⭐ Games that receive this star have a score of 95% or above. This is purely from a game design perspective and is not in any way related to our morality evaluation.

Note: Fortnite, as many other games these days, is continually updated with new content, often on a daily-weekly basis. Because of this, Catholic Game Reviews tries to release a new review every in-game season. Each review will be based on the start of each season, but since new content is added throughout you may encounter things not mentioned in this review. I only cover the much more popular Battle Royale game mode, but I have played a lot of the Save The World mode and can say most morality notices are pretty similar across the two. I do not cover Fortnite creative mode.

PHEW! I’m so glad I made it to you guys… You have no idea… what just happened. I was abducted by ALIENS, yes, the green, slimy ALIENS! They used me for research, forcing me to 100% every LEGO game on the Wii, studying how the human mind responds to repetitive experiences that only offer any sense of satisfaction whatsoever in reward systems that addictively keep the player coming back long after the gameplay itself has become boring. Now, they could have just handed me a phone with nothing but Mario Kart Tour installed on it but whatever. I like playing in 480p with waggle controls. It was my childhood, after all…

Anyways, yeah, that’s why I’ve been gone so long and haven’t put out a review in like 4 months.  Crazy, am I right? Well, even though I was used for unethical research programs, aliens did grow on me a bit. I heard some of ‘em have been seen running around in Fortnite lately, so I may as well take a loo- is that Rick and Morty in the Battle Pass?

Yup, we’ve got a lot to talk about. Time for me to review Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 7! 

Keeping up with the story, “The Foundation” (the one who was holding the zero point together) is, well, not holding it closed no more. The two are probably related in some way as there is now a giant UFO floating above the island along with armies of hostile aliens that will shoot at you as soon as you approach them. Um, these were not here before. Where are all the chickens, boars, and crafting materials that were everywhere just a few weeks ago? Well, they’re still around but not nearly as numerous as before. Bows, bones and mechanical parts are no longer dropped, and other crafting materials that don’t exactly fit their place appear instead. It seems that in Epic’s never ending challenge to keep things fresh (and perhaps appeal to the community) they are already either somewhat “phasing out” the new additions that just came to the game a few months ago or at least not having them forced upon players anymore. However, gold and bounties from Season 5 are still here with virtually no changes, so while I don’t expect crafting to be too important by Season 10 if it’s even still there, my bet is that gold will stick around for a long time. 

Of course, the twists from last Season don’t tend to disappear without something new to take their place. This season we see the introduction of cosmic chests (sort of an “ultra chest” that spawns only in group game modes where all players have to work together to open it) UFOs that the player can not only pilot but also abduct other unlucky enemies with, and more. If you want to know my suggestions for what kind of loadouts and playstyles I see being the most effective this season, I recommend:

1st inventory slot: The usual assault rifle slot. The default one is probably my recommendation but I feel that I get a lot of value out of the epic and legendary variants of the burst assault rifle as well.

2nd slot: The usual shotgun slot. Pump shotgun for the more skilled and tactical for the less skilled when aiming.

3rd slot: The Kymera ray gun, rail gun, or a normal SMG will all probably work well here. I do not recommend using pistols and especially not the “hand cannon” (deagle) as it’s lacking in pretty much… all fields. Definitely take the rail gun instead if you are looking for a long-range weapon that deals heavy damage.

4/5th slots: At least one med as usual (two is often good for really competitive players) and for utilities I would say both the recon scanner for opponent visibility and the inflate-a-bull for moobility and defense options are incredibly good choices. The recon scanner is definitely a must-have for at least one of your squadmates if you are playing anything else than solo modes. Inflate-a-bull is quite useful to escape with if you happen to encounter an opponent you just know you can’t take on. 

Now for the Battle Pass. I’m a big fan of the emotes – anything from a traversal UFO emote to catchy tunes sung by someone who must be as fed up with earth as Catholics are. And yes, there is the Rick dance. We also have some.. not very interesting original characters in my opinion. Also new this season is you can now “choose” which rewards to claim on the pass, instead of them being in the forced 1-100 order. However, this feature is a bit misleading, as you must claim a certain number of rewards on each “page” before advancing to the next one. Essentially what I’m saying here is that the pass is still pretty linear but you can grab a few of the rewards you are wanting the most a little bit faster than last time. Nothing too crazy. Do note that the Rick and Morty franchise (Rick is the final skin on the pass) is a very mature one, although nothing really problematic made it over to Fortnite.

