If you haven’t heard of Fortnite by now, you must have been living under a rock for the past few years. Epic Games’ insanely popular battle royale shooter has captivated millions of gamers with its slick gameplay, cool characters, and constant updates. But now Fortnite is trying something totally new and unexpected. I’m talking about LEGO Fortnite, a free survival/crafting game released right inside Fortnite itself.
Yep, you read that right – LEGO Fortnite is an entire standalone game that lives within the world of Fortnite. It’s an unusual “game within a game” situation straight out of gaming’s weird and wonderful imagination. At its core, LEGO Fortnite combines the building creativity of LEGO with the huge open worlds Fortnite is known for. The result? A chilled-out, cooperative survival game filled with vibrant plastic bricks and friendly faces.
When you first drop into the blocky paradise of LEGO Fortnite, things will feel familiar if you’ve played survival games before. You start with nothing but your bare (LEGO) hands. By chopping down trees and gathering resources, you slowly collect the materials needed to craft tools, weapons, shelter and more. The goal? To build and manage your very own bustling LEGO settlement, filled with quirky NPC villagers who’ll lend a hand. Of course, danger lurks around every corner in the form of deadly creatures, extreme weather and other threats eager to smash your creative efforts into tiny plastic pieces. Time to tighten your brickwork and get building my block-loving friends!
A Blockbuster Block World
It’s safe to say LEGO Fortnite is one of the best-looking LEGO games ever made. Built in Epic’s powerful Unreal Engine 5, LEGO Fortnite’s virtual brick paradise pops with color and plastic charm. Those super-smooth frame rates make everything feel shiny, new and ultra-polished.
But it’s the sprawling open world that will really blow you away. We’re talking about a ginormous custom-built island around 20 times bigger than Fortnite’s regular map. There’s rolling grasslands, towering snowy mountains, sizzling hot deserts and intricately detailed caves to explore. Tiny brick-built details are crammed into every corner, like the LEGO flowers dotting the lush green meadows.
Adding to the fun is an army of pop culture characters…all with awesome LEGO makeovers. Over 1,200 of your favorite Fortnite skins have been carefully recreated in brick form, from banana-munching Peely to takeaway-loving Tomatohead (now 50% more delicious in LEGO). Seeing these iconic game legends wander around as little plastic people is a real joy. And when they bust out familiar emotes like Floss or Take The L, their newfound blocky agility always raises a smile.
All of this LEGO infusion slots nicely into Fortnite’s pre-existing systems too. The same XP you earn messing around in LEGO Fortnite feeds back into your main account Battle Pass progression. Even better, you’ll unlock additional building pieces and blueprints in LEGO Fortnite by leveling up your overall account – giving regular players an advantage from the start. It’s incredibly well integrated and shows Epic’s masterful grip on how to create a meta game experience.
Brick by Brick, We Build Our World
LEGO Fortnite sticks closely to the addictive survival game formula many know and love. You’ll be spending a lot of time gathering resources, crafting tools and building shelters – one plastic brick at a time. It’s a satisfying gameplay loop seasoned Fortnite fans will quickly click with.
But LEGO Fortnite also mixes things up by letting you create entire villages and recruit blocky NPCs to join your growing community. After throwing together some cozy brick houses and a town square, you’ll soon attract a steady stream of characters like farmers, fighters and laborers looking to call your settlement home. Make these migrants feel welcome by giving them a place to live and a job that suits their skills. Before you know it, you’ll have loyal villagers helping run the place through tasks like collecting resources, fending off enemies and working crafting stations.
Of course, no survival game is complete without venturing into the great unknown in search of adventures and treasures. LEGO Fortnite delivers here too with an expansive world brimming with surprises. Lush green forests give way to hot sandy deserts, before you brave the blizzard-swept slopes of an icy mountain biome. More exotic biomes are sure to come later too. Each area has its own new creatures to battle and rare resources to unearth if you can survive the journey.
