I don't often mention it on my blog, but I am a huge Fortnite fan. This free-to-play Battle Royale game is the hub for my social life, with me frequently playing with friends and family as we talk about what is going on in our lives. One thing I really look forward to every year is the annual Halloween event named Fortnitemares. This brings horror elements to the game, with house become adorned with Halloween decorations, horror themed areas appearing on the map, horror themed skins arriving in the shop, and a unique horror based event coming to the looped island.
Starting off with the best, addition, the new areas on the map. A few weeks back a new POI appeared where Shifty Shafts used to be, a haunted mansion, complete with underground mine, graveyard, and a cornfield maze, named Grim Gables. With the beginning of the Halloween event on October 18th this was joined by some even cooler changes. The Reality Tree has had a dark makeover, with a ghostly rave now taking place at the foot of the tree, replete with dance music, which a wolf head adorned supernatural entity is DJ-ing. The constant music playing in this area really reminds me of one of the best Call of Duty Zombie maps, Rave in the Redwoods. I love this area and hope it stays this way once the event is over. By far the most exciting addition is The Knowby Cabin, which is a near perfect replica of the iconic cabin from the Evil Dead films! This was completely unexpected, I never expected what is viewed as a children's game would have a crossover with that franchise. So far so good then.
One of the things I most look forward to are new Halloween skins. Unfortunately this is where Fortnite begins to fall down this year. While all the skins haven't been released yet, they are hardly the most exciting of skins outside of a few choice cuts. Ash Williams is one such skin, obviously a fantastic one, this was joined earlier in the month by a 1970's style red demon woman, and two skins that were fan creations (a hand-headed monster, and a grim reaper type woman). It is telling that the fan made skins are far better to what is to come from the creators of the game itself as they all look similarly bland and 'edgy' looking. Subsequent new skins released include a cool Alice in Wonderland retro video-game one, as cool as it is, I don't really see the relevance to anything horror. There is also (as of today), a flares wearing demon woman that is a bit lame, a vampire student, and a spiky haired skeleton, none of which felt that essential. I think I just wished for more horror themed skins, when it felt like this was taking on the form more of the American style of Halloween where costumes don't have to be related to horror (as can be seen with the early drop of two Rick and Morty skins, sure they were cool, but I don't think Halloween was the best time of year to drop them).
This years horror event is also a bit dull. There are altars dotted around the map which imbue you with wolf powers, you are able to howl to pinpoint nearby enemies, and you have a few slashing attacks, but that's about it. When you place it next to previous events, such as a team battle against a giant boss monster, and the ability to come back as a ghost once you have been killed, it starts to look a little basic. It is essentially just an additional weapon type for the course of Fortnitemares, with it acting the same as Wolverine's claw power-up previously in the game. There is also a new version of the fun Horde Rush mode (where you have to fight across the map battling zombies, eventually going up against a huge boss). The new version is titled No Build Horde Rush, and as the title states, you are not able to build in it. This has made the final boss battle extremely hard, something which I have yet to beat. Apparently once the Halloween event is over this new Horde Rush mode is going to stick around, and get some challenges associated with it to unlock some more free stuff. Each day sees two new challenges to do which unlock some free items, while a lot of the freebies aren't that exciting (mostly following the chrome themed design of the season), they are free, and a couple of them, such as lobby music, and backbling that resembles a chrome spine are decent. The challenges have also been fun and varied, such as dancing by a bonfire during the night, or trick or treating.
I love Fortnite, and it is cool that this is all free (outside of the shop skins), but it doesn't compare too favourably to previous years. I love the inclusion of Evil Dead, and the new locations in the game, but the overly underwhelming new skins, and basic additions elsewhere don't sit so well. Still, there is plenty of time for new surprises to head to the game, so I wait excitedly to see what else this year's event can manage to do, and will be happy to find I get some egg dripping down my face with this early opinion piece!
Update: A week on and my views on the event haven't changed too much. In terms of the gameplay changes and new horror skins this is certainly not one of the best, however, the actual map changes are brilliant, and I really hope they get to stick around past the end of Fortnitemares. I came to feel a bit bad about criticising this event, it is after all a free-to-play game, and the event at base participation rewards you with a healthy amount of stuff. It was just that looking forward to this all year long I couldn't help but feel there were some underwhelming aspects to it.
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