Image: Epic Games
Epic has turned Fortnite into an impressive Unreal Engine 5.1 showcase with the launch of Chapter 4.
Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode just launched Chapter 4 Season 1, ushering in a new map, battle pass, weapons, cosmetics and more impressive Unreal Engine 5.1 features. Chapter 4 Season 1 also features crossovers with more franchises like Doom, The Witcher, My Hero Academia and Marvel Comics. MrBeast is also coming to the game, and at this point, why not?
Check out the launch trailer below:
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While every Fortnite season usually swaps out parts of the map for new locations, new Chapters serve as a total reboot. In a climactic live event capping off Chapter 3, the old map was wiped out of existence. A new map was created by pulling together pieces of land from different realms, featuring all-new points of interest and mechanics for players to explore. Chapter 3 was actually the shortest chapter in Fortnite history, only lasting a year and four seasons in total – suggesting that Epic Games is moving to a yearly release schedule for new Chapters to keep things fresh.
Chapter 4 Season 1 adds a battle pass that features the Doomguy from Doom Eternal and Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher, along with a host of original characters and cosmetics. YouTuber MrBeast, Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia and the Hulk from Marvel Comics will also hit the in-game shop over the course of this season, which ends on March 10. This season’s Battle Pass is pretty robust, with unlockable mid-season rewards and unique end-of-season secret skins that are being kept under wraps for now. All in all, a pretty good deal if you’re thinking of forking out money for the pass.
Gameplay feels a little different this Chapter. Not only can players use their tactical sprint to run in and out of encounters quickly, but they can now parkour automatically over obstacles in the environment. The most impactful addition by far are the new Reality Augments, which are essentially weapon mods that slowly become available throughout the course of the match. These Augments give random buffs to your weapons, such as giving more damage to the first bullet fired from an Assault Rifle or making Pistols reload faster. There are a ton of Augments to find, and chances are that more will be added as the season rolls on.
Chapter 4 Season 1 also includes Unreal Engine 5’s newest features via Unreal Engine 5.1, which means that the game looks quite a bit prettier. Nanite allows for highly-detailed architectural geometry that renders buildings from millions of polygons in real time, bringing detail to not just buildings, but objects in nature like trees, grass and stones. Lumen brings ray traced reflections on glossy materials (such as character skins) and water, and Virtual Shadow Maps make more detailed shadows. Temporal Super Resolution also allows for better visual fidelity running at high framerates. Here’s an example of what that looks like:
These features are only available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and cloud gaming, so those on last-gen consoles might not see huge changes in Chapter 4.
