BIGBITE Issue #16

Ellie Main 路 Skill Tree Bar Badges 路 FAF Far Cry 5 路 Fortnite 路 Cultist Simulator

Joe Dalton CEO @JXDALTON John Byrne COO @JRBYRNE88 Matt VanDeZande CCO @AL C James Perrett Advisor @ Kat Cirri Director of Programing ousy opilot

jaaamesperrett

@CIRRIGNEOS

Michael Hernandez Social Media Director @LOSX77_MICHAEL Harry Turner Social Media Director @T H Caiti Mulligan Social Media Manager @ Sean Mullen I.T. Specialist @SMULLEN319 Jon Spiker Broadcast Director urner

aa

heyitscaiti

@TheOGSpiffy

Quickly become a fan-favorite among the Rooster Teeth Community.

Christian Simmers Animator @X Aaron Collins Video Editor @G N Payden Addis Video Editor

kill Tree

uelder

hostly

eighbor

Bar Badges

Do you have what it takes?

@ToastManPayden

an

Joseph Dunlap Editor-in-Chief @J _D Sean McGuire Art Director @CHIDORIICHAN Les Van Pelt Assistant Art Director oseph

04 S 10 F 14 C 20

Ellie Main

Art Friday

Show your love by drawing it.

unlap

@LesVanPelt

ultist

Simulator

Seize forbidden treasures. Summon alien gods. Feed on your disciples.

Alexandria Barilone Writer @L B Rhys Morgan Writer @ROXAS_SWORD Sarah Writer etzky arilone

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Far Cry 5

@TRISARATOPS65

TRUST. PRAY. OBEY.

Dan Cook Writer @DCC Kayla Fyfe Video Editor/Reviewer @ Joseph Yaden Video Editor/Reviewer rulez

imkaylamarie

@Josephyaden

@KEARIART

Miranda Ramsey Illustrator Katja Hayrinen Illustrator Rebecca Jacobs Layout Editor @A R R Danielle Farah Layout Editor @MIRZERS

lice ed oses

@DELLFARAH

bigbite.media

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bigbiteonline

THE CREW

Brianna Stombaugh Artist

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youtube.com/bigbitemedia

Fortnite THE BATTLE IS BUILDING!

@bigbitemedia

bigbitemedia

BIGBITE

UPDATE

Dear Readers, Thank you for joining us for another issue of BIGBITE Magazine!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our creative direction, and one of the increasingly exciting categories we’ve been working on is gaming. So for today, let’s talk gaming, shall we?

Recently, we unveiled BIGBITE.Reviews, which is a new cross-platform feature, where we--as the name implies-review games! At current, we’re publishing these as video reviews over at YouTube.com/BIGBITEMedia, and we’re also publishing some of our favorites in BIGBITE Magazine. Looking forward, we’re considering revamping the BIGBITE.Media website to feature them as they’re completed, and we’re also looking at submitting reviews to review aggregators, like OpenCritic. No matter what happens, we’re really excited to keep putting out great new content. Also, stay tuned for our next video review, which will be out shortly after this issue is released!

Another exciting development in the gaming arena has less to do with playing the games themselves, and more focusing on how we get them. Back around March, Chii and I were discussing our dwindling game library for our BIGBITE Let’s Plays, and we stumbled upon a company called Humble. If you’re not familiar with Humble, they are a great way to get games cheap (especially for PC games)! I like to explain it as “it’s like the Steam Sale, but all year long.” They are known for their Humble Bundle software bundles, and their Humble Monthly subscription service, where for $12 per month, you get a curated bundle of great games at a ridiculous value. For example, in June, for $12, we got 8 games (a $202 value), including Destiny 2, Yooka-Laylee, and more! They’ve also got great computer software bundles, e-book bundles, and more.

Now, as you have probably already figured out, we’re happy to announce that we have been sponsored by Humble Bundle! And we are happy to help you get the same kind of hookup on games we’re getting! And better yet, why not support both us and Extra Life in the process? Check out the sweet, sweet deals at HumbleBundle.BIGBITE. Media today!

