Epic Games is smart. Extravagant. Cleverly cunning. They don’t work more than necessary and don’t bring in much new because they don’t have to. And less so in Fortnite. When the base game failed six years ago, they took a quick look at the hottest multiplayer idea in gaming at the time, the Arma III PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mod, stole the basic concept and quickly rebuilt and revitalized their own game. On the eve of this year’s gaming season, when all Fortnite lovers were ready to spend whole days in the colorful world during the Christmas holidays, they took the opportunity to do the same again. I can only take my hat off.
Lego Fortnite is a perfect mix of Minecraft and Valheim with a very inviting Lego design. The concept is not new, Epic Games didn’t invent anything here, they just borrowed parts and systems from other super popular games. And he did it very well, with good tact and to the right degree. Actually, this game has nothing to do with Fortnite. The skins you bought have become cute Lego dolls, but otherwise it’s a completely different game based on survival and cooperation.
Lego Fortnite begins with you as a Lego character in one of six worlds that share the same whimsical and, above all, playful aesthetic of Fortnite’s battle royale maps. A helpful little NPC (who doubles as a tutorial) tells you to start collecting materials, and the first step is to smash small trees and bushes with your fists. Then the actual construction begins. To spend the night you need protection from rain, lightning, wolves and skeletons as well as a bed to rest on and a campfire to avoid freezing to death. To build all of this you will need a craft bench, which is best placed indoors as rain makes it impossible to use.
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With the first small hut built, the roof in place and the bed made, it’s time to begin work on the larger structures. Everything you build in Lego Fortnite is of course made of Lego, and unlike Minecraft or Valheim, it seems so logical that there is a typical Lego description for something you want to build that you follow or deviate from depending on how creative you feel. There are small houses, big houses, castles and cabins, mansions and everything in between, plus there is furniture and decorations for all types of rooms in a normal sized house and many other things you can build. Also, Epic will add a number of new materials and buildings in the future, so in my opinion it will be the ultimate Lego simulator.
During my weeks with Lego Fortnite, I built a large knight’s castle (which took me an entire Sunday) connected by a huge porch with various “bridges.” I encountered an ice boss that I killed after several attempts, I acquired a whole collection of chickens that lay eggs, I hung about 30 Lego sheep that I sacrifice when I’m hungry, and now I have it did both a car and a kind of flying barge. Building various types of vehicles with Lego bricks, rocket motors, levers and buttons, and hot air balloons was, in my opinion, the most fun part of this game besides blowing things up.
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After a few hours, more objects are unlocked that you can use as a Lego builder, and what I liked the most was the barrel of dynamite, which I can now use freely. At one point I built a tower about 20 meters high with a fence around the columns and placed ten barrels full of dynamite in the middle of the foundation. When someone jumped up and started playing, I managed to lure him to the “beautiful tower” and seconds later blew him and the tower up.
Lego Fortnite is fun. Entertaining, elegant, well presented, educational, creative and addictive. There are hardly any endless possibilities at the moment and that’s why Epic Games has a lot to fix, add and balance. But it’s a complete family game, well made, with the right focus, and it’s free and on top of that it works great. Something that can no longer be said about a great game at full price. In my opinion, Epic Games should receive the highest praise possible.