And make no mistake, danger lurks around every corner in LEGO Fortnite. Wolves, boars and worse prowl the woods looking for victims, while freak lightning storms or plunging temperatures threaten to overwhelm the unprepared. Combat is simple hack-n-slash fare, but positioning and well-timed blocks help turn the tide when faced with superior numbers. Just try not to lose your cool weapons and armor if your blocky bod is defeated – retrieving lost loot from beyond the brick grave is part of the survival game cycle.
The building itself is as fun as ever, yet also one area where LEGO Fortnite stumbles slightly. While structures snap together logically, the system for placing individual bricks lacks finer controls. Progressing buildings through multi-stage construction queues feels dated too. More streamlined building would better fit LEGO’s creative spirit. Pre-made blueprints do allow quick settlements for less dexterous builders however.
Overall though, LEGO Fortnite succeeds by merging Fortnite’s expansive worlds with the age-old appeal of survival crafting games. Managing villages, exploring exciting biomes or fending off elaborately themed enemies makes for compelling and lighthearted brick-based action, minor quibbles aside.
Build, Craft, Repeat
Like all good survival games, LEGO Fortnite offers oodles of shiny gear and gadgets to discover as you navigate its blocky world. It’ll take some grinding though. By combining different materials at crafting stations, you slowly work your way up a technology tree to unlock better tools, weapons, armor and more. It’s a satisfying progression loop as you watch your feeble plastic hands transform into deadly brick-based war machines.
The trouble is, there’s not much to actually do with all these elaborate Lego contraptions…yet. A feeling of repetition sets in as you build up settlements almost identical to ones you’ve already made many times over. Beyond base upgrades, there are presently no story campaigns, side quests or major goals to pursue either. You’re largely left to your own devices when it comes to finding fun.
Of course, this leisurely approach means LEGO Fortnite also avoids the punishing grind or extreme difficulty spikes found in games like Minecraft or Valheim. If you die from falling blocks, there’s no huge penalty. And if perfect architectural planning isn’t your thing, colorful pre-planned building blueprints produce great results for minimal effort. There’s enough action from weather events, enemy raids and spontaneous dance parties to keep you on your toes as well.
But at some point, fending off the hundredth herd of angry brick-built boars does start to lose its luster. Right now, these glorified tech demos feel more like proof of concepts rather than fleshed out gaming experiences. The building tools and charming style create undeniable potential – yet it’s clear LEGO Fortnite remains more of a promising foundation than a finished product.
Thankfully, Fortnite’s success has been built on Epic’s dedication to frequent updates and new content. We can expect deeper crafting systems, exotic biomes, themed events and maybe even a Beanstalk-like narrative to emerge from the bottomless toy box in time. For now though, filling LEGO Fortnite’s huge open worlds falls mostly to the community.
Bricks and Friends
LEGO games have always brought people together thanks to their family-friendly style and easy pick-up-and-play appeal. LEGO Fortnite keeps this tradition alive by supporting up to 8-player online co-op adventures across its vast blocky landscape. Gather a crew and get building – having friends along makes the grind more fun and settlements rise faster.
Playing solo is still enjoyable though, mostly because helpful NPC workers create a constant buzz of activity around your structures. With farmers harvesting crops, guards fending off intruders and builders hammering away, settlements feel alive and take shape without you having to do everything alone. These workers really do an admirable job approximating actual human allies.
However, the absence of split-screen couch co-op play is a surprising omission for a LEGO title, making group gatherings around one screen tricky. You’ll need to join multiplayer servers to play alongside kids, siblings or friends sitting next to you, which is less intuitive than simply handing someone a spare controller.
Early reception and uptake for the mode has been very promising so far nonetheless. LEGO Fortnite draws in both mature Fortnite veterans and younger audiences alike with its vibrant style and relaxed pace. Entire player-made villages are already popping up across servers – like the floating metal fortresses already roaming the skies. As updates bring depth and tweaks to LEGO Fortnite’s promising foundations, its bustling block-based communities have nowhere to go but up.
So while the lack of split-screen options makes playing on the couch tricky, LEGO Fortnite otherwise retains that signature LEGO multiplayer magic – whether with close friends or random brick lovers united online. Grab your guild and get building!