Now, blatant advertising aside, we are excited to have our first major sponsor, as we feel that represents a huge step in the right direction for us. We’re excited to keep building our gaming content, but don’t worry, Rooster Teeth fans, we’ll be continuing to cover them as well! We’re stepping up our coverage efforts for RTX, and we will even have our own panel at the event!

Thanks for continuing to support us on our journey!

Sincerely,

Joe Dalton Joe Dalton,

CEO, BIGBITE Media

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4 - BIGBITE Interviews

BIGBITE Interviews:

Ellie “Friday” Main Ellie Main has quickly become a fan-favorite among the Rooster Teeth Community, and is easily one of the biggest rising stars that RT has to offer. Our own Joe Dalton had the chance to chat with Ellie about Skill Tree, The Lab, her music, and more!

Hi Ellie! Thanks for joining us! Skill Tree recently wrapped up its first season. What skill was the most fun to learn?

That is such a hard question! Each episode was so different, but I think the last episode in the season was probably my favourite. I’ve always wanted to learn stunt driving and the “180 J Turn” was so fun and so terrifying at the same time.

What was one of the most memorable moments from working on Skill Tree Season 1?

Oh gosh. Probably the most memorable moment for me was when the crew switched out the production intern with Burnie for the final challenge. I genuinely had no idea they were doing that! When Burnie jumped out from behind the hostage board I couldn’t believe it – that is a 100% honest reaction! Getting a bucket of nasty creek water thrown at me was also a pretty memorable moment though!

If/when Skill Tree is renewed for a second season, what is the one skill you would most like to learn, and why?

There’s too many to choose from – I think something with a grappling hook? Or rappelling... something rope based! I’d need to get my upper body strength up big time...

Some of our readers might not know that Skill Tree was born out of the Burnie Vlog, while you served as Burnie’s Executive Assistant. That had to be a crazy gig... what is one of your favorite stories from working with Burnie?

BIGBITE INTERVIEWS - 5

Working with Burnie on his Vlog was such an incredible experience – I’ll always be grateful for it. One of my most memorable moments in that position was the San Francisco vlog. I hadn’t been able to travel much in America and it was one of our first trips out of Austin, and my first time in San Francisco. In the space of a weekend we saw the sights, went to an incredible dinner in Napa and took a helicopter tour of the Bay! There were these incredibly exciting experiences, but for me the biggest takeaway from that position was how much I learnt from Burnie: he is incredibly generous, always encouraging and supportive and the way he interacts with the community – even when just stepping off a long-haul flight or after a 72hr convention – is pretty inspiring. Here’s a guy who owns and runs an incredibly successful multi-faceted online production hub and is a major internet influencer, and he is also the guy handing out water on set. I have an enormous amount of respect for that kind of humility.

We’ve heard you’re working on a project called RT Labs now. What is it, and what is your role there?

The Lab is a super exciting new venture, born out of the Live Action Department. We’ve created a team that are super mobile and able to run out and shoot something at a moment’s notice. We’re all “Producers” meaning that everyone on the team can write, shoot and edit so we can all collaborate and switch up the roles. It’s so creative – I love it.

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What sort of content are you hoping to create with RT Labs?

Personally, I’m hoping to bring some scripted shorts with a surreal British flavor – at The Lab we’re about playing to the top of our intelligence and getting a bit weird with it. We’re hoping to bring something a little different to the Live Action side of RT! There’s also going to be a ton of fun and flexible vids with the RT personalities you know and love.

What does the release schedule look like for RT Labs?

We’re starting off with 2 vids a week, seeing what the community likes and hopefully growing from there!

Now, some of our readers might not be aware, but you are quite the musician! What led you to start playing music?

I come from a very musical family! My dad is a self-taught pianist (after his teacher rejected his suggestion to learn Elton John instead of Beethoven) and I grew up listening to him sing and play almost every evening. Everyone in my family sings and plays an instrument! I’ve been playing the drums since I was about 10 years old and used to play in a 50-piece Jazz Band through school, and I started teaching myself guitar a few years ago. It’s so much harder to learn as an adult! Burnie heard me practicing at my desk one time and asked if I

would like to sing in his final vlog and the encouragement and support that I got from that gave me the confidence I needed to pour more time into it and I’ve been loving it!

