Announced a million internet years ago (way back in 2011), you may have forgotten about Fortnite, Epic’s next big thing and dismissed it as vaporware. However you can rest assured, Fortnite is coming our way in the relatively near future.
In case you forgot, Fortnite is sort of a blend of Gears of War‘s excellent Horde Mode and Minecraft. The video above, titled “Defending the Fort,” shows a bit of the building/defense mechanics along with some straight-up undead massacring. It’ll be interesting to see how this all shapes up in real time but so far it looks pretty solid. I’m hoping that there’s also some kind of procedural generation to the levels to allow for more open gameplay as well as keeping thing’s fresh. Throw in loot drops, zany traps, and character progression and you’ll have one very addicting game.
I’m also digging the cartoony graphics and bright colors as it’s a nice departure from the the darker, grimy So-Real™ many shooter go for. In fact, it seems like we’re starting to see a nice wave of goofier looking ascetics with Sunset Overdrive and even Nintendo’s Splatoon.
For now Fortnite is only slated for PC but I’m sure PS4 and Xbox One will eventually be included. Keep in mind that this video is more or less a product update and no official release date has been scheduled – so we can probably put this game in a late 2015 slot. Oh, also, you can sign up to get in the alpha sometime later this year.