Unreal Engine for Fortnite (UEFN) is here, and it looks like it’s going to change the game forever. Fortnite has always had a passionate bunch of creators working on their own projects, ranging from fun combat maps for a couple of friends to giant brand collaborations. It’s incredibly impressive what Fortnite fans have made with the relatively limited toolset, and how many brands chose to work with them to create virtual promotional experiences. Yet, our first look at UEFN blows all of that out of the water. You can try all these experiences with the map codes, provided at the end.
Our first taste of UEFN comes in the form of three incredibly varied experiences created by Epic Labs. Whilst the three are very short, they’re an excellent demo of what is being made possible with UEFN. The first to try out is Forest Guardian, which places you in a mysterious forest with a dragon lurking through it, and wolves ready to attack. This one was certainly the most visually impressive, with an incredible amount of effects to create the perfect moody fantasy forest. Whilst the actual gameplay was pretty basic, just cutting down a few wolves, this demo goes to show the power of custom content using UEFN.
UEFN is able to import original assets from other programs such as Blender, with a new programming language called Verse also on offer in the free application. Forest Guardian‘s original dragon creature, with its beautiful and detailed animations, was certainly a sight to behold. The demo ends with a lovely intricate title screen, which had me craving more. The potential for an entire game to come out of this small demo is instantly clear, and that’s only the first experience.
The second to go for is The Space Inside, which was certainly my favorite. This demo showed the interactivity potential of UEFN, changing camera perspectives, triggering puzzles and featuring a lot of moving pieces to guide you on your journey. Honestly, I don’t want to say too much to ruin The Space Inside‘s short journey, but the way it begins made me immediately need a fully fledged psychological horror game built in Fortnite. The way that all the interactive elements came together in this experience was another ‘wow’ moment.
The third and final experience is Deserted: Domination, which is actually a complete game mode. This one was very surprising, because it drops your Fortnite character and weapons into an eerily accurate Call of Duty-like Domination map. Teams must capture and hold the objectives to earn points, and the first to 500 points wins. Whilst the Fortnite gunplay was very typical for the game, the graphics and ambience were considerably different.
Deserted: Domination takes place around an industrial facility in the middle of a desert. The map feels completely alive, with explosions overhead as air vehicles wage war. You fight against the enemy team on the ground, meandering through harsh metal and concrete buildings, climbing to vantage points and sprinting across the sand to your next objective. The accuracy of this map to other games in the shooter genre was stunning. The potential that lies in combining this type of gameplay with the first-person mechanics of The Space Inside is huge. You’d have an entirely different shooter than Fortnite – within Fortnite itself!
These are still just the demo experiences created by Epic. If we’ve learned anything from Fortnite‘s Creative mode, it’s that their fans have the passion and talent to do anything. UEFN takes creators from making small modes within Fortnite to making entire games within Fortnite, managing to bring staggering new levels of variety and detail with its powerful tools. If this is the future of Fortnite, I’m sold. Where we dropping next?
Have you tried these maps for yourself? Comment below and let us know what you thought of your first look at UEFN’s potential. If you want to try out the Fortnite maps for yourself, use these codes from Fortnite Battle Royale‘s mode selector screen.
- Forest Guardian – 0348-4483-3263
- The Space Inside – 9836-7381-5978
- Deserted Domination – 8035-1519-2959