It’s hard to find the time out of work but it makes me so happy.

What are some of your musical influences?

I love folk / acoustic music – that’s my soul food!

Ben Howard, Maggie Rogers and Ray Lamontagne are a few of my favourites. I love Chvrches and the mix of high energy beats and synth with dark and poetic lyrics...The band I’m in is inspired a lot my Fleetwood Mac and the Beegees...I grew up listening to Queen and The Who...I’m inspired by a lot of different styles, I guess!

If people want to check out your music, where could they find it?

I have a few solo covers on my YouTube and Bandcamp pages: youtube.com/elliemain and bandcamp. com/elliemain but right now I’m concentrating on Wild Disguise, the band I’m in with local Austin musician James Moritz and we just put out our EP, Out of the Box! wilddisguise.bandcamp.com

You can only find us on Spotify and ITunes!

Thanks Ellie! Be sure to catch The Lab at RoosterTeeth. com and on the RT App!

BIGBITE INTERVIEWS - 7

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON

BIGBITE LET’S PLAYs PLAYs New videos every Friday

youtube.com/BIGBITEMEDIA

Skill Tree Bar Badges

10 - COVER STORY

Do you have what it takes to earn your BIGBITE Bar Skill Tree Badges? In an effort to build our list of Skill Tree challenges, I reached out to some of my favorite bartenders and asked them for their quintessential drinks for each of the following categories: shots, bombs, beer drinks, cocktails, wine drinks, mocktails, punches, and cordials. Some you may have heard of, some might be unique house specials, some may look like they were invented at a frat party, but all of them are badge-worthy. Try them all to earn them!

Words by Joe Dalton | Art by Danielle Farah

Shot | Cement Mixer This delicious shot lives up to it’s name! In a shot glass, pour 1oz of irish cream. Top with 1oz fresh lime juice. Serve immediately, before the texture changes!

Cocktail | Blood and Sand Cocktails are a classic art. When I picked a cocktail, I wanted one that was a classic, but you just don’t see anymore. Enter the Blood and Sand. In a shaker, pour in equal parts scotch whiskey, cherry brandy, sweet vermouth, and orange juice, and shake over ice. Strain into a collins glass, and garnish with an orange wheel.

COVER STORY - 11

Beer | Michelada Here’s one of the most classic beer-based drinks I know. Rim a pilsner glass with Tajin (or chili powder and salt if you can’t find Tajin where you live). Pour in 1 part of your favorite bloody mary mix (you can find ours in the BIGBITE Bar Book), and top with 3 parts of a light mexican lager (I like Modelo for this). Garnish with a lime wedge. You might want to try these the day after everything else, since this drink is commonly used as a hangover cure south of the border!

Cordial | Squirtgun This unique drink is quickly becoming my favorite cordial! In a highball glass, pour in one part vodka, followed by four parts grapefruit soda (Squirt and Fresca are popular in my region). Garnish with an orange wheel.

Bomb | Cherry Bomb Because the Jagerbomb is too mainstream! Fill a shot glass with UV Cherry vodka. In a pint glass, add one (cold) 8oz can of Red Bull. Right before drinking, bomb the shot glass into the pint glass and drink immediately.

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Mocktail | Mock-Cow Mule A good mocktail makes you forget there’s no booze in it, and this has to be the best one I’ve tried! In a highball glass, over ice, juice half a lime, and fill with ginger beer. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Punch | Base Camp Juice Drunken party punches are a staple of the American college experience. In a large punchbowl, combine a fifth of vodka, one pint of Everclear, one gallon of classic red Hawaiian Punch, a 2-liter of ginger ale, and a 20oz can of pineapple tidbits in juice (juice included). Stir and serve cold in a collins glass. Or solo cup.

Whatever. I’m not a cop.

Wine | Sparkling White Peach Sangria This one is a modern classic, and a favorite of your drunk Aunt Sandy. Seriously Sandy, it’s lunch on a Tuesday and we’re at an Applebee’s! You don’t need an entire pitcher of these! Calm down! *ahem* Anyways... slice 3-4 white peaches. In a large pitcher, muddle most of the peaches, reserving some for garnish. Then add in one cup of peach brandy, one bottle of moscato, and one liter of peach sparkling water/seltzer. Stir, and pour in large wine glasses over ice. Top with a slice or two of peaches.

