State of the game for Fortnite Season 5: What’s good and what’s bad?

Players have had enough time with Fortnite Season 5 that it’s worth taking a look at this season and seeing what’s good and what’s bad so far.

The Zero Point is exposed, but no one escapes the Loop, not on your watch.Recruit the greatest hunters across all Realities to stop the Island from falling into complete Chaos.#FortniteZeroPoint pic.twitter.com/U6TCRFI566

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 2, 2020

Fortnite Season 5 features an updated map, some new characters, and a unique NPC shop mechanic, alongside the traditional suite of updates and balance changes. This season of Fortnite has coincided with some rule changes to the game’s competitive scene as well.

Fortnite Season 5: Change is good!

Fortnite Season 5 features an array of typical changes that come with every seasonal update to the game, from the map to the weapons. This season removed the Marvel themed superpowers from the game and shook up which weapons were available as well.

This season of Fortnite also featured what is perhaps the single biggest new mechanic added to the game since its creation - the Gold Bars resource. However, it seems like Epic was cautious in their implementation, and rightfully so.

Gold Bars are a currency earned through eliminating players, completing in-game quests, and finding them throughout the map. What makes them so unique is that they persist across multiple games. This means that players can gather a few thousand bars in one game and spend them in the next.

Perhaps because this is such a major shift from how Fortnite is usually played, Epic was careful to make sure that the ways players can spend their gold bars were limited. There isn’t anything too game-breaking to use them on.

However, if Epic feels like exploring this design space more, this seems like something they could easily integrate into the game’s item shop somehow. At the very least, it shows that they are willing to step outside of their comfort zones.

Finally, although a late addition to the game, the new Lever Action Shotgun deserves a special mention as being one of the first newly-introduced guns which has managed to find a natural niche in the game. The Lever Action Shotgun is strong without ever being gamebreaking, and makes fights fun without dealing over 200 damage in a single shot.

Fortnite Season 5: but sometimes change is actually very bad

Got a job for you.More info coming soon. pic.twitter.com/PaEx75lhCK

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) February 1, 2021

Not every change will be good, and sometimes, the only way to find out if something was done well or not is to wait and see. The first change that initially upset many players was the removal of the Pump Shotgun, however that issue has since been assuaged with the introduction of the Lever Action Shotgun.

Another major critique for Fortnite Season 5 has been the continued reliance on crossover IPs in order to keep players invested in the game’s world. While this season isn’t quite as intense as the Marvel Season, it still features a crossover with:

• Star Wars
• The Predator
• Halo
• God of War
• DC Comics (Green Arrow)
• Hasbro (GI Joe)
• The Walking Dead
• Marvel (Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Taskmaster)
• The Terminator

Granted, these crossovers affect the game significantly less than the previous season. But, players have still criticized the game’s overinclusion of crossovers, stating that they would prefer Fortnite put those resources towards continued development of their own IP.

But most of those issues are secondary and don’t significantly impact gameplay. When it comes to gameplay, some have criticized the gold bars as being inherently unbalanced. Similarly, certain skins were considered unbalanced given how they blended in with their environments, with the most problematic ones only recently being fixed.

But most of the time, change is just change

It’s hard to decide where exactly to place most of the changes because they aren’t really good or bad. Recent rules changes to the competitive format, for example, prevent qualified players from competing in further qualifiers. This change has the potential to allow more players a chance at competing in the later rounds, but it’s not really good or bad, it just is.

Likewise, the new map isn’t inherently better or worse than the old map. Currently, the map features plenty of ways for players to navigate the area without getting bogged down in specific locations, and the locations themselves are no more or less interesting than before.

A lot of this will be subjective and ultimately boil down to individual player experience. There’s plenty to do in Fortnite, but whether that’s enough to keep everyone interested is another story altogether.