‘Fortnite’ Chapter Four launches with new characters and visual upgrades
Fortnite has ushered in a new era with the launch of Chapter Four.
The game’s third map was brought to a surprisingly early end following the conclusion of its most recent season, finishing at the weekend with the finale event Fracture. The island was consumed by the invading Chrome in a brief cutscene before the commencement of an extended 30-minute event mode, where players had to reforge the island with a mixture of old and new locations.
Now, the game has announced a host of guest characters for its battle pass. Currently, the only one available to play currently is the Doom Slayer from Bethesda’s Doom games, who was rumoured to be lined up as a guest character in Fortnite as far back as a year ago. He can be unlocked at level 26 of the battle pass.
The cameo is perhaps unusual for Fortnite in that they largely serve to promote and advertise other products, but no announcements for any new games in the Doom series have been made since the release of Doom Eternal in 2020.
In addition, a trailer revealed that Geralt from The Witcher is also set to appear as a guest character, alongside Marvel‘s Hulk and YouTube’s most-subscribed creator MrBeast. The long-promised character Geno, the character behind the game’s evil Imagined Order organisation, also appears at the end of the trailer, in a move that will likely intrigue those clued up on their Fortnite lore.
Furthermore, Epic Games have also revealed on their website a range of visual improvements for the game for players using PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Unreal Engine 5.1. The environments have now become more detailed and real time lighting has been added, alongside ray-tracing which adds reflections to glossy materials and water. Furthermore, the light from skins that glow will scatter onto nearby objects.
Epic Games also recently added a series of unbranded football-themed skins to Fortnite in a line called ‘Let Them Know’. There is no mention of this year’s ongoing World Cup, nor any official branding from official football bodies or teams.
The post ‘Fortnite’ Chapter Four launches with new characters and visual upgrades appeared first on NME.
Emma Wilkes
NME