COVER STORY - 13

April 11

Montserrat Llauger @PlasmaBlurr

FAN ART

FRIDAY

Montserrat lives in Houston, Texas, where he’s a junior in high school. He loved the Nomad from the moment he was introduced in Nomad of Nowhere, so he created this piece using Micron pens of varying tip sizes. The lines were done with the 08 size tip, the coloring was done with an 05 tip, and all the shading was done with the 01 and 02 sizes. It took about three hours over the course of a few days.

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April 11

Ash

@ASHTIMELOW

Ash brings us this artwork all the way from Newcastle, UK. To create this piece, she first drew all the logos using a graphic tablet and pieced them together to cover as much of Rooster Teeth’s history as possible. She then printed the design onto fabric and handsewed everything you see.

April 25

Andrew B.

@sasapb

Andrew is a college student based in Chicago, Illinois. He wanted a cool jersey to sport while playing hockey, so he utilized some pencils, cardstock, fabric paint, and a sewing machine to make this design.

FAN ART FRIDAY - 15

May 02

Adox @toast_ adox

Adox is a high school student based in Miami, Florida. He created this piece using Photoshop and a drawing tablet over the span of 2-3 hours.

May 09

Ash

@ASHTIMELOW

Ash has presented this artwork all the way from her location in Newcastle, UK. Ash designed this using a tablet which was then printed and hand-sewn. She started with the logo and text and finished with the background color around each individual letter and work. Overall it took them nearly 4 weeks to complete the process.

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May 16

Matt Wilson @MattWilson

Matt is currently a third year film student at University Centre Weston in Bristol, United Kingdom. Matt was inspired by Mark Zhang and the Flying Ninja and was originally going to do this as an animated short, but quickly realized that it wasn’t feasible with his expectations and time frame. So instead, he took eight months of production, wrote and finished the script, choreographed fight scenes with a buddy named Zach, created his own props and then finally filmed it all on his Sony A6300 camera and a FeiyuTech A1000 Gimbal.

Way to go, Matt! https://youtu.be/ zKCjAgiFFE0

FAN ART FRIDAY - 17

May 23

Christian Lawrence @ChrisDerwin

Christian is an artist at heart, but spends his days doing online support and account management while living in Arizona, United States. He started with a sketch of the drawing, then inked and colored it until it became the work of art you see today. Overall it took him about four hours to complete the process.

June 01

Erick Hernandez @Theblake

Erick is a student artist based out of Mexico.

While listening to a combination of Sabaton and Cassie Lee Williams (from all the RWBY soundtracks), he spent about ten (10!) hours in Procreate to put together this digital painting.

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June 08

Lydia Ziolkowski @Rainshadowed

Lydia is a college student and artist based out of Nevada here in the United States. Inspired by her boyfriend’s love of Pyrrha and need of more merchandise of her, Lydia took to crafting to create something for his birthday.

To create this piece of work, Lydia took a preexisting anime figurine (specifically Kanan Matsuura from Love Live!) and removed the glued parts by heating the figure in hot water. She was then able to repaint everything, including hand painting the entire face. In total it took her just around 8 hours to separate, paint, seal, and reassemble the new Pyrrha.

FAN ART FRIDAY - 19

REVIEW

Cultist Simulator

Seize forbidden treasures. Summon alien gods. Feed on your disciples.

■ Genre Simulation RPG ■ Developer Weather Factory ■ Publisher Humble Bundle

T

here hasn’t been a game that has simultaneously infuriated and intrigued me like Cultist Simulator has. Going in, I didn’t know what to expect, but the premise of a roguelike card game where you start out as an everyday Joe and work your way up to be a cult leader sounded striking enough. However, the lack of direction quickly ruined any hope for this to be enjoyable.

