Fortnite has finally come to mobile, allowing a generation of Fortnite gamers – the fastest growing, and largest, game on Twitch – to play Fortnite wherever they are.
Both this and PUBG Mobile were released around the same time, both bringing their respective battle royale games to the mobile market.
Fortnite is famous worldwide for quickly shifting their survival PvE game almost overnight to a smash hit battle royale that has seen the biggest explosion in any gaming market in history.
As a game, Fortnite is exceptional – it’s cartoonish, but not the point of being overbearing, whilst possessing excellent, yet different combat and an intuitive building system that allows for quick construction on the go.
As a mobile port? It’s… not as exceptional.[sc name=”quote” text=”As a mobile port? It’s… not as exceptional.”]
The biggest problem with Fortnite on mobile, compared to say PUBG Mobile, is that there are too many things to keep in mind when playing Fortnite. With other, similar games, most of the UI is dedicated to managing your inventory, firing on the enemy and other sundry things.
However, with Fortnite, you also have the added issue of trying to manage construction. You have an entirely separate tab with the different building blocks, as well as what resource to use with them, so much so that you feel constantly out of control with what you’re doing.
You’ll find yourself, no matter the circumstance, fiddling with the buttons and panicking about whether or not you’re going to be fast enough on the button to swap to construction or your weapon as needed.
Alongside that, the unique graphical quality of Fortnite – while a nice change of pace from the standard grey pallet of most games of this type – conflicts heavily with the mobile interface. There’s something about trying to fire a precise weapon and hit a moving enemy while the screen is brightly and garishly coloured.
Fortnite is filled with vibrant coloration, but this creates serious issues with trying to actually spot enemies or remain undisorientated. No matter what you do, you’re going to feel out of place or in some way disadvantaged.[sc name=”quote” text=”No matter what you do, you’re going to feel out of place or in some way disadvantaged.”]
The only saving grace is that every other player will be suffering that as well.
The actual gunplay and controls thereof are decent enough – it can feel very finicky to attempt to swap back and forth between weapons or use consumables, but the overall feel of the combat is the same as the PC version.
The oversaturation of the colors, as well as the limited clunkiness of the UI, really lets down Fortnite on mobile.
The big problem is that this game has to exist to compete with PUBG mobile, but just by the very nature of Fortnite’s gameplay, it’s not going to transition well to the mobile interface.
It’s still Fortnite, so it’s still fun and a different change of pace from PUBG, but on mobile, it has some serious problems.
[review pros=”The gunplay and construction still feels as fun as the PC.” cons=”The UI is too clunky with trying to swap to construction. The colors are too oversaturated for a mobile game.” score=6]
[appbox appstore id1261357853]
