Fortnite has upended its massively popular world far sooner than anyone anticipated with the arrival of Chapter 4 earlier this week. Chapter 3, a chrome-splattered, island-ending experience, lasted only a year marking the shortest Chapter run for Epic’s free-to-play battle royale. Now, Chapter 4 is live and boasting a huge graphical overhaul along with the requisite gameplay changes thanks to the game’s shift to Unreal Engine 5.1, itself only recently released several weeks ago. From the arrival of The Witcher‘s Geralt of Rivia, to the introduction of dirt bikes and even a whole new island to drop on, Chapter 4 marks a substantial shift for Fortnite with loads of new features to unpack.
The biggest news out of Chapter 4 is arguably the new island, which has taken artistic inspiration and topography from a variety of sources. A massive stretch of land is dedicated to an autumnal, vaguely medieval forested area featuring villages, castles and more. Roads have been replaced with cobblestone and the largely techno-heavy architecture of Chapter 3 has been subsumed by wooden structures of old. A vibrant streak of greenery also runs through the southern portion of the map housing some modern settings that I am dying to see more of after stumbling upon a particularly vibrant small-town bowling alley. The northern regions have fallen to some kind of Fimbulwinter situation though, with large, barren swaths of icy snow blanketing the lands.
The new island leans hard into fantasy-core
In terms of raw art direction I’m not entirely won over just yet but from what I’ve been able to gleam of this mishmash of ye’ ol’ fantasy and galactic void stuff (the island is floating in space now, don’t worry about it), there is definitely some flavour cooking here. Foliage is denser, and the terrain itself is varied and full of life. Basically, the game just looks phenomenal and it’s all thanks to the shift to Unreal Engine 5. Fortnite has never been a bad-looking game, the last major jump being to 4K and all that jazz on the latest round of home hardware, but Chapter 4 aggressively overhauls the game’s visuals to a stunning degree.
As shown below by John Linneman of Digital Foundry, the changes to lighting and shadows are immediately noticeable. Fortnite is now using the most up-to-date UE5 tools, including Nanite, Lumen, Virtual Shadows Map and Temporal Super Resolution. After we spend some more time with the game we can have a closer look at these systems but for now, let’s just admire the new and fancy way the light shifts within the world.
Yeah, the new Fortnite update...it actually has me playing Fortnite which is an achievement all its own. Lumen GI sure looks amazing. pic.twitter.com/Upn5QblfJ9
— John Linneman (@dark1x) December 5, 2022
The Chapter 4 Season Pass is also shaping up to be a solid one for Gamers™ with icons of the industry Geralt of Rivia and Doom Guy both joining the fray. Doom Guy in particular looks fantastic in Fortnite’s signature smoothed character art style, his bulky and instantly recognisable presence a welcome addition to the roster. Meanwhile, the island itself seems made for Geralt’s arrival, though I was a little saddened to discover the castle on the hill I fought my way to wasn’t Kaer Morhen. Nabbing the Season Pass also grants you immediate access to Selene, a cosmic entity of sorts who rocks a pretty sick chrome outfit.
In terms of gameplay, Fortnite Chapter 4 has introduced dirt bikes for traversal and combat purposes. Hop onto one of these mildly hard-to-control two-wheelers and glide over hilly terrain while brandishing your weapon of choice. The longer you survive in a match the deeper you’ll find yourself in the new Augmented Abilities pool, a series of randomised augments you can equip for passive or active effect. I was offered a cool hunting bow or the option to have objects I destroyed possibly blow up at just the first level, so it will be interesting to see how these play out long-term. There are also a handful of new guns and weapons to deploy and a few more surprises to come I’m sure.
Fortnite Chapter 4’s new Citadel location
For the full list of changes headed to Fortnite in Chapter 4, you can jump over to the official Epic Games blog post about it but for now, we are tentatively excited about this new island and its gameplay additions. The shift to UE5 has had a major impact on the visual language of the game, something we’re going to be paying a lot of attention to as we play through the opening week of the new chapter, but it is undeniably gorgeous. Dirt bikes are fun and chaotic so far too, and combined with the new red dot accurate weapons, form a compelling means of surviving the storm. And hopefully, now that Geralt is here, we can finally play Fortnite and Yennefer of Vengerberg and make her do the Floss.
