Fortnite: Spring It On! (Save the World) — Is It Worth Playing and My Impression
On February 15, 2018, Fortnite V.2.5.0 hit consoles and PC. If you want to see a list of everything that got updated you can see it here, but I’m focusing just on the questline and my overall impression of the event in relation to previous events.
Okay, let’s get right into it. I know the Fortnite team has put a lot of focus on Battle Royale since that blew up, but is that affecting Save the World? Absolutely. And before all you Battle Royale players get riled up in the comments saying it’s going to be free-to-play this fall anyways and why am I writing an article just about Save the World, I would like to take the moment to mention two things. One, I’m a PVE player. I hate PVP and I’m terrible at it and to be honest, it’s not that enjoyable to me. I love story content more than whether or not I can shoot a human from over 200 meters away. I respect people that play PVP, it’s just not for me. And two, I paid for this game way back in beta because I thought it would change co-op PVE, which I still believe it has. I support the team but I would like equal focus on both sides of the game, as some players enjoy STW more. Just a reminder that PVP killed Gears of War Judgment.
Now on to the nitty-gritty. The Save the World event questline. I’ll go over the pros and the cons with you based on my experience playing it.
So, my entire runthrough of the Save the World “Love Storm” questline took six hours. Where is that in relation to other events? Well “Fortnitemares” took me 124 hours and “Save the Holidays” took me 85 hours. In relation to the other two events, this one was incredibly short. But what about content?
When the questline started off, unlike other events, there was no intro cinematic. There was no introduction to the quests either until you got into the mission and located your first quest item, just a general description to point you in the right direction. Right off the bat, this made it feel less like an event and more like a side-quest. As the storyline progressed, there was even less dialogue and absolutely no dialogue overlayed on the main hub. The quests in and of themselves took three minute mission times to complete, and the overall questline, when cut down, took exactly 1.5 hours of in-game time. And then there was the ending.
I first noticed a severe lack of conclusion in “Save the Holidays” around Christmastime. Instead of a steady build-up and epic finale, the final quest ended on a less-than challenging note with little after-mission dialogue. It should have been a mission more like when Lars set off the balloon with the presents, where you were running around and then defending off husks in a final showdown. And if you thought that was less than mediocre, may I present you with the conclusion of “Love Storm.”
The quests started off strong with showing the funky relationship of two not-so-intelligent survivors, Dennis and Summer. The quirky arguments they had as well as how you rescue both of them had so much potential that completely fell through. Summer left the survivor settlement for an unknown reason and Dennis wants to rescue her and show her how much he loves her. So you end up rescuing her and then Dennis, who left to find some romantic book for her, and then go on quests to gather flowers, that he rejects, and a love song for them, which falls through. After all that work with no progression we get to the final quest.
The event ends with you sending off balloon-teddies into space. It’s the only quest I had to take multiple missions to complete, and the ending literally stopped. What purpose did these bears serve? Absolutely no idea as it was never explained. Did Dennis and Summer ever work out their relationship problems and gain some intelligence? Who knows. What witty dialogue ended the final bear-send-off? Absolutely none. Why? No idea.
You get a reward of a cool looking stone-cupid Jonesy and that’s it. The event is over. No dialogue. No conclusion. No send off. And no answered questions or story progression. No character development. In just six hours you got a mediocre hashed-out questline with no conclusion. Not to mention the bugs when weapons won’t work at all or when you reach a quest objective only for Summer or Dennis to not appear. And you know what sucks? It could have been so much better.
Looking back at how blown away I was by Fortnitemares, and even the Survive the Storm portion of Save the Holidays, I can’t help but be incredibly disappointed. Fortnite has a story that I love, quirky characters, and epic missions, but this event failed on all three fronts. I’m not complaining because I spent money or even because it wasn’t content heavy. I’m complaining because I expect so much better. It’s like a parent watching their ten year-old son try desperately to fit the square in the circle hole of a toddler’s toy.
Is the event questline worth playing? This is the first time I have to say “maybe” since Beta. The bugs are pretty game-changing and you won’t feel satisfaction in completing it. But hey, if you only play Fortnite for cute hero skins, enjoy. This by no means is going to keep me from playing the game, but it is a disappointment in a game that gets more and more disappointing for PVE players. So Fortnite? Enjoy the success of Battle Royale, but know that us PVE players, who have literally fled Fortnite groups that do nothing but shout at us to form basically our own quiet factions, are sitting here waiting for the day you give us more than a nod. We care about your story and your success, but don’t give up one for the other. We love you, please come back home.
SIDE NOTE: Fortnite developers, if you are reading this, below is my personal opinion as far as improvements that could have been done to the storyline. I majored in script-writing and plot analysis in college and have been a dedicated gamer my entire life and since feedback is so messed up for Save the World at the moment, hopefully you’ll see this.
There could have been intro dialogue before the first quest starts. We don’t need a full-blown intro cinematic, but just a boost to get us going. Summer has left the shelter after getting in a fight with Dennis over something stupid, maybe it was that he doesn’t show enough attention to her and is too focused on his career as a professional smooth-jazz hard-rock guitarist. Dennis wants us to go after her but has no idea where she is. Insert red mailbox quest here. Upon exiting, Dennis wants to “show those husks not to mess with his girl” and gets Ray and the MC to help him locate Summer. Instead of spending the next quest wandering around a map looking for a spot to trigger a quest marker to trigger Summer, maybe have Dennis try, even if unsuccessful, to try to help you locate Summer. This could even be a whole new quest! Eventually you locate Summer and she only agrees to go home if Dennis puts as much focus on her as he does on his rock collection. And he has to agree to always open the pickle jar, even if she wants one for each meal.
Saving Dennis from the husks in the next mission doesn’t make much sense or reach any conclusion as it is right now, which makes it feel like saving just any old survivor. So what if he can’t open the pickle jar himself and went out looking for a can opener? You save him from the husks, but now have to go through the mundane task of locating a can opener in kitchens for the next quest, “Love is an Open Jar”. Then you can insert the find chocolate quest, but there still isn’t much fighting this questline. Put in a special quest exclusive for this event where you have to raid and then defend a Teddy Bear warehouse’s stock from three waves of husk with 30 seconds in between. After that Ray wants you to find them a song while she “prepares for the master plan”. The master plan of course, is launching the teddy bears to make every survivor feel special on Valentine’s Day, and let them know that shelter does exist if they make their way to Homebase.
And to end it? Give us some dialogue of Dennis acknowledging that he needs to focus more on her and Summer saying she doesn’t care if he can’t open a pickle jar as long as he brings home pizza or something ridiculous. Ray tells you your “Care Packages” have brought in tons of survivors and Lars is dressed up as cupid firing actual arrows with his guitar strings on unsuspecting husks that are chasing the new survivors to base. “Even in all the chaos around us, it’s important to realize what keeps us strong and fighting is love, whether it’s in the form of nice romantic gestures, or finding a convenient way to open a pickle jar. Love keeps us alive and protected.” Also a See-Bot asking if he could be Ray’s Valentine and Ray freaking out on him and denouncing Valentine’s day wouldn’t hurt. And if we got this as a cinematic ending with a husk picking up a care package and swooning over the chocolates all would be forgiven. Give us an epic ending, please. And a progressive story. I came up with that in five minutes, just imagine the realm of possibilities you could do!
Love always, your favorite husk-slayer Grimmfinite!
