Fortnite Has Removed Its Most Famous Mechanic

"Fortnite" was a breakout battle royale thanks to its departure from the typical settings and tired mechanics used in games like "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and "Call of Duty." It also introduced some unique, but controversial features like building, which still separates it from its competitors. Unfortunately for some players, it seems that the game has finally removed its most famous feature.

Not forever, though. "Fortnite" has turned off building in the default battle royale mode, so competitive players still have to balance their building to defeat the best of the best. However, playing in casual mode lets players experiment with the temporary disablement. "Fortnite" even incorporated a canon reason for why it's been implemented. 

The "Fortnite" story is currently in an arc where a resistance group is fighting the Imagined Order. IO is responsible for the reality-manipulating events on Fortnite Island and wants to keep it in a time loop, whereas the opposing faction wants to free the inhabitants.

During the story trailer, Doctor Slone deletes all the structures from the Resistance's frontline using a mysterious device. All the brick walls and houses are gone, and they're forced to fight over open fields. So it seems that building is canonically some kind of technical power that can be disabled with another. After that, Doctor Strange appears out of a wormhole with an army and they assist the Resistance in charging the IO army.

Here's how "Fortnite" is doing without building so far.

While constant building could be annoying, it does offer a barrier or shield wherever you needed it. Naturally, players are not as safe from bullets as they once were. Epic added an "Overshield" that acts as a shield over a shield to help balance this lack of cover. Now, players have to break through the Overshield before gunning down the shield and health bars. Tactical sprinting, running faster than the average "Fortnite" pace, ledge grabbing, and a few other new mechanics have also been added to the new season.

Many players seem to love the experimental mode, causing queues to back up more than expected. "Please be quick about it, Epic," one player tweeted in response to the developer's update on the issue. They included an image of their loading screen, which showed they had been waiting in queue for nearly 5 hours. Epic Games later tweeted that it resolved the issue, though it's unclear if it could pop up again with how popular the mode is. Either way, it's clear that many fans thought the new casual mode was something worth trying out.

Fortnite is available for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Android. Basically, it's available for nearly every platform you could think of except for iOS phones and tablets, because it was banned by Apple.