A pair weeks earlier than Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 launched, the rumors started circulating a couple of “Neo Tokyo” sort of futuristic metropolis location being added with the brand new season. And I assumed: “Cool, they’re bringing again Neo Tilted Towers.” However I used to be incorrect. Mega Metropolis is way past anything we have ever seen in Fortnite–there are not any good previous comparisons for this place, both by way of dimension or high quality.
What makes it so nice? Effectively, it is the primary place that Epic has constructed on the Fortnite island that looks like Zero Construct was thought of once they conceived it. Mega Metropolis has a bunch of skyscrapers, however the bulk of the interiors are inaccessible–making the variety of locations you may get shot from considerably extra manageable. Likewise, this place has critical infrastructure within the type of grind rails and three or 4 totally different vertical ziplines on every constructing, and a automobile or bike on each nook.
And if you happen to’ve bought a Kinetic Blade, too? And the Aerialist increase? Mega Metropolis is your playground.
Whereas it has been a complete 12 months since Zero Construct was added at the beginning of Chapter 3 Season 2, it is taken time for Epic to regulate its design philosophy to account for it–and now, Mega Metropolis is the end result of each lesson the group has discovered about find out how to design the sport for Zero Construct over the previous 12 months.
The issue with Fortnite’s previous “cities”
Chapter 3 had two city environments for many of final 12 months: Tilted Towers, on the middle of the map, and The Each day Bugle, which featured three NYC high-rises contained in the mouth of a volcano. These have been each full of conventional Fortnite buildings, which means the interiors really have been full interiors, and the buildings have been totally destructible.
The Bugle had bouncy spider webs that can assist you stand up on the roofs of its buildings, at the very least, however Tilted Towers was only a fully flat sq. of land full of tall, maze-like buildings, and often the one protected manner down from the roof was to take the steps. It was the kind of place that solely the sweatiest jerks in your foyer might love–all danger, and no reward to talk of since you most likely bought lasered by a man within the fourth-floor rest room two buildings over.
The issue was that Titled was a legacy city, designed in full with the concept which you could construct your individual staircase or wall if it’s essential. However with out with the ability to do this, the place was psychological torture–no matter the place you have been in Tilted Towers, it felt like there have been an infinite variety of locations to get shot from, and never sufficient methods so that you can reply when ambushed from a bizarre angle.
And it wasn’t that uncommon to roll up on Tilted and discover that any person had bulldozed all the things and turned the place into an empty car parking zone. And whereas that was at all times hilarious, it wasn’t actually good for the sport itself to have a big flat sq. with no cowl in it–it wasn’t a difficulty in any respect in Construct mode, however it wanted addressing for Zero Construct.
How Fortnite’s design slowly advanced for Zero Construct
After Epic added Zero Construct in Chapter 3 Season 2–at the identical time, amusingly, that it vaulted the Spider-Man Internet-Shooter Mythic–Epic spent the next 12 months slowly evolving Fortnite’s design to extra totally accommodate it. That first season added mantling and sprinting (and sliding had been added the earlier season), and we had Shockwave Grenades for sweaty motion, however in any other case it felt just like the map was nonetheless made solely for Construct Mode for the subsequent two seasons.
Throughout Season 3, the Dragon Ball Z Cloud Mythic modified all the things by exhibiting us how essential it was for Zero Construct to have a helpful fast-movement device that anyone can use–unlike these Shockwave Grenades, which have been high-skill instruments that have been powerful for common gamers to determine find out how to use properly.
Whereas Season 4’s Chrome blob gimmick was simply an OK technique of getting round, Epic did add some actually cool map-wide motion infrastructure over the course of the season, with these balloons that lifted quite a lot of buildings off the bottom. These balloons would launch you excessive up within the air like a turbo soar pad and make it fairly straightforward to maneuver from one finish of the map to a different in a rush. They usually have been hella enjoyable, too.
Chapter 4 Season 1 lacked a lot in the way in which of journey infrastructure aside from the soar pads in each snow fortress up north, however it made up for that with the Shockwave Hammer–basically a recharging Shockwave Grenade that anyone might use each for traversal and to wreck enemies. Whereas definitely a boon for Zero Construct, the Hammer might need been even higher as an agent of chaos in Construct Mode–nothing wrecks enemy constructions extra hilariously than any person bouncing round with a giant Hammer.
How Mega Metropolis is peak Fortnite
With Chapter 4 Season 2, Epic has introduced all elements of its new and improved philosophy on participant motion collectively, lastly, in Mega Metropolis. It begins with the Kinetic Blade, which is someway (at the very least for now) even higher than the Hammer simply due to how far straight up within the air you possibly can go together with it. However even when you do not have a type of sick swords, Mega Metropolis is constructed to offer you a combating likelihood it doesn’t matter what you are dealing with.
For shortly traversing town horizontally we have all these grind rails snaking across the metropolis, and every skyscraper has at the very least three ziplines that may take you up to–or down from–their roofs. In case you’re on a grind rail and soar off, you will not endure fall injury, so if you happen to stand up on a type of roofs and uncover a full squad, you possibly can at all times simply soar on a rail after which soar off it and let your self free fall safely. And when you’re on the bottom, you possibly can lose your pursuers within the maze that Mega Metropolis is at floor degree, ducking right into a parking storage or dashing by a restaurant.
Having that inaccessible buffer between the bottom and high of every skyscraper basically turns Mega Metropolis into two separate, however adjoining, locations–one with floating islands within the sky, and one beneath it on the bottom. And that focuses the entire expertise of combating within the metropolis immensely since you not have to have the ability to account for each doable angle such as you did in Tilted Towers. Whenever you’re on the bottom and lookup, you’ve got just some key spots to scan for targets, relatively than each single window in each massive constructing. This season’s new sniper scope glint can also be useful as a focusing device in that regard–that addition was properly overdue.
With that infrastructure in place and a extra targeted design philosophy, you’ve got the instruments to outlive even the sweatiest landings, even when any person else swoops in and nabs the gun you have been attempting to drop on. However whenever you get your Kinetic Blade and the Aerialist increase (the one must-have increase this season, which helps you to set off your glider any time you are greater than a pair toes off the bottom), Mega Metropolis turns into a real playground which you could dart round with the convenience of a superhero. And it is so dense with stuff that you simply will not get bored hanging round in it the entire match.
There’s at all times room for enchancment, after all, and I am already excited for what Epic’s designers are cooking up for participant motion within the future–that Assault on Titan rig is simply across the nook! However Mega Metropolis is the primary main Fortnite location that’s ok for me to make this plea to Epic: Please do not take this masterpiece from us any time quickly.
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