The latest Season, number 5, was much anticipated. After all, Fortnite is the most popular game in the entire world right now! When it came to new stuff, new skins and more, the season didn’t disappoint. Epic Games even changed the challenges and Battle Pass options so that players that don’t want to buy a Season Pass can do more challenges!
In addition to that, the Epic Team constantly adds new weapons, mechanics and more to the game…and yet, the most popular game in the world isn’t doing so hot at the moment. The problem is the lack of balance.
While critics have always complained that there are only two skills needed to be good at the game – jumping while shooting and randomly spamming buildings – the latest updates aren’t doing the game any favours. Building is one of the most interesting mechanics the game has to offer and it sets it apart from other Battle Royale games of the same type, but recent weapon additions and nerfs have made it somewhat obsolete.
Games like Fortnite constantly need adjustments to the weapon balance in order to make sure that there is no one extremely OP weapon…sadly, Fortnite is only worsening that gap. One example is the P90 version of the game, the compact SMG. With 50 bullets and an extremely high fire-rate, you’d expect the gun to have recoil, but there is almost none. In other words, if a player uses the gun, they can fire a veritable hail of bullets and almost all will find their target, making it hilariously inaccurate and almost unfair.
Then Epic adjusted the building types – specifically, it reduced the starting and max health of wooden structures, making it even easier for certain weapons to tear through it. This includes C4 and RPG rockets. They are almost hilariously overpowered and make the game unplayable in later stages. Even the reduction to how many rockets a player can hold didn’t do much to improve things.
The 4 C4 packages received per pickup are far too many, and without a limit to how many a player can handle…well it’s not doing the game any favours. In the endstages of the game, it usually ends up with a 1v1 (or similar, in team competitions) that see both parties sitting in towers waiting around for the other to creep out. It’s gotten boring to watch and play – not a great move by Epic.
There are more issues still – shotguns have been nerfed twice, making them semi-useless now, while before they were one of the most popular weapons in the game. The fanbase is complaining VERY loudly – go on Reddit if you dare! – but Epic doesn’t seem too interested in fixing the situation.
There are several theories as to why, but overall one thing is certain: A complete rebalancing of all weapons and building materials could fix everything wrong with the game. Instead of adding new weapons constantly (though that in itself is not a bad thing), Epic needs to really focus on fixing what’s broken at the moment.
Ammo limits are a good start, but adjusting recoil is just as important. Fortnite doesn’t try to be a particularly accurate or realistic shooting simulator and that’s okay, but when one or two weapons are so ridiculously overpowered that they can kill players before they have a chance to even hop out of the way, that’s a sure-fire sign something is wrong.
Between the sheer amount of players the game has and the indecent amount of money it rakes in, you’d think there was plenty of an incentive for Epic to sort out their flagship game. Instead, the latest announcement after yet another terrible patch (Path 5.1), is that soon, the Save The World mode is going to be free to play.
I mean, that’s great guys but there are other things that players want far more, things that are needed to keep Fortnite in its position as the most popular game in the whole world – we just don’t get why Epic is risking that incredible position by not listening to its users.