To Infinity and Beyond
Even in its current form, LEGO Fortnite shows serious potential for long-term success in the survival/crafting space. Its kid-friendly cooperative focus fills a noticeable gap in the market dominated by punishing, solitary experiences like Valheim or Grounded. The building tools and charming style also set it apart from block-busting behemoth Minecraft.
But as a continually evolving games platform, Fortnite’s greatest strength has always been its ability to rapidly transform itself through bold updates. We can expect the same bright future for LEGO Fortnite. Obvious areas for improvement include adding split-screen couch co-op options, farming mechanics and more goal-driven content. Dense new biomes, themed seasonal events and an overarching campaign narrative would also give builders exciting reasons to return.
However, it’s deeper crafting functionality and new construction toys that offer the most tantalizing possibilities. Refined building controls, smarter NPC behaviors and custom vehicle creation could push LEGO Fortnite’s creative potential into overdrive. Given the absurd contraptions players already conjure from games like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, LEGO-powered imaginations know no limits.
Just picture this: Flying Lego pirate ships with functional cannons. Mad Max-style vehicles covered in dangerous spikes. Sprawling treehouse cities or even transforming robo-fortresses. With LEGO Fortnite’s solid foundations and Epic’s progressive ethos, fabulous constructions like these could soon roll off our virtual workshop floor.
So while some recorded gripes about repetition and shallow gameplay are valid, LEGO Fortnite’s story has only just begun. This initial release feels more akin to an Early Access title – full of promise, yet lacking the wider content needed for it to become a creative masterpiece. Thankfully, Fortnite’s dedicated community and the developer’s commitment to constant evolution means our boxy paradise will only continue growing into something wonderful. The bricks have been laid – now the building begins!
The Building Blocks of Something Great
When you step back and look at everything LEGO Fortnite accomplishes as a free additional mode, it’s hard not to be impressed. An entire cooperative survival game meticulously crafted from tiny plastic bricks, then dropped into Fortnite itself without disrupting the core experience? It’s a crazy experiment that absolutely pays off.
The sheer charm and approachability also makes LEGO Fortnite an ideal way to introduce younger gamers to the world of survival crafting in a non-threatening environment. Constant help from NPC villagers coupled with Fortnite’s vibrant style creates a welcoming experience for all ages to enjoy together – even if limited couch co-op options make gaming side-by-side tricky.
That said, it’s impossible to ignore how repetitive LEGO Fortnite’s survival loops feel after a while in its current state. Until more biomes, enemies, story beats and building tools emerge from Epic’s toy box, the brick paradise can sometimes seem like a place filled with endless grind and not enough payoff.
But herein lies the beauty of LEGO Fortnite’s uniqueness as an ever-evolving platform rather than a closed-off product. This solid launch framework is just the first step on an endless staircase of potential, ready for imagination and ingenuity to push new boundaries. Like LEGO playsets themselves, where the real magic happens inside kids’ minds rather than corporate boardrooms, LEGO Fortnite hands creative power back to the players to build their own perfect world.
The Review
LEGO Fortnite
For a free mode that basically delivers an additional game, LEGO Fortnite impresses with surprisingly deep creative play layered on Fortnite's signature polish and charm. Approachable survival mechanics coupled with iconic characters and enormous worlds add up to accessible yet engaging experiences suited for all ages. Some missing features and repetitive survival loops highlight areas for improvement as Epic expands this unique creation over time. Yet as a proof of concept, LEGO Fortnite solidly clicks the foundations of an ultimate virtual toy box into place. Let the LEGO invasion continue one brick at a time.
PROS
- Huge, beautiful open world built in Unreal Engine 5
- Charming LEGO aesthetic with over 1,200 brick-built Fortnite skins
- Accessible survival gameplay great for younger audiences
- Cooperative focus encourages playing together
- Complex building tools allow extensive creativity
- Deep crafting system and technology progression tree
- Packed with potential for future growth
CONS
- Can feel repetitive without clear overriding goals
- Building controls lack polish and can be finicky
- Surprisingly missing split-screen co-op functionality
- Currently quite limited selection of biomes to explore
- Combat and missions feel quite basic at this stage
