Fortnite Chapter 2: Season 8

On Sunday 12th September, the countdown to season 8 began, which to every Fortnite fan means new Battlepass, new theme, new map changes and for me, it means a new review! Let's begin.

The Live Event!

Now, even though the live event was technically Season 7, it was the gateway that lead us to Season 8 and therefore provided us with new features.

1. The live event which kicked off at 9pm UK time, was an interactive and high action experience. It started with us floating and dancing on the remnants of 'Corny Complex'. As we were flossing and giving the 'L' we were suddenly abducted by the Mothership and had bombs strapped to our backs. With our teammates, we ran around the ship and hacked into systems. When all hope seemed lost, who should appear to save the day? Kevin the Cube! Our dear old friend that hasn't been seen since Chapter 1! As the event progressed we soon learnt that Kevin wasn't alone and was in fact only one small cube in a crowd of cubes, who later fell to the island thanks to Sloane and her bombs blowing up the Mothership.

Overall the event was fun and shocking, but lacked the oomf that we saw in Chapter 1 Season 10, with the Black Hole event or the Zero Point Butterfly event. I'd rate the event a solid 6/10.

The Battlepass

With every new season there is a new battlepass with skins, wraps, emotes and lobby music. Although this season's skins don't exactly link to the new theme, they are charming and chic. For the main skins we have Torin, Charlotte, J.B Champinski, Kor, Fabio Sparklemane and Toona Fish (customisable) and finally a good ol' 'Marvel' favourite...'Venom' but this time in his 'Carnage' skin, thanks to the new Venom movie.

Each skin comes with unlockable styles that can be unlocked via quests and levelling up. This is becoming an Epic favourite as for the past few seasons they have extended certain skins to suit the player. Some skins always have built-in emotes.

Toona Fish is a customisable skin that you can change the colour of using paint that it located in chest loot and around the map. You can choose solid colours or pre-set colours used from other favourable skins.

The emotes in this battlepass are in my opinion, boring and uncreative. Some being refaced and renamed from other emotes and others being nothing to brag about when you get the Battle Royale.

Not the best battlepass there is but certainly not the worse. I would rate this a 6.5/10

Map Changes

The map has gone through little aesthetic changes but the other changes that have happened are crazy! 'Holly Hatchery' is now back to being called 'Holly Hedges' and 'Slurpy Swamp' is now called 'Sludgy Swamp' So far no other POIs have been changed significantly.

The things that have changed are weird and wonderful. When the cube fell, some seem to have released energy causing what Epic are calling 'Sideways Anomalies' These anomalies are different and action packed. If a player was to enter one, they would be exposed to low gravity allowing them to jump high and they also have a 'No building' policy. They would also come across special purple chests which release Sideways weapons. But the one thing that really makes these areas unique, is that they are home to the 'Cube Monsters' these monsters are not that different to the 'Shadow Monsters' we have come across before but they are scary and are a challenge to defeat as they spawn in hordes and each have a different ability.

Some areas of the map now hold crashed UFO's. These crash sites hold little loot but do have paint for the 'Toona Fish' skin and also have slipstreams. These slipstreams aren't as extensive as the ones we saw in Season 9, they are smaller, restricted to the crash site only and don't give you as much gliding distance, but they are new and will surly be a good mechanic to add to the fighting and building aspect.

On the map 'Kevin' the cube is located just north of 'Camp Cod' and this time he is blue thanks to the efforts of the players from the live event and he now provides shield to those who decided to jump or run into him. Kevin didn't come alone though, a golden cube has also been spotted outside of 'Holly Hedges', but so far it is unclear as to what power this cube holds. Hopefully more will be revealed in later on in the season.

I would rate the map changes a 7/10.

Weapons

Not much has changed to floor or chest loot, you can still side-grade the Shotgun, but instead of a Lever Action, you get the Charged Shotgun and for the SMG, instead a P90 you get Rapid Fire SMG. These weapons can only be side-graded and require Nuts 'n' Bolts.

The sideways weapons that come from the Anomalies and the purple chests, are the Sideways Minigun and the Sideways AR, These can only be upgraded and require cube remnants. The Sideways Minigun is fast firing, requiring very little build up time and when it reaches its full power, it has the potential to fire through builds. The Sideways AR is a maxed out version of the Heavy AR with 49 headshot damage.

Two mythic weapons have also appeared on the island. Sloane holds the Mythic Burst Assault Rifle, she is immensely hard to eliminate as she clones herself. In order to get your hands on this mythic, you must eliminate Sloane AND her clones. She is located around the area outside of 'Dirty Docks'.

The second mythic is Venom's, this weapon has only just been added due to a new update. This Mythic is similar to Thanos's gauntlet, it spawns at different points on the map during the first storm phase. Two spawn and its always a battle to get one. It has the power to grab and pull players to you, has a built in glider and can also destroy builds from over 50m away.

Its hard to rate weapons as everybody has their favourite and some start off great but go down as time goes on. But i am quite happy and therefore rate the weapons an 8/10.

Miscellaneous

There are also little things that have been added as well to make the game more fun and different.

Shadows Bombs have also come back in the form of Shadow Cubes and also Shadow Floppers, these hold the same powers and are a nice addition to the season.

Daily and Weekly punch cards or Quests have also come back and are easier to manage. Unlike other seasons where new quests would be added on top of others that you haven't yet completed, the screen would look very overwhelming. Now you have the option to replace a quest that is active for one that you know you will be able to complete. There is also a limit on how many active quests you can have before the option of replacing one becomes available. Also, when it comes to stage quests, you no longer have to wait to complete the next stage in a separate game, now you can continue the stage quests in the same game. I found this feature to be very helpful.

Donating to the war effort with gold bars will provide an area with a turret, but this is unusual as it requires a global effort from players all over the globe. So far, Epic have calculated the over 2.4 million gold bars have already been donated to the cause.

Overall

This season is definitely different to the many that have come before it and it probably wont be the last one to spring new surprises. Its hard to establish a story at the moment but it is extremely early days yet. More and more content will be released in the future, maybe including a possible Naruto collaboration. But right now, lets just enjoy the new content that's in now and see where we go.

I rate this season a 7/10.