Cultist Simulator starts out simple, but eventually has you juggling a variety of attributes and micromanaging different skills in order to keep your character alive and advance the story. At the beginning of each run, you can choose a background that will start you out with different perks that assist in the development of the character. Unfortunately, the options of which backgrounds you can choose is based upon the outcome of your previous run. As the title suggests, the goal of the game is to gain followers and develop a cult, but getting there isn’t self-explanatory.

One of the main aspect of the game is time-management; almost every card’s effect activates at the end of a countdown timer.

For example, when interacting with another character, you must wait an upwards of 60 seconds before the task is complete. During this down time other activities are pursued such as: working to make money, studying to help develop skills, and making sure your sanity is kept intact so you don’t die from depression.

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Everything takes in-game time to

develop and the feeling of anxiety and pressure is ongoing, especially with the impending Time card constantly depleting your currency. You are able pause time to help with decision-making, but that can only help so much, especially when it isn’t clear how to get to the endgame.

There is some satisfaction to be found with the evolution of skills, such as when all the necessary cards are finally produced for an upgrade. Even when the Dread card (a card that depletes happiness and can ultimately kill you) is drawn, knowing the ingredients to craft the Contentment card to keep you sane is rewarding.

Looking at it more generally, there is a feeling of accomplishment when you realize you’ve managed to keep your player alive for a while without dying from depression, health issues, or starvation. Cultist Simulator really likes to throw tough choices at you, and when you mix in the time element, can result in some rewarding gameplay.

Sadly, the feeling of reward is drowned out by the fact that there is zero direction of what to do. There is no tutorial and no explanation for what anything does. Even reaching the main point of the game, becoming a cult leader, is muddled by lack of direction given towards that objective. Each card does have a little description of its purpose, but those descriptions are too cryptic to be useful.

Cards like A Megalesian Incantation with the description “The Great Mother remembers” really make for a head-scratching moment when trying to decipher the meaning. When there is no direction, no tutorial, and no useful explanation for what cards do, it doesn’t make for a fun time.

On top of all that, many of the cards are randomly generated, so it makes it even tougher to figure out what to do. A message appears on the screen at the start of the game : “Explore. Take Risks. You won’t always know what to do next. Keep experimenting and you’ll master it.” It seems to me like the developer, Weather Factory, struggled to find a balance between ambiguity and giving some sense of direction to keep players around. I could only take so much of being lost before feeling like the efforts weren’t worth the trouble.

It’s tough to know if this is the case, but it comes across as lazy to not include some sort of explanation of what to do. Even some of the most notoriously tough games are designed in such a way that allows for player progression. There is a difference between challenge and bad design.

Aside from the messy, unfocused gameplay, Cultist Simulator failed to capture me aesthetically, as well. While the art isn’t offensive, it’s forgettable and bland, further pushing me away from playing. I’m sure the art took a while to make, but its mere existence doesn’t make it good.

Perhaps throwing in a few more splashes of color and a bit more complexity in the illustrations could make this more captivating. I did find the music to be a tad more interesting than the visuals, but that isn’t saying much.

The most frustrating part is Cultist Simulator is actually an intriguing game, buried deep beneath the confusion and lack of guidance.

I realize that I may be missing something, but it shouldn’t take this much effort to discover what that is. ■ Joseph Yaden

BIGBITE REVIEWS - 21

REVIEW

Far Cry 5 TRUST. PRAY. OBEY

■ Genre Action Shooter ■ Developer Ubisoft ■ Publisher Ubisoft

O

ne of the most fun aspects of modern Open World Role Playing Games is how one can forsake the main story to indulge in interesting side quests. Sadly, Far Cry 5 fails at the premise.

Far Cry 5 is an incredibly fun game with interesting side quests, solid gunplay, interesting variety in combat, and a vast open world that can be traversed by land, sea, and air. Unfortunately, the game falls short in one major area - the Main Story content is mandatory. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim I went to the Greybeards, then proceeded to wander the map exploring every nook and cranny for little bits of world lore and new weapons. In The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of The Wild I went to every corner of the map doing every mission and collecting and upgrading every bit of loot, but still never fought Ganon.

