Fortnite players love to take on the role of a crash test dummy. Every time something new is added to the game, they throw whatever they can at it to figure out how it works and how it interacts with every other element in the game. The wonky battle royale community’s version of the scientific method has led us back to one of the best disaster flicks of the 2010s. Sharknado is now possible within Fortnite.
Epic Game’s most recent update brought a new weather system into Fortnite. Thunder storms and tornadoes now pop up randomly across the map, bringing lighting strikes and high winds to the middle of fights that were already chaotic. Lighting strikes give players super speed while tornadoes pick up anything within their path — cars, people, objects and wildlife.
Sharknado hits different in Fortnite
Tornados pop up randomly across the map and can only be seen on the horizon; they don’t appear on the mini map. As soon as the high winds pickup, players flock to the impacted area with cars, the Spider-Man mythic or a bounce pad. Sharks were introduced to the battle royale in Chapter 2 and can be found swimming all over the current map. Players can ride them with fishing poles and some have chosen to ride them right into the storm.
Fortnite has steadily become more complex over the past four years. What began as a copy-cat of PUBG: Battlegrounds has become what can only be described as an early access version of the battle royale genre. Epic is constantly trying new things, while making the island that much more complex. We’ve seen the addition of wildlife AI that roam the island, NPCs that have different voice lines based on what skin players wear, deeper physics with destructible environments, a dynamic weather system and more. There’s little cohesion with all these elements, but it can be incredible fun to mix them together.
Sometimes, the mixtures turn disastrous. A recent bug caused big rig trucks to fly high across the map, killing whoever is inside, whenever a shark touched them while jumping out of the water. Battle royales are inherently buggy, as it’s difficult to test every scenario before pushing new features. Other times, like witnessing a shark second-guess his life choices as high winds pull him into the air, are a recipe for a great time.
