus Cloud ability, which allowed redeploying for a short time and the Kamehameha ability, which was very powerful, but took far to long to charge an attack and was therefore also very situational. The grappling seeds item allowed planting small trees, which could grow items. This item was a sensible, but not particularly impactful addition.
The Battle Pass was a noticeable downgrade in comparison to CH3S01 and CH3S02. Darth Vader and Indiana Jones were amazing collaboration skins. Malik was also still pretty good (mainly due to his cool sword and knight like armour), but Evie, Adira and Stormfarer were only okay. Snap and Sabina on the other hand I really didn't like. Snap gave you dozens of different cosmetics options, but astonishingly none of them were any good. Overall the Battle Pass had too much mixed quality and after the strong Battle Passes from Chapter 3 Season 1 and 2, felt lackluster in Season 3.
Pro:
+ Fantastic map changes
+ Darth Vader and Indiana Jones Crossover
Contra:
- Story not very interesting
- Mixed Battle Pass quality
Result:
I am not too sure what to think of Chapter 3 Season 3. The story was quite boring and nearly non-existent in this season, which I obviously dislike. I also felt underwhelmed by the Battle Pass, even though the Darth Vader and Indiana Jones skins alone made it absolutely worth playing in this season. The map changes on the other hand were fantastic, which is a big plus in my book. The season could have made the Fortnite Top 10 Seasons, but instead it just ended being overall quite good.
7.4/10
