Over the last week or two, I’ve been more addicted to playing Fortnite than any game in recent memory. The ‘one more game’ mentality is more prominent here than it’s ever been and this hasn’t been helped by the mobile version.
I was pleasantly surprised when booting up the mobile version of Fortnite to see that it runs almost perfectly on my iPhone X. It obviously looks substantially worse, and the controls (particularly aiming) are quite hard to deal with (but at least everyone is dealing with the same shoddy controls), but the experience is largely the same.
It’s even better in some instances, you’ll automatically pick up guns and ammo if you have free spots, and doors automatically open if you go near them. Managing the inventory with the touch screen is also enjoyable.
Whilst the experience was more than serviceable, it wasn’t as fun of an experience on mobile just due to the sheer length of the match. To get in the top 5, you need to dedicate at least 20-30 minutes in most instances, which isn’t going to match up with the amount of time you’ve got to play when out and about with your mobile.
That’s where the brand new Blitz mode comes in. Blitz mode is a much quicker match, with the storm literally closing in as soon as you drop (you can see it coming in whilst i’m falling). There’s chests everywhere and resources picked up are doubled, so it’s literally about picking up a gun or two and heading towards the circle.
This means that the action starts quicker (which is great practise on mobile), and there’s a winner much, much, quicker. In my first match, I finished in 5th place and I reckon the match length was between 5-6 minutes tops.
I’m almost ashamed to admit that this match took place whilst on the toilet, and boy was it a special moment. I don’t really play mobile games all that often anymore, but I can already tell I’m going to be playing Fortnite on mobile for a long time, even if it’s just on trips to the toilet.
All in all, Epic have done a wonderful job bringing Fortnite to mobile. As stated before, there’s some control issues which make the game less of a joy to play on mobile, but it’s no less fun by any stretch of the imagination, and gun fights are even more frantic and adrenaline pumping due to it being so much harder to aim (and taking longer to down someone).
