Epic Gamesis finally making some welcome changes to theFortnitebattle pass. No, it isn’t introducing yet another garish new user interface or a weird, obtuse new way to earn items.From the next season onwards, earnable cosmetics in battle passes will be made available within Fortnite’s item shopafter 18 months.
Previously, if you failed to earn a limited edition licensed skin in a certain season because you didn’t have the time or money to grind things out, you’d be left in the lurch. It has long been a pet peeve of mine when it comes to live service games, turning what must be a large amount of work for developers into temporary spoils that would be made available only for a couple of months before being erased from existence forever. This way, battle pass rewards have a second chance at life.
Fans are delighted, because millions of them had either given up hope of earning select cosmetics ever again, or wanted a chance to earn more limited skins only made available in rare quests in the past. However, it’s worth noting that old battle pass items will not return, and not all licensed skins will come back to the Item Shop, nor will Epic be giving players any sort of warning about what will arrive in the shop and when. Much like today, you’ll simply need to log on and find out for yourself.
It’s not perfect, but it is a definite improvement over rival titles likeDestiny,Call of Duty, and to be honest, the majority of modern games with a battle pass, that push seasonal content that is defined to fade into memory. It wants you to engage with it for silly amounts of time, while the rewards you earn are more or less an afterthought. You almost feel a sense of guilt if you aren’t setting aside enough time in your day to finish your quests and complete challenges to progress the battle pass, because every day wasted is one day closer to it going away forever.
When it comes to earning experience points and completing quests that contribute towards its battle pass, Fortnite is the best game out there. Everything you do, whether it’s killing other players, opening chests, or customising your weapons, will result in oodles of experience and levels. It isn’t hard to reach Level 100 in the grand scheme of things, but what you earn shouldn’t be taken away if you aren’t fast enough. Now, there is a chance of changing that, albeit by spending real money on V-Bucks and a massive luck of the draw.
In an ideal world, I would love to see Fortnite adopt a similar battle pass toHalo Infinite. It’s designed so you can progress through any battle pass in the game’s history whenever you like, switching between which one your experience contributes to. But given that each season can see Fortnite fundamentally redesign parts of its map and user interface, not to mention how specific challenges are tied into each season, this is probably far more complicated than we think to implement. So this is a start, and hey, it might lead to greater things in the months and years to come.
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Starting life as a tower defense game, Fortnite has become one of the biggest video games out there. Its battle royale mode dominates popular culture, featuring concerts by megastar musicians and crossovers with just about every brand imaginable, from Marvel to the NFL.
