Fortnite had to do away with all its crossovers to find its fun

polygon.com:

To know Fortnite is to experience the absolute fever dream and a mishmash of assorted media that comprise it. The current season, Chapter 5 Season 3, takes war vehicles that look straight out of a Mad Max movie, combines those with items from the Fallout games, and then adds in a heavy dose of inspiration from the band Metallica, of all things.

For so long, the battle royale mode of Fortnite has appeared to be a bottomless pit of collaborations that brought significant gameplay changes along with them. The developers have taken away building, then brought it back. They transformed the map back into a classic version (called Fortnite OG) last fall, and then quite literally exploded it and launched a new map. In the past six months alone, you could play as Greek gods or wield the power of the elements fromAvatar: The Last Airbender. Seemingly no addition could be too much or too over the top for Fortnite. The game’s appeal lies at least in part in the sheer absurdity and excessiveness of it all. But now, the new Reload mode that launched on June 22 takes one big step away from that mindset.

Instead of leaning into gimmicks, Reload strips the game of any fancy tricks and speeds up gameplay elements from the classic Fortnite Battle Royale mode. Instead of 100 people, each lobby contains 40 people, and the mode features a condensed map and faster gliding, which speeds up the game a ton. The developers have littered the map with chests so players will be up and fighting in no time. Last — but certainly not least — Reload adds a feature where players automatically respawn in the earlier parts of the game so long as one of their team members remains alive. So now you don’t need to wait for your teammates to reboot you, and the average time spent playing is much higher.

From the outside, it seems like a way to appeal to the players who just want a good old classic battle royale shooter with fewer of the frills that come with each season. Players don’t have to worry about