Let’s talk about LEGO Fortnite
I, unfortunately, can sense an addiction building and I don’t know how to deal with that. I’m writing this to remind myself that I have other things to do than play LEGO Fortnite all day.
When Fortnite first became popular in 2017, I didn’t even have a hint of interest in it. It’s everything I don’t enjoy in a video game: online, multiplayer, minimal story, and lightning fast gameplay. I enjoy games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Persona 5, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Fire Emblem, that kind of stuff. With the exceptions of other story-heavy games like Marvel’s Spider-Man or Final Fantasy XII, I like my game slow and steady and at a pace of my own choosing aka turn-based.
But I have another genre of games that I liked, and that’s survival/crafting/farming. A recent Palworld article on Kotaku called tis type of game a “tree-punching game”, which is what I will call it from now on. Unfortunately for me, I have very specific things I like about this genre and not a lot of them check those boxes. The last time it did was Dragon Quest Builder 2 but even then, I eventually got bored of it.
The thing about a lot of tree-punching games is that they’re realisic. I don’t mean that they’re set in our world, but the player is almost always a human and the rendering is realistic. That means a lot of them is scary or scary-adjacent. Games like Raft, Subnautica, No Man’s Sky, Stranded Deep, and many more have piqued my interest because of the tree-punching mechanics. Then I said nope because they’re either too scary, too stressful, or a combination of the two. I want something like Stardew Valley but more sandbox-y and without having to deal with townspeople.
(Yes, I have considered Minecraft, but I’m just not a big fan of the voxel aesthethic. It’s one of the reasons I stopped playing Dragon Quest Builder 2.)
Then came an episode of Get Played, a podcast hosted by Nick Wiger, Heather Anne Campbell and Matt Apodaca titled “Greatest Part Two’s with Ashley Esqueda”. No, this episode was not about LEGO Fortnite, but Wiger made a short, but glowing review of LEGO Fortnite. Out of the three hosts, Wiger is the one my taste most aligned with, so whenever he says a game is good, I pay attention. I got into Vampire Survival because of him. The way he hyped up Baldur’s Gate 3 made me hype for my own copy to arrive. He loved Persona 5 Royal, I am (was) on my second playthrough of that game. Stardew Valley was almost on his top ten video games. To date, that is the game I’ve put the most hours into. Basically we’re both folks who enjoys a good, story-heavy, tactical game, but also has a penchant for cozy crafting sims game.
(I don’t know if he’s still playing this game, but I also have an embarrassingly high collector’s level on Marvel SNAP.)
Well he didn’t lead me wrong with Vampire Survivors or Dave the Diver, so what’s the harm in trying this one out? It’s free anyway, right?
Hoo boy. I’ve had this game for 36 hours and I’ve already reached level 19. I have 8+ hours on the PS5 and a couple hours on the Switch because hey, my feverish brain remembered last night that Fortnite is on Switch and I can play it in bed! The only reason I haven’t played for longer is because I’ve been running a fever for the past two days. I had downloaded the game the night before I fell sick. If I weren’t sick, I probably would not be typing this right now.
Look. There was a part of me that had an inkling that this would happen. This is coming from someone who owns 9 LEGO games on Steam, wish-listed every single one I don’t own (yet), and has even double-dipped on a couple of them just so that I can play them on my Nintendo handhelds.
I love LEGO games, but I didn’t want to try LEGO Fortnite because let’s be honest, I didn’t want to “give in” to the popular thing, alright? I resisted. For two months. And then I made the mistake (?) of listening to a man whose taste I usually trust and now I can’t stop thinking about this game. I’m even considering giving real-world cash to this game. FOR A GAME THAT IS FREE TO PLAY.
(Nick Wiger, if you are reading this, I am not mad at you, thank you for suggesting games that I would have never otherwise tried out because we have such similar taste.)
LEGO Fortnite is not just great because it’s something that I love, LEGO. In fact, the reason why I even pushed the red button, so to speak, is that I can play this in single-player mode. Since Fortnite is build around their Battle Royale, I was afraid that LEGO Fortnite would be much of the same online multiplayer madness that I loathe. Their other main offerings are pretty much that. Festival mode lets you form a band with other players.
LEGO Fortnite is a solitary game. Yes, you can play with your friends and build a world together, but it’s not necessary for the game play.
Video games these days seem to always have some sort of multiplayer mode, even if it was originally conceived as a single-player game. Fortnite itself is built on top of the juggernaut that is its battle royale with its single player story mode nowhere to be found. With LEGO Fortnite, Epic has finally grabbed the interest of players who loathe the multiplayer experience.
Now, LEGO Fortnite is nowhere close to being perfect. I’m already so frustrated with having to run back and forth between my bases to gather materials that can only be found in certain biomes. There’s no quick travel or even a steerable vehicle. The fortunate thing is, this is Fortnite. They already have a reputation of continually updating their games with new game mechanics on a semi-regular basis. I’m sure in a future update, they’ll add something to make the travel less of a chore.
My only hope is that they keep making the game accessible for the single player lovers like me.
Editor Dea’s note: I wrote the first half of this while in a fever, literally, on February 28. As of this publishing (March 5), I have spent roughly 20 hours on the game and is at level 45. Yes, I will be getting the battle pass for the next season.)
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