Fortnite

I like worlds that feel alive, and by that, I mean worlds where you feel the passage of time, which takes its toll in ways that are both gradual and sudden. Both small and cataclysmic. No game I’ve ever played understood this the way Fortnite did. Back in its first chapter, I’d leap onto the island and thrill at tiny little ways that things had shifted from the week before. Trees being cut down. Furniture shifting in a basement. Something, where before there had been nothing. It felt like life was happening here.

I suppose the “innovation” that Fortnite gets the most attention for is figuring out how to become a colossal corporate crossover wonderland, a virtual theme park in which characters from the hottest movies, video games, and anime all shoot at each other while pop stars put on concerts. I’m sure there’s good money in that, but it’s not what excited me about the game. I miss the days when it felt like its own world, someplace original and distinctive, and, especially, alive, in ways big and small. That’s what I want to see more of in the games of the future. — CP