Real Talk: "Fortnite" Is Not for First-Time Gamers

Fortnite has been taking the world by storm these last few months.  

I, on the other hand, first played it about a week ago. And it was one of the most underwhelming gaming experiences I have ever had.

Some context: I’m a very casual gamer. Participating in online multiplayer games is definitely not the norm for me. But my friend suggested Fortnite, partly because it’s free (unless you want to pay for extra content). I thought, "What’s the harm, may as well give it a shot."

Just started playing Fortnite and I’m so confused lol

— kb (@IAmK_Breezy) March 23, 2018

So, I did give it a shot. Now, up until this point, whenever I had tried a new game, I had been offered a tutorial. Fortnite disagrees with this method. The developers seem to have more of a "learn on the job" sort of attitude. However, for reasons that I’ll discuss shortly, this really doesn’t work for the type of game that Fortnite is.

Knowing next to nothing about the controls or even aim of the game, I launched myself into my first match. I’ll admit, I enjoyed the quirkiness. Matches begin with players skydiving from a flying bus, which took me by surprise, but seemed fun. Mind you, that first bus ride was a failure, as I couldn’t even jump in time (no clue whether it was a controller malfunction, a glitch in the game or something else entirely) and so I was out before I had even started playing.

Take two. I managed to exit the bus this time—yay! However, as soon as I landed in the middle of the city, I was killed, in a shorter amount of time than my first free fall took. I was in the match for 15 seconds.

This is my problem with the whole "figure it out as you go" system for Fortnite: I can’t really experiment with controls and learn what to do if I die almost immediately. So, I was done. I gave up and left the game.

A few days later, I had my friend come around; the one who suggested Fortnite to me in the first place. I told him about my experience and learned that he had virtually the same one when he first started playing. I ended up trying the game again, but this time with my friend sitting next to me, walking me through basically everything. Similarly, he had to learn the game by having everything explained to him by a cousin; how the first person to ever play Fortnite figured out what they were doing is beyond me.

i just started playing fortnite and i was so confused and then i was suddenly in a hot air balloon and it was telling me to get off but then i landed in the middle of nowhere and just wandered around and started hitting stuff and got materials

— ً (@loonasgbt) March 23, 2018

Now I’ve learned what button does what, how there’s a constant looming storm that will apparently try to kill me, and, most importantly, that I'm engaging in a battle royale. Until this point, I literally didn’t even know the objective of Fortnite. I assumed there were teams, which is probably why I was killed immediately that first time. Maybe the game does mention somewhere that the goal is to eliminate all other players. I don’t know. Considering how much else I have to worry about while learning the game, I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed such a line.

I’ll admit, now that I’ve gotten a hang of things, the game is somewhat enjoyable. Not the best, but for a free game, it does offer enough entertainment. However, if you’re an amateur like me, I strongly urge you to phone a friend (or YouTube a tutorial) first. It’ll hopefully save you a lot of frustration.

Graham Mitchell Elphick is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. See more student contributions here.

Photo: Epic Games