But in Far Cry 5? I started by exploring the map and indulging in every side objective that crossed my path, but within an hour of exploring my first of the three main regions, I found myself dragged into a main quest against my will. Initially I assumed this was a mistake on my part, wandering into an objective I didn’t notice. About an hour and a half later, and a bunch of side quests later, I found myself dragged into another main quest.

This time, I was upset.

The game forced me to skip over a quest and left me unaware of who characters were and why I was involved with them,

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undermining the main quests themselves. Finishing my first region flew by, as I had no choice, but I soon learned that the game rewards the player for rushing the main story! Much to my surprise and distaste, doing side content after the region was already liberated rewarded the player with more money, something that honestly made me feel like the main story was an afterthought.

I rushed into my second region and tried to complete all the main quests but found myself stuck in a final showdown that I found boring and laborious, leading me to abandon the game for a full two weeks. Despite how interesting the main antagonists are, the way in which the player is forced to experience them makes enjoyment difficult. Even though there is a lot of information and interaction to be had in the side content, it is again ruined by an inability to experience it until after all the antagonists are dead. Unlike previous villains like Vaas and Pagan Min, these villains feel insignificant and temporary. Even the father has felt like such a minor aspect of the world to me.

Despite this glaring issue in the heart of the game, there is still ton of content to enjoy. Every side character is more memorable and enjoyable than the main antagonists, and your interactions with them are plentiful. Hunting, fishing, flying, and boating are all fun diversions that fill every moment of traversal with entertainment. The enemy AI is the perfect balance of dangerous and goofy, leading to the ability to run right past an enemy and take them down from behind, or planes doing sudden loop-de-loops before dive bombing a tree. At one point I was even attacked by an enemy plane while

I was wingsuiting, leading to an insane chase scene more akin to Just Cause than Far Cry.

Every weapon, whether thrown, placed, or fired, is satisfying and worth using. The guns/fangs for hire are effective at assisting the player as well being interesting characters with unique abilities.

The player can even recruit randomly generated guns for hire that are less special than the ones unlocked in missions but still have dialogue and action that makes them memorable.

The outposts have returned and are enjoyable as ever, but a variety of interesting objectives are added as well. Each region has unique cult properties to be destroyed as well as multiple kinds of roaming vehicles that can be stopped for rewards. On top of this are the interesting prepper stashes - unique little hidden objectives that tell wacky stories about the Doomsday Prepper culture of Hope County.

By far, the best part of Far Cry 5 is the multiplayer. One form of multiplayer you can play is a co-op campaign, exploring the massive world together or just finding interesting ways to kill each other, such as locking someone in a box truck then dive bombing them with a plane. There is also the Far Cry Arcade, in which players can create their own maps with unique weapon loadouts, structures, and play modes.

The arcade has outpost modes where the player or players have to work to eliminate AI enemies and compete for better times, as well as competitive deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. The joy of this competitive multiplayer shines in ridiculous games like Shovel Dodger, a game of dodgeball played by spear throwing shovels across a neon court, and nostalgic maps like a faithful recreation of James Bond Goldeneye (N64) maps. It is very easy to sink several hours into this competitive mode exploring and rating new

maps while competing against other players in a seemingly endless variety of new maps.

The last aspect of the online game play is not quite multiplayer but live events. The game will regularly update with new objectives to be performed in the game, and when a player or the community completes these challenges, they are respectively rewarded.

For example, at the time of this writing, there is a challenge for killing wolves with bows and collecting their collars, which rewards the player with a shovel cannon if they acquire ten collars and reward all players with a unique outfit if the community as a whole acquires 500,000 collars.

With a variety of fun multiplayer, along with an interesting laundry list of future downloadable content, Far Cry 5 has a bright future despite a disappointing campaign mode.

LIVE ACTION MOVIE Coinciding with the release of the game, Ubisoft released a live action short film called Inside Eden’s Gate. The film serves as a prologue to the events of the game, and follows three filmmakers as they travel across Hope County. They meet Mark and his sister, Faith who is in the game being taken in by the Eden’s Gate cult..

■ Dan Cook

BIGBITE REVIEWS - 23

REVIEW

Fortnite

THE BATTLE IS BUILDING!