Unless you have something against butter robots, of course. 

…….

Moving on!!

To get into something that is actually going to upset even the butter-loving Catholics, Fortnite is going off the deep end and harshly pushing a “pride” agenda onto it’s players through the Rainbow Royale event currently taking place as I am writing this. I do feel a little bit of sympathy towards Epic – it is hard being such a big company among this culture and not getting pressured from part of society for inaction towards these ideals. Heck, I was sort of suspecting them to do something like this the last two years and was surprised they didn’t. In fact, I even noticed that they specifically chose to use their own “rainbow flag” prop in creative mode which is very unlike the usual flag and probably not something you would think was LGBTQ related if not told. Now, do I think that’s because they are personally against the movement or because they are trying to avoid making people against it upset? My guess is the latter. Either way, neither of those would excuse their actions and we now have to be aware that we may be seeing people using the pride cosmetics in-game from time to time. As much as I am tempted to complain more about this, I don’t think it’s the time and place, so let’s move on.

In case you haven’t noticed, recently the CGR staff have been trying to incorporate a bit more faith into our reviews – hopefully to help you get more enjoyment out of a game you decide to pick up and make reading our reviews a bit more worth your while. Now, Fortnite is one of the harder games to incorporate such topics into considering it’s so heavily focused on intense multiplayer, but I do think this season’s theme and story have a good bit that can be played off of.

If you’ve already booted up the game in the last month or so, you may remember the new drop location known as “Believer Beach”. Through the game’s various trailers, cutscenes and decorations left at the location in-game we can see that there was a large group of people crowded there who wanted to meet aliens. Sure, that’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself but they went quite overboard with it. There are signs and posters EVERYWHERE, with big circles drawn out where aliens are being asked to land their spacecraft. It appears to almost be a sort of religion. Of course, once aliens finally did arrive people fled in fear as it was quite clear they were evil. The version of the beach we see in-game has since been abandoned, with all it’s previous residents presumably abducted, killed off or successfully fled. The only signs of life now are the Aliens, who are hostile and will begin to attack you even if you show no violence towards them. Alas, it is a sad story – people wanted to meet these beings so badly that despite the great risk they put themselves in harm’s way, and in the end they did pay the price for their obsessions – but not without causing harm to befall the innocent on the island.

We, of course, often make similar mistakes throughout our lives, even if it doesn’t happen to involve aliens. Whether it be from having the nicest clothes to the richest food, our immoderate desire for temporary things can often hurt others, from those closest to us such as family and especially the fast food employees (speaking from experience). I’m sorry we don’t offer your favorite dessert in a large size anymore, sir, but what am I supposed to do about it? LEAVE YOUR PARAGRAPH OF COMPLAINTS TO CORPORATE!!!

So, as you play through the rest of this season, I suggest you take a look at the destruction and terror the aliens have caused and remember the cost that our mistakes cause others. It might be hard to do when flying one of those sweet UFOs, but perhaps the next time an alien takes you out even though it was totally unfair and you were definitely behind that wall, it’ll be easier to remember. Also, be nice to the fast food employees. Please..? 

Scoring – 96% ⭐(EXCELLENT SHOOTER/BATTLE ROYALE GAME)

Story: 4/5

Graphics: 5/5

Controls: 5/5

Gameplay: 5/5

Replayability: 5/5

Morality/Parental Warnings

Language: Completely clean aside from select concerts/events, although there is optional music when riding in vehicles that may convey bad messages, which unfortunately is more than I can realistically monitor. And there is voice/text chat in some places. All of these can usually be either turned off or avoided, however.

Sex/Nudity: Many of the female skins have revealing clothing, and select male skins don’t have a shirt. A few emotes have somewhat sexual themes through dancing and/or lyrics. There are also a few “pride” cosmetic items in-game along with a flag in creative mode.

Occult: Some skins themed after demons/the devil, with some pentagram-like symbols. There are also wizards & witches, and few skins are referred to as gods. The group of people looking for aliens is similar to the occult/false religion.

Violence: Guns are realistic, but no blood – although aliens do explode with some kind of goop and grotesque sounds that might be considered blood. Animals drop meat and bones, but they are very cartoony.

Consumerism: Many expensive microtransactions, some skins are themed after real people or fictional characters that… show off their material possessions quite extensively.

Addiction: Very stimulating and addicting feedback loop/gameplay. Make sure to pace yourself!

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