Lego Fortnite on Switch is Building up to Something Great!
Everything is indeed Awesome with Fortnite’s first Play Experience entry with Lego Fortnite, a survival co-op crafting game full of wonder and pleasant surprises. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting after the live event, perhaps something a bit more Fortnighty? So when I logged into my account in the early hours this morning, I was blown away by the depth and mechanics of Lego Fortnite. What’s it Like? Let’s grab some blueprints, lego-fy our favorite skins, and avoid stepping on the blocks as we take a look at Lego Fortnite!
Firstly, as a part of Epic’s plan to deliver new Game Experiences, it should be noted that Lego Fortnite is an entirely new game built within the Fortnite Engine. There is no Battle Royales but there is a lot of building, crafting, and fun to be had. The game starts off similarly to Minecraft, collecting wood and stone to create a fire and shelter. You will have to manage hunger, health, and temperature with some *somewhat* relaxed survival mechanics. This was all to be expected, and the trailer looked like it would promise to be a nice distraction from the normal version of Fortnite… How wrong I was.
The Strength of Lego Fortnite is just how deep the mechanics go once you are settled in. After building a basic shelter, you then move on to building more structure and crafting systems, and then you can place a Village square to claim an area. Your village can attract NPCs to join you, convincing them to stay by making them a shelter. These NPCs can then be assigned jobs, collecting resources, or even exploring new locations. The more you level your village up, the more citizens you can have. You can build prefabricated buildings, or have a crack at making your own creations. There’s a range of furniture and decorations to help make your place feel more cozy, and building lots of furniture will attract a special character which I won’t spoil here.
Certain utilities can also be upgraded like your craft bench, requiring certain materials to ensure you don’t overlevel too quickly. These upgrades unlock a new tier of items, allowing you to do more damage, or have increased durability. This will definitely come in handy as the further you move away from your village, the more threats there are to contend with like wolves, skeletons, and even other raiders! There are also caves to explore which act like dungeons, holding unique crafting materials and rare treasures, making exploration a rewarding experience. Combat is made easier with the inclusion of a dodge mechanic and equipping a shield of food in your off-hand so you can eat on the fly in a pinch.
The world is littered with locations and events to explore, and I found as I played with my wife and kids we all had moments of “Hey! Look at this!” as discoveries were often exciting and new. Some ruins contain treasures to help your village, and others might provide vital food and ammo to continue your exploration. There isn’t any leveling up of your character, rather you craft charms to equip which increase your stats depending on your situation. Much like other games of this genre, you can really just play how you want to play. Some may love the dangers of dungeon diving, others may just love building up their village. Animal lovers will be pleased to know you can pet chickens!
There are a lot of quality-of-life additions to Lego Fortnite, such as being able to mark your village or locations with flags, pinging them on the map, or you can find your way by using campfires as smoke signals for waypoints. My favorite inclusion is the key system. Allowing you to give up to 7 keys to your closest friends so they can play on your world even when you’re not there, making it feel more like a community. You can even create a central village and have smaller villages in different parts of the world if you choose to do so. Another great touch is when you farm food you can stack seeds so they auto-replant after harvesting, making farming less fiddly, and there’s even a merge option in your inventory to stack items nice and neat.
It’s these touches that make Lego Fortnite such a wonderful experience and set it aside from the unfair comparisons of it being a Minecraft clone. Lego Fortnite builds on the promise of Epic Games delivering new play experiences, and despite there being some amazing titles released in the past few months, Lego Fortnite definitely deserves to have its time to shine amongst them.
While this isn’t a scored review, I can honestly say that Fortnite Lego is an absolute delight to play.