■ Genre Survival ■ Developer Epic Games People Can Fly ■ Publisher Epic Games

W

hen someone hears the name Fortnite, they’ll likely first think about the Battle Royale mode of the game that released in Fall 2017 (unless they’re from the 1800’s, in which case they’ll just think you mean two weeks ago).

When I hear people mention Fortnite, I always get excited and hope they have played the Player Versus Environment mode now labeled as Save the World, and am often disappointed. I have had the unfortunate experience of trying to explain to a coworker that the character they played while trying their brothers copy of the PvE mode had both a name and a class and was simply not fit for their playstyle, only to have them stare blankly at me saying they just liked shooting people…

Okay.

For those who are unaware of what the PvE mode of Fortnite entails, it a mission based game where a party of up to four players tries to achieve an objective while fending off zombies called husks, using a variety of interesting guns and abilities. What I personally find so entertaining about the game is the complexity and diversity of the management aspects outside the missions, where the player can manage two different kinds of skill trees, upgrade or disassemble their various collectables, engage in resource collection minigames, purchase new collectables through the shop (microtransactions give access to only one currency; all three currencies are best earned through play), and allocate all those

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collectibles to improve the player’s gameplay experience.

The main mechanic of progress is the multitude of quests which fall into “main,” “seasonal,” “side,” and “daily” categories. The tutorial missions will help the player learn about most of the micromanagement mechanics.

Side quests often offer V-bucks for otherwise unnecessary tasks like finishing storm shield defenses. The seasonal quests usually reward a combination of the three currencies: seasonal tickets, seasonal gold, and V-bucks. These can each be used for their own individual forms of loot in the shop and are not interchangeable, meaning if one wants to purchase a seasonal llama or hero, they need to play the game to unlock seasonal tickets, which helps cut down on the potential menace of microtransactions. Meanwhile, daily quests reward the player with V-bucks and seasonal gold for completing minor objectives like using certain hero types or breaking/finding certain objects in the missions.

The missions have a wide variety of objectives including rescuing survivors, building radar towers, fighting encampments, ‘ride the lightning’ which entails defending a van, ‘fighting the storm’ which entails building and defending special structures, delivering a bomb from one structure to another then defending the second structure as it fires the bomb, repairing a survivor shelter, and evacuating a survivor shelter. Each of these mission types is set in a sandbox zone of one of five biome types, industrial, city, suburb, grassland, or forest. Each biome has a different

geography and variety of objects contained within which can affect certain quest types.

In these sandboxes, almost all objects and structures can be broken down for resources and a large variety of small objectives will appear including encampments, survivors that need saving, radars to be built, seasonal objectives, special challenges like storm chests, and random spawn objectives like a resource drone crashing into the map to be defended. The actual gameplay loop can be rather relaxing after one becomes proficient at the game and has upgraded high rarity weapons and heroes. One can simply focus on the main objective or start by exploring the map for resources, loot, or personal objectives scattered within.

At the end of each mission the player will be rewarded with resources, and their performance rating will increase the quantity of rewards earned. The rewards earned in these missions are usually used for upgrading the various collectables in the game: Schematics, Heroes, Survivors, and Defenders. Schematics include all the weapons and traps the player can collect and craft throughout the game, and upgrading them increases their stats and unlocks new randomized attributes that appear uniquely on each schematic (a recent update introduced the ability to change and upgrade these attributes).

The player will also encounter an interesting variety of husks with different traits, as well as the Mist Monsters, special boss husks with large health bars and special abilities. Among these Mist Monsters are the tanks that can smash right through weakened structures, blasters that fire heavy barrages of laser fire from their eyes, lobbers that throw husks into the players base, and takers, which are ghost like freaks that can move through structures and will swoop in to whisk away and down your teammates.

Each player controls a hero, and each one has unique passive and active abilities based on the hero’s class. Soldier are ranged combat specialists with abilities like grenades, a ground pound, a minigun, and an area of effect player buff. Ninjas are melee combat specialists with double jumps, shuriken strikes, flying sword slashes, and powerful stunning spin kicks. Constructors are building specialists that can do a shield charge, drop a decoy, drop a plasma trap, and reinforce structures with a special item called a BASE that amplifies connected player structures.

