Remember when fortnite Was it just a battle royale game? After six years of stories, concerts, and even Olympic events, Fortnite has grown beyond its roots into a widespread social space. And Epic Games is not going to back down, expanding the fortnite Experiment even more with three new modes announced at its Big Bang event this weekend: a racing game, a social music experience and, most importantly for kids, a Lego Themed Survival Builder which is released today.
If “Lego-themed survival builder” sounds suspiciously Minecraft For you you are not wrong. Minecraft Lego itself has been laden with Lego comparisons since its release more than a decade ago; This is just the Lego company returning the favor. There's a survival mode, where your little Lego minifigure explores a green landscape by hitting trees and rocks to collect building supplies. There are skeletons that roam the night and will attack you if they see you. Various animals roam around and can provide resources: if you pet a chicken, she will produce an egg, although I accidentally hit her first and got nothing, as all the other chickens proceeded to avoid me for the rest of the day.
However, once you get into it, the comparisons disappear. The procedurally generated landscape is realistically rendered thanks to the power of Epic's Unreal Engine, with natural-looking trees covered in individual leaves and blades of grass moving in the wind. Drilling or cutting natural elements is what turns them into Lego elements. It's strange, almost like you're colonizing the real world by turning it into a Lego one. It's also huge, about 20 times the size of the Battle Royale island.
Once you have obtained the materials, construction is quite simple. There's a list of building plans and your character adorably holds up a Lego tile with plans while you're in construction mode. Players get a handful of essential recipes to get started like a campfire to stay warm and a hut for shelter, and can earn more as they play and level up. The game will helpfully draw a ghostly outline of where each component goes, and ask the player to slide it and lock it into place. There's no room for error or much creativity in basic survival mode – that's what the sandbox is for. There, all the construction plans will already be unlocked, allowing players to let their imagination run wild.
There's plenty here for Lego devotees, as Epic has scanned around 10,000 different Lego elements for use in the game. All of your favorite pieces should be present, and the company plans to add more in the coming months (there are more than 30,000 unique Lego elements in total). As this is an official collaboration with the company, many of the graphic assets were received directly from Lego and only “legal” builds will be allowed (as opposed to “illegal” builds, which refer to Lego configurations that in the world real, it can stress or break pieces). Hardcore Lego fans will definitely appreciate the attention to detail.
And Epic would certainly like to see more Lego fans playing. fortnite, especially children. Although it started out as a violence-oriented game, the title has evolved into a gathering space where kids sign up just to socialize with friends. The Lego feature, along with the two other modes Epic announced over the weekend (Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing), are Epic's way of facilitating that by providing activities that are more than just running and gunning. By avoiding violent elements (as well as controversial practices like loot boxes), Epic also hopes to make fortnite more appealing to parents.
lego fortnitesimilar to Minecraft, allows you to customize the challenges you will face in your world. You can toggle basic game concepts like enemies, hunger, damage tempering, stamina, etc., along with some more advanced features. The mode supports up to eight players in a group and you can delegate seven of your friends as "key detacher" to your world, allowing them to access and edit it when you are not around. Each player can have eight worlds saved in their profile.
Regarding existing fortnite Players are free to continue playing as they always have and ignore the new modes entirely; The only difference you'll see is that the main menu has been expanded a bit to accommodate the new options. But if you decide to try Lego mode, you'll find plenty of familiar things, as over 1,200 skin options have already been translated into minifigs and there are 100 emotes for your character to make. Players will still earn XP, which will be included in their overall stats, rather than being locked into Lego mode. Cosmetic items can also be used between modes, and when you change options in the game locker, it will tell you which modes each skin is compatible with.
How this is fortnite, all new modes will be free, including the Lego survival builder. Epic hopes this will attract new players, although it remains to be seen if it can extract significant market share from Minecraft. Existing players will see the new option appear today (December 7), with the other modes to follow this week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fortnite-aims-at-the-survival-builder-crown-with-its-new-lego-mode-151433897.html?src=rss
