"While I am not usually one to look back when it comes to live service games, after spending a fair bit of time playing Fortnite OG, I will be the first to admit that playing it again feels like going home."
PvP Multiplayer.
This review focuses on aspects unique to Fortnite OG. For a comprehensive look at Fortnite as a whole, check out our full review here.
Fortnite OG is absolutely fantastic, and while it is not as flashy or mechanically complex as earlier seasons, as someone who has played Fortnite Battle Royale since the original pre-season, I must admit that I am having a lot more fun playing Fortnite OG than Fortnite Battle Royale, despite liking both seasons nearly equally.
That said, if I were given the option to access weekly XP quests in Fortnite OG, I would almost certainly play it more than the current seasons, as Fortnite OG is a reminder of simpler times before gaming became a war of politics and major influencers used their audience to turn people against each other and spread diversion and hate.
Read more about this very important issue: Woe unto the false gods of gaming!
While I love what they have done with Chapter 6, as a veteran player, the Chapter 1 map will always be my favourite.
It has so many memorable locations and associated memories that newer seasons cannot offer, despite being excellent in their own right, the fact that maps now change each year means that unlike the original locations, which persisted for multiple years (and in some cases, chapters), most points of interest in Fortnite exist for only a few months or a year, giving me less time to form a connection to them.
I have hundreds of micro-memories about landing at Pleasant Park, Retail Row, Titled Towers, Anarchy Acres, Fatal Fields and Greasy Grove (to name just a few). Still, I would be hard-pressed to name more than a handful of Points of Interest from recent seasons beyond the vaguest of descriptions, such as “the fancy base or that place near the beach.”
I feel this way not because the new locations are not visually impressive or because they are poorly designed but rather because many Chapter 1 locations were a part of Fortnite for so many years that, for many people, they were a huge part of the game’s charm despite being less visually impressive than their more recent counterparts.
I loved Fortnite best when it was a little rough around the edges.
While I love epic narratives and fully support crossover events and licenced characters, I must admit to missing the small narrative changes that occurred off-screen over the span of a few weeks, such as Vikings invading Snobby shores or the gradual construction of new buildings around the map, sometimes literally piece by piece, week by week.
Being able to watch your favourite game change and grow before your eyes is something that does not happen very often, and certainly not in the way that it happened with Fortnite, which saw Epic Games add new items, locations, mechanics, and weapons on what felt like a weekly basis (it was closer to bi-weekly, but who is counting!).
While we have grown accustomed to how Epic Games does things, looking back at what existed even a few weeks before the launch of Fortnite illuminates just how instrumental Epic Games was in unpopularizing several anti-consumer business models, such as:
And popularising consumer-friendly systems which made gaming more accessible to a wider audience, such as:
While Epic Games was not the first to attempt every single one of these systems, Fortnite certainly catapulted them to the mainstream. This is evident by how quickly, after the release of Fortnite, robust cross-platform multiplayer support went from being an extreme rarity to the commonly accepted norm.
While I have some concerns that the shorter duration of each season will result in Fortnite OG being left behind for OG Chapter 2 in less than two years or make a future rerun of Fortnite OG Chapter 1 feel stale, I enjoyed replaying my favourite chapter and collecting amazing tribute skins, such as a remastered Renegade Rebel (Renegade Raider) and Aerial Assault Bomber (Aerial Assault Trooper), and am excited to see what Epic Games have planned Chapter 1 Season 2, I must admit I wish the OG pass had more tiers and that I had more time to enjoy Chapter 1: Season 1 before we moved on to Season 2.
Fortnite OG is a first person shooter video game developed and published by Epic Games, it was released on 6 December 2024 and it is Free-2-Play.
Fortnite OG is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
As of January 2025, around 2,500,000 people play Fortnite OG on a fairly regular basis.
Fortnite OG is extremely active, and instantaneous matchmaking is possible in most regions 24/7; however, in very remote regions, there may be wait times of around one minute to find a full lobby.
Fortnite OG supports:
Fortnite OG offers the following matchmaking options:
The Fortnite OG in-game store sells:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Fortnite OG is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
Fortnite OG takes the best of Chapter 1 and improves upon it with the quality-of-life features and graphical improvements that have made Fortnite one of the most accessible and best-looking live service games on the market.
As we fast approach the end of the first season of Fortnite OG, I am excited to see what the future has in store for this mode while also feeling nostalgic reluctance to leave Chapter 1: Season 1 behind, perhaps for the last time.