Some mission types have timers from the moment the player enters the mission, while others have timers initiated when the main objective is activated. When time is up, the game ends and players are rewarded for their performance. This performance is measured by their progress in side objectives, their effectiveness at the main objective, and their rating in three categories: Combat, Building, and Utility. The first two of those categories are rather self explanatory, whereas utility is a blanket term for resource collection and crafting.

Lastly, the Outlanders are utility specialists with high mobility and the most unique power system. Other than their basic abilities like a short range teleport and a high power punch, each Outlander can also collect special orbs around the map that power their strongest ability. These orbs come in two varieties: the blue orbs power the Outlander’s personal ability such as a giant bear turret or an electrical tower trap, and the purple orbs give all Outlanders a resource llama [Editor: Yes, you read that right. Resource llama.] which

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can be broken down for a plentiful supply of resources.

Survivors are used to micromanage stats such as damage, defense, shield, regeneration, and building effectiveness.

Defenders are special allies that can be summoned into missions to fill player character slots. Each defender can wield only one type of weapon and they can only be summoned on special traps. There are restrictions on how many defenders can be brought into each mission type.

All of these collectables are regularly won through the Loot Llama system, and any duplicates can be recycled for resources or slotted into a collection book to unlock special rewards (or fill a personal collection itch).

There is also a transform system to exchange a group of collectables for a different randomly generated collectable.

ART AND DESIGN In their initial prototypes of the game, Epic had used creepier and darker designs for the husks and other enemies. Bleszinski said that they found this to create an “exhaustive environment” that was too grim, and designed to take the design in a more cartoonish approach, while still remaining creepy, so that players would enjoy spending time in the game’s world, without competing with games like DayZ

The complexity of all these systems can be a bit daunting to approach, which is probably why the game doesn’t force you into any of these systems very harshly and mostly lets you learn how to make things work on your own. Even as I am nearing the midpoint of the game, I still feel I am learning the details. On top of that, Epic has been regularly updating the game with new content and adjustments, such as the introduction of hoverboards and removal of stamina drain for running to make travel faster, as well as an increase on ammo and resource storage limits to make building and defending structures much easier.

Before these updates, it would be very difficult to hurry across the map to participate in a fight, as one’s abilities would be inaccessible by the time they got to the conflict.

Furthermore, the resource limits prior to recent updates used to mean that building a fully upgraded structure could completely drain a player’s resources, and the need to constantly recraft bullets mid battle and running out of the materials to do so was a crippling issue.

26 - BIGBITE REVIEWS

Despite all these systems and updates, the game still has a few struggling points. If a mission fails, the players will not receive any progress for their side quests, which seems fair as it prevents players from leaving a mission early after they meet their needs, but also means that if a player works really hard and their team fails them, that player will still have lost potentially half an hour of work.

There is one essential mission type that has some really fun aspects but is also exceedingly challenging: The Storm Shield Defense. This mission type puts the player in a unique sandbox (the player’s “Storm Shield”), an area that can be customized to the players desires and persists throughout each visit to the Storm Shield. The only issue arises with the Storm Shield matchmaking system. Because each player has a unique Storm Shield, it is extremely difficult for other players to be matched into your Storm Shield Defense missions.

This often means that a player cannot progress with the main story line without the assistance of friends, as higher levels don’t actually make the defense much easier. While the concept of the Storm Shield is very fun and interesting, the execution has created a stern road block for the game’s main content.

Altogether, Fortnite is an amazingly fun game that has kept me engaged with my Xbox One on a daily basis, as I long in at least once a night to make sure I complete my daily missions. While the constant updates and rewarding game play loop often prevent the game from getting stale, the recurring hang up of struggling against a storm shield defense can slow down one’s interest.

My advice: give the Save the World mode a shot. It is currently in Beta and is supposedly going to be free at some point, but who knows how long that will take. As someone who joined during the founder’s period I am unaware of the current cost of the game, but it is definitely an option worth looking at next time you load the game up for some Battle Royale. Hopefully it will go on sale soon and we can all scream at the storm shield together.

Good Llama hunting out there! ■ Dan Cook

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