I am a proud casual in Fortnite. Shout outs to the casuals out there who don’t have time (or perhaps just the inclination) to practice building and editing on the latest custom drill maps.

You won’t find me cranking 90’s in a stacked champion series lobby. The vast majority of my wins are from stealthing about the map, hiding beneath peoples builds, and otherwise sneaky strategies. I have won a shocking number of games without firing a single bullet.

So for me, the emphasis on stealth in Fortnite’s Season 2 of Chapter 2 is fucking great.

The new season is probably bad for competitive Fortnite though, which speaks to the ongoing identity crisis that is Fortnite Battle Royale.

Bright Bomber? More like Stealth Bomber

From the very start, the Season 2 theme immediately hooked me. The season trailer featured music that seems very heavily inspired by The Incredibles, which fits perfectly for the feel of the new season.

The trailer introduces us to a quirky cast of secret agents, all of whom you will soon encounter on the actual map. The introduction of AI-populated compounds around the map makes the island feel more alive and dynamic, giving players a new way to enjoy a game they already love.

Infiltrating the five new compounds reminds me of the scenes set on Syndrome’s Island in the first Incredibles movie. There is a yacht, an off-shore compound, an underground silo, a bayside hideaway, and a central intelligence agency (not that one… well… maybe that one). Each location represents its own unique take on a heavily secured compound. As a lover of the stealth genre, I immediately knew my mission: to infiltrate each and every one of those new compounds.

Each location is guarded by AI henchmen and a “mini-boss” secret agent. Each agent carries a legendary weapon, of which there is only one available. If you kill that agent, which can be surprisingly difficult at times, you can take their legendary weapon and their keycard to access the vault. Inside the vault players will find some of the best weapons in the game, including silenced sniper rifles, C4 explosives, and plenty of other exciting items.

The prospect of incredible weapons incentivizes players to participate in the new narrative-driven compound experiences. In order to get your hands on that sweet, sweet loot you will have to take down the AI henchmen and their boss, by whatever means necessary. Each mini-boss takes the form of one of the many dope af battle pass skins for the season. We have seen Epic integrate the narrative with the battle pass before, but this season pulls out all of the stops.

In many ways, the new theme reminds me of the ambitious promises of the superhero-themed season 4. Season 4 was my favorite season up until now, in part because I loved the sense of discovery when I found a secret missile base, or a lair in the basement of an otherwise normal looking house. Season 4 only featured a couple secret lairs in which Purple Omega planned his ruthless attacks on Pink Carbide; at least, that’s what imagined the lairs were for, since Epic didn’t actually add that much on the narrative end.

While in Season 4, Epic opted to let our imaginations fill in the narrative blanks, this new season requires less imagination, since players can not only explore villainous compounds, they can also confront actual characters on the island for the first time in Fortnite’s history.

I was skeptical about the addition of AI henchmen at first, but after playing a good 10 hours dropping into heavily guarded compounds and taking out enemies, I have to say that this season is the most fun I have had in Fortnite in a very long time. I am having a blast playing against primarily the AI, which speaks to the strength of the experience Epic is providing in the new season.

Each compound offers a variety of approaches for ambitious players looking to cop a legendary grappler, silenced sniper rifle, or perhaps a legendary drum gun.

Players can go in all sneaky-beaky, using one of the many new stealth features. Specialized phone booths allow you to disguise yourself as a henchmen and walk straight past the auto-turrets, cameras, and other henchmen to steal the loot you desire. When disguised as a henchmen you have the opportunity to access special doors and chests, which players cannot otherwise open.

Players can also use the new decoy grenades, sneak around in the new Metal Gear Solid-style hiding box, or just crouch walk and pay attention to where the guards are looking.

Alternatively, you can go in guns blazing and hope that the henchmen and secret agent don’t overrun your desperate gambit.

When you take down guards, you can stop and frisk them Michael Bloomberg style to receive valuable information, like the location of chests and enemies within a compound. You can even search other players who you down to receive similar benefits.

But wait, there’s more (apparently)!

All of these new story elements are really fun so far and according to Epic more content will be coming out as the season goes on.

The VS screen seems to indicate that the player base will soon be picking a side, but we have to wait to find out more details. I am excited to see what Epic has in store for us throughout the rest of this season! Let’s go!

Cosmetics, new menu, and promise of more story to come

The cosmetics available in the battle pass very explicitly relate to the story that Epic wants to tell this season. There are a ton of great agents to unlock as you level up your battle pass. It’s also worth noting that Epic’s character design is more diverse in style and body type. Generally speaking, most cosmetics up until this point have used the exact same base models, but that doesn’t appear to be true this season. The proportions are more diverse and creative, which indicates that Epic is trying to expand the look of its art style.

Even the battle pass menu itself has been revamped. The new menu has players clicking on objects like a 1990’s Fisher Price point and click adventure. #PajamaSam #FreddietheFish

Want to check out the challenges menu? Click on that table.

Want to check out your battle pass progression? Check out that screen in the back.

In some ways, I think this menu is pretty ambitious. In other ways, I find it hella annoying. It’s nice to see them experimenting, but there’s a reason we don’t do menus this way anymore. When I was in college I took an online class with a menu like this, and I never could manage to find the readings… I dropped that class. They thought the interactive design was so clever, but it wasn’t very usable. This menu suffers from the same issues (as do the menus in the less popular Save the World mode).

That said, there are some pretty cool easter eggs if you click around randomly enough.

Season 2 puts casuals before competitive players

Do you think Epic should put more effort into the competitive side of Fortnite? Yes, competitive players often have their concerns ignored 56%, 5 votes 5 votes 56% 5 votes - 56% of all votes

No, there are far more casuals 44%, 4 votes 4 votes 44% 4 votes - 44% of all votes

I think they currently have a good balance 0%, 0 votes 0 votes 0 votes - 0% of all votes Total Votes: 9 Voting is closed Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

For casual players like me, the storytelling and gameplay experience was enhanced in this season. However, it seems like they are putting the story before the competition. Fortnite wants to be an Esport, but I don’t think you can both execute Esports well and also focus so heavily on the narrative aspect of the game.

Live services have struggled to tell compelling stories in their games for a while now, because they want to put their games’ balance first and focus on the competition rather than the story. Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch has lore, but very little of that lore is communicated in game. Hell, Overwatch developers don’t even consider voice lines canon. They make up some ground with their co-op missions and they have made map changes in the past to tell the story, such as when they changed Numbani after Doomfist stole the gauntlet, but they don’t make fundamental changes to their game in the name of the story. That’s probably a good thing, from a competitive perspective.

No one has quite figured out how to tell compelling stories in an interactive way without creating entirely separate modes to tell those stories, probably because they don’t want to break their game. Fortnite did something really interesting here by adding these compounds into the standard map. Epic chose to tell their story in their standard modes straight up. So when competitive events happen, are players going to break into these compounds to get the legendary weapons? Speaking of the legendary weapons, if there is only one of each on the map aren’t we dealing with a very similar problem as when they added that overpowered sword?

Putting these narrative sections in the base game is almost definitely bottom up design. Bottom up design refers to a game that is balanced for average players rather than for the most advanced ones. Fortnite has been criticized for its bottom up design in the past with their introductions of game-breaking mechanics like the sword, mechs, and planes all in the name of giving casual players a fighting chance to win.

I am sure these compounds introduce negative ramifications for competitive players, but for casuals like me it’s pretty goddamn cool. So what is the answer for a game like Fornite? Although I love the new map and the new features, I can’t help but think they are evidence that Fortnite continues to go through an identity crisis.