So, this is a most unexpected entry I have for my challenge games, especially as my very first entry. I am a very new player to Fortnite. Very new. As in literally only started it a week ago, and I've had a contentious history with the game in general. I have never been a fan of battle royale games, and the crossover element is one I found overblown because of how the characters were only skins, and how this went against the spirit of characters like Batman, who outright despised guns. 

More over, I have no warm feelings towards Epic Games either. Between their shitty practices with exclusives, and their habit of taking previously good games, introducing bad F2P mechanics, and forcing a Epic account for them. Yet, with the introduction of the brand new Underground chapter, and with it, multiple game modes, as well as a heap of friends who had picked the game up themselves, and not to mention some pretty stellar original designs for the TMNT, and finally, some pushing from said friends to give it a shot, I finally decided to relent and give it a try.

Ironically, this was perhaps the perfect chapter for me to start on. I've always loved the concepts of spies, stealth, and the kind of theme that Season 5 Chapter 1 was going for. What helped this was the fact that Peter Griffin and Solid Snake were headlining the Battle Pass. The former, I grew up watching Family Guy's early seasons as a kid, and the latter, I had literally just started getting into the Metal Gear series by finishing MGS1 about a day before starting Fortnite. To say it was a perfect storm for a intro is a understatement.

To be honest, pretty immediately, it all just clicked. Seeing the amount of love placed into various cosmetics and emotes made it clear to me why so many liked having collabs and crossovers in this game, and playing with my friends made it clear why this was the master of the Battle Royale genre. Out of the gate, it was quick to get me into games, get me to figure out the ropes, and make me feel like in 9 games out of 10, I was constantly doing decent and having a fair chance at winning. It's exciting to get into gunfights and win, it's fun exploring the map, it's a blast getting into a squad and slowly whittling down the opposition until it starts to get close to the wire. 

Then, you take into account Festival and LEGO Fortnite, the two main modes I played over the past week, and it was clear just how much effort had really gone into what is ultimately free modes at the end of the day. Festival is a pretty damn decent, if limited Guitar Hero game adapted for playing on a regular controller, rather than a guitar controller, and LEGO Fortnite is just downright a very charming LEGO-ified Minecraft with it's survival and building mechanics, meshed with Breath of the Wild for good measure.

But the most refreshing thing of all was the battle pass grind. I have been so used to games where the battle pass takes a month minimum to grind up that it downright shocked me how good Fortnite's was. Like, there's a reason it was the originator of the Battle Pass. Not only is it pretty fairly priced, and has a massive ton of cosmetics in it, but it gives you more than what you initially paid for it back in VBucks, ensuring you only buy one BP and never have to buy one out of pocket again if you so choose. Rewards come frequently, your XP is supercharged to make up for times you aren't playing, and most importantly - the game introduced idle grinding, where you can gain ten levels a day from just leaving your console idle. With all that, I managed to get the battle pass done to full level 200 completion within a matter of ten or so days. Not to mention that frankly, compared to most other F2P games, cosmetics are actually priced fairly under what most other games charge (Overwatch especially).

With all this in mind, I can't really say I particularly like Epic anymore as a company, but I can admit when I was wrong. I used to think Fortnite was just a kind of mainstream joke of a game, but it's good. Great, even! I sincerely am really happy I gave it a shot and got to finally see and understand why so many people really like it. When I get to run around doing goofy nonsense with Batman, All Might, or Peter Griffin, and just have some dumb fun with my friends, it's a blast. It's a damn fine game, and I can't wait to see some collabs return in the future, and see what the next chapter's going to hold in store.