In a surprise announcement, Epic Games revealed a new PvP Mode for their multiplayer crafting-tower defense game, Fortnite. It’s called Fortnite Battle Royale, and it shares a lot of similarities with popular Battle Royale multiplayer game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It’s developed by the same multiplayer veterans of Unreal Tournament.
Like PUBG, up to 100 players begin on an airplane. You have only your pickaxe and a hand glider to drop down into the world and start scavenging for supplies and finding and crafting weapons, traps, and structures. You have only one life to live, and your goal is to be the last person standing.
Unlike the complex character progression of the main PvE game, players are assigned a random character for PvP. Everyone starts out on the same footing. Weapons and items have been resigned for PvP and new balance changes have been introduced, such as weapons damaging buildings and only carrying up to five weapons at a time.
Fortnite Battle Royale has been added as a PvP Public Test to the Early Access version that is available now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Like the main game, Battle Royale will be updated and supported with frequent patches.
To help promote Fortnite with the newly added PvP mode, the Standard Edition is on sale for $29.99 (25% off) and the Deluxe Edition is $44.99 (25% off). The price discount is available until September 18.
Note that the full game is designed to be free-to-play with microtransactions when it launches some time next year. The Early Access version lets you play now, as well as giving you various loot packs.
Fortnite is rated T for Teen.
