Reviews from

in the past


Each Fortnite Festival is mostly the same, the same framework in it's gameplay, too stubborn in it's design, but for this season they innovated by adding a new gameplay mode.

The battle mode see's you going up against 16 other player's playing a song chosen at random in a setlist of four rounds, as by slowly accruing points to survive and those with the lowest points gained by the end of the round is eliminated.

You can sabotage other players efforts and impeding or even breaking their streak by building up your own streaks and gaining attack charges.

These attacks when in effect lowers their combo meter by half and distorts the players UI making it difficult for them to see incoming notes, at worst they lose their streak and in contrast a successful attack multiple's your own streak doubling your point gain. This mechanic is equivalent to the dreaded Blue Shell's of Mario Kart.

I usually go out of my way to do each season of Fortnite Festival, but I never get the festival pass, this one's my first.

As I believe other season's in comparison were decent in their offering's but this season themed around Metallica offered some substantial rewards.

The main draw been the characters on offer in the pass, that been each member of the band, so that's four character's in this pass you're getting. Also, in addition to the other rewards, whether they're Metallica themed or not, they're some good offerings to be gained. Other unlockable items are gained through completing challenges, so there really is incentive to dive deep into each Festival mode.

The main backlog of music playable this season are some of Metallica's greatest hits, ranging from their first album to the most recent. Enter Sandman, Whom The Bell Tolls, Master of Puppet's to name a few. For any Metallica fan, they can truly appreciate what's on offer.

Now, is this season worth it?

I would say yes. But, you can really ask the same question about every other preceding season. In general, if you don't frequent the Festival mode, then I wouldn't bother. More than likely if you play the music themed modes often or, more importantly, you're a fan of Metallica. You can't go wrong here. Even if you don't get the pass, there is a free tier that can be played to unlock some decent content.

In general, if you're a rhythm-based game junkie or nostalgic for an experience such as Guitar Hero 3. then you really can't go wrong with this Fortnite Festival Season.

I'll see you in the mosh pit!

Since launch, Fortnite Festival has been a neat mode to tinker around with, but I didn't care enough about their previous collaborations to buy the mode-specific pass. I have nothing against Lady Gaga or Billie Eilish (I don't particularly care for TheWeeknd, though), but I'm not enraptured by their discographies like Metallica.

Having a good "Festival Pass" is a double-edged sword because it's nice to have exclusive skins and instruments, but it does feel gross to lock so much of this stuff behind a $20 purchase, including massively popular songs by these artists. On the other hand, I have done nothing but reinforce this model because "One" is one of my favorite Metallica songs, and I find the skins goofy enough to use in other modes.

The current Festival season is a blast to play, but I still have lingering issues with the comfort of playing the game mode with a standard controller. The fresh Metallica songs do not alleviate this complaint, as these are now some of the game's wildest and most complex tracks. Adding in additional guitar peripheral support seemed to be a blessing to me. Still, sadly, the mode only supports Rockband 4 legacy sets, at least on console (I have a PS3 Rockband 2 setup), so I'm stuck on a standard controller unless I can work my magic to get the guitars I have working on PC.