No matter which game you prefer, honestly, it’s the players who win as more companies jump on the BR bandwagon, although the developers may not see it that way. PUBG unquestionably reigned supreme for a good long while there.. and then came Fortnite to steal its thunder (and its fan base), hitting 20 million players extremely quickly.
Most galling of all, Fortnite wasn’t even originally supposed to be a BR game, instead starting as a PvE online experience that had a Battle Royale addition tacked on during Early Access development, almost as an afterthought!
Honestly, that’s got to sting for the folks behind PUBG – not that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds started the genre either, though. From the Survival Games mode for Minecraft, various ArmA mods that were prototypical battle royale modes, and of course, the extremely Hunger Games-inspired Ark: Survival Of The Fittest, BR has been around for awhile in many different forms.
Now it’s time for the best of the best to reveal themselves and knock all the pretenders down a peg or two. And at the moment, a lot of gamers think PUBG sucks, so the game at the top of the heap is easily Fortnite. Here are 5 major reasons other than “It’s just better”.
1. Building Structures
Taking the mechanics of the base Save The World mode (which is focused strongly around building bases and laying traps to fight waves of enemies), Fortnite’s take on battle royale offers a lot more than just simple free-for-all shooting.
Giving everyone the ability to harvest resources and build settlements radically changes the formula, even if you just throw up a wood wall every now and again to block incoming gunfire and don’t craft elaborate structures. The possibilities are nearly endless, and players are always coming up with new ways to utilize the base-building elements.
Chuck a grenade and throw up a wall to avoid hurting yourself. Build a staircase to reach a cliff or get into the top floor of a house without having to go through the people barricaded in the ground floor living room. Build your own tower for a sniper nest and camp out. Expand a bridge to Loot Island to avoid moving slowly through the water. Your only limit is your own creativity and the resources on hand.
Build your own fortress to defend! (Thanks to KDMars for the screenshot)
2. Polish
When it comes to how tight the game plays and how well developed all the mechanics are, there’s a clear winner. Inventory management, controls, matchmaking – everything just comes together better in Fortnite.
While there have been a few hiccups here and there on Fortnite with servers going down, the issues are always resolved quickly, and player feedback is clearly being taken into consideration as tweaks are made to weapons, items, and mechanics.
Granted, Epic has a much bigger team of people working on Fortnite than is at the PUBG crew’s disposal, but there’s still a wide disparity between the overall level of polish and completeness between the two. Add in the fact that Fortnite has daily quests, fun skins to unlock, and loads of extra features, and the gap between the two gets wider.
Turn that disco ball into a Disco Brawl and get funky as you harvest resources!
3. Graphics
Clearly, this is a personal preference issue, and not everyone will agree as to which game has the better overall style. If you like something more gritty along the lines of ArmA, this won’t be the case for you, but I find Fortnite’s cartoon style to be more refreshing to look at for long periods.
That bright, bubbly color scheme and rounded edges on everything are just more inviting. Fortnite has a unique visual flair, taking the base game’s exaggerated features that work so well with cute zombies and head-flinging witches and keeping them for the frenzied battle royale mode.
Odd as it sounds, that style also seems to soothe some of the sting of defeat when you get taken down halfway through the match, since there’s more reason to keep spectating what’s going on with the remaining players. This is doubly true when you consider Fortnite’s next big step up over the competition.
4. Fortnite’s Oddity
This game is delightfully wacky and wonderfully weird. There’s just no getting around that fact, as it is constantly in your face. The base game features a prominent mechanic where a pinata begs for his life as you whack it apart for loot and new survivors, and much of that oddity is kept for battle royale.
Surviving in the harsh arena of PUBG is a rush, there’s no doubt about that, but it just isn’t as fun as surfing on a pumpkin rocket to unexpectedly snipe your enemies from the air and land in a fiery explosion of death and hilarity.
While remaining unseen and unheard is a big deal in both games, only one of them lets you literally be a bush to confound other players. You won’t typically see a herd of bushes armed with shotguns stalking one another in PUBG.
From the Disco Brawl harvester tool to Christmas and Halloween-themed updates just for fun, Fortnite’s style does a better job of maintaining interest over time while playing the same map over and over.
This is just objectively more fun than something overly serious.
5. Limited Time Modes/Regular Updates
On a similar note, battle royale games are hampered by the fact that you are basically having the same experience every match. Yes, you can approach the 100-player combat from different areas or try different tactics, but the base game is always the same … except that with Fortnite, it isn’t.
Fortnite keeps things fresh with regular releases of limited-time modes that spice up the game, like a 50 vs 50 extravaganza or the ludicrous Sneaky Silencer Mode. Considering that we’re already getting these themed events frequently and the game is still in Early Access, it seems like the Fortnite crew is in it for the long haul as far as keeping players interested in the BR mode.
Based on player feedback and all the many changes so far, it’s clear that more progression elements are going to be added in, and new items are already frequently brought onboard to change how the game works, like the recent addition of the Cozy Campfire.
No Shortage of Battle Royale Options
To be fair, PUBG does edge out the competition on the map size, and it offers more of a hardcore style rather than some silly run and gun shenanigans. Thankfully, you don’t have to choose just one! Quite a few of us here at GameSkinny love ’em both, although my heart tends to land more on the Fortnite side.
It looks like both games are about to face stiff competition from the new Paladins: Battlegrounds mode coming later this year. It’s a very good bet that other MOBAs and various online titles will be eyeing their own battle royale-style updates in the very near future. For those who prefer phone or tablet gaming, mobile platforms are also being flooded with BR clone titles like Survival Royale.
Sound off below – who do you think wins in the death match between Fortnite and PUBG, and do you agree with our reasons for picking one over the other?
