"Epic Games’ first attempt at recapturing the success of Fortnite’s first OG season, Fortnite Reload, isn’t half bad; however, now, Fortnite OG is here to stay; it needs to chart its own course."
PvP Multiplayer.
This review focuses on aspects unique to Fortnite Reload. For a comprehensive look at Fortnite as a whole, check out our full review here.
In its rawest essence, Fortnite Reload is a combination of Fortnite OG and Call of Duty resurgence. Before the return of the classic Fortnite experience in December 2024, it was the first “permanent” way to experiance Fortnite Chapter 1 outside of the short live remix event of November 2023, which saw over 100 million people log into Fortnite in November 2023, an impressive feat that becomes even more impressive considering that November is traditionally when the most recently released Call of Duty title dominated the most played charts on every platform.
It was clear to everyone (including Epic Games) that players were eager for the OG experience.
While they promised it would be returning and eventually become a permanent mode (which it did), Fortnite Reload was created using the same toolkit (UEFN) that third-party creators have used to create their games as a stop-gap measure while they prepared for the launch of a new mode (and battle pass progression model).
In addition, Epic Games took the opportunity to emulate Call of Duty Warzone’s popular resurgence mode when designing Fortnite Reload by allowing players to respawn until the final minutes of each match, as long as at least one team member was still standing or, in the case of solo mode, as long as they have a reboot credit remaining.
The Fortnite community’s reaction to Fortnite Reload has been positive overall, and it continues to do very well even after the launch of Fortnite OG.
However, with the launch of Fortnite OG as a permanent mode, it’s time that Fortnite Reload leaves the OG seasons behind and becomes its “own thing,” in much the same way that Call of Duty Resurgence has broken away from the standard battle royale and is played across a variety of maps that were specifically created especially with Resurgence mode in mind.
In short, Fortnite Reload needs to be more than a watered-down Fortnite OG or Battle Royale; it needs to offer something that Fortnite’s other Battle Royale modes do not, beyond respawn mechanics, which, while a fun mechanic on its own, is not enough to encourage players to invest a lot of time in the mode, especially when you consider that unlike Fortnite OG and Fortnite Battle Royale, Fortnite Reload has not received new weekly or seasonal XP boosting quests and challenges since the release of Fortnite Reload Chapter 2 in November 2024, making it a sub-optimal way to gain levels in Chapter 6.
While Fortnite Reload is fun, fast-paced, and ultimately very enjoyable, those terms could also describe Fortnite as a whole, and these attributes alone are not reason enough to play Fortnite Reload over the main Battle Royale or OG playlists.
While Fortnite Reload’s smaller map should make for more frequent encounters, the drastically reduced lobby size of just 40 players negates any potential benefit that a smaller map would have brought to pacing.
And then there is the problem of “bot teams,” with some matches starting with as few as 12 human players, with the rest of the match being populated by bots, resulting in shallow gameplay and ultimately hollow victories when facing off with bots who are rarely a match for experienced players or adversely a feeling of frustration when less skilled players who have not had the opportunity to test their mettle early in each match finally encounter a skilled player or team only to be decimated in short order.
While I understand why bots are added to modes, I feel that with the exception of brand new players, no lobby should have more than 20% bots, as while killing them does inflate a player’s score, it does little to improve them as a player, and momentary jubilation will quickly become frustration when they find themselves unable to survive encounters with even moderately skilled players.
One way Epic Games could make Fortnite Reload a whole lot more enjoyable is to turn it into an alternative mode to its main Battle Royale playlist, in much the same way that Zero Build attracted a whole new group of players and made playing Fortnite on console drastically more appealing to due to its simplified gameplay loop adding a reload/respawn mechanic playlist for Fortnite Battle Royale would allow players to enjoy the currently active season, unique seasonal items, and progress weekly and seasonal challenges while still enjoying all the benefits of the respawn mechanic.
In addition, Fortnite OG is a perfect example of a mode that would benefit from receiving a reload option in much the same way it received Zero Build and Ranked modes. Both sub-modes did not exist in 2017, but their addition to the Fortnite OG playlist has made the mode more appealing to a wider range of players.
By all means, continue to offer Fortnite Reload in its cutter form. Still, when a feature this game-changing (respawn) is locked behind a mode that isn’t that impressive, it feels like a waste, especially when Fortnite offers some of the best gameplay in the battle royale genre and more than one mode would benefit greatly from the inclusion of a respawn mechanic.
Fortnite Reload is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Epic Games, it was released on 22 June 2024 and it is Free-2-Play.
Fortnite Reload 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 900,000 people play Fortnite Reload on a fairly regular basis.
Fortnite Reload is very active, meaning that very short matchmaking times and even instant matchmaking are possible in populated regions, while less popular regions enjoy stable but less instantaneous matchmaking.
Fortnite Reload supports:
Fortnite Reload offers the following matchmaking options:
The Fortnite Reload in-game store sells:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Fortnite Reload is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
I am a fan of Fortnite as a whole, and before the launch of Fortnite OG, I would play a few rounds of Fortnite Reload each week; however, there is very little reason to play it anymore, at least until Epic Games finds a way to make it stand on its merit instead of merely being a poor man’s imitation of Fortnite OG and Call of Duty Resurgence.
Ultimately, Fortnite Reload is fun, polished, looks great, and has excellent gunplay. However, with so many other Fortnite modes offering the same and more, I have trouble enthusiastically recommending it, especially when Fortnite OG is right there and is everything fans of Fortnite’s early years could have hoped for.
