Choose your favorite mecha/sentai homage
It’s time for a Fortnite Collision recap. The event played out similar to many other prior “end of season” activities, but this time it involved a giant mech. So it’s one of the coolest ones by default.
This particular one ushered in the end of Chapter 3 Season 2: with another confrontation between the IO faction (the bad guys) and The Seven (the people the players are collaborating with currently), over the Zero Point (basically the equivalent of Kingdom Hearts in Kingdom Hearts): with the intent of taking down The Collider (a structure that’s basically a comic-book-esque Doomsday Machine).
Collision kicked off around 4:10PM ET today
After joining the Collision playlist (and fending off a modest queue time of around three minutes) I zoned in 20 minutes early, and was grouped up with three other players. We had the option to essentially sit in the playable lobby until the event started, or head into a gunner pod and take out some errant meteors.
After the timer ended (at around 4:10PM ET), we were briefed with the mission (basically destroy an IO hub), and sent off in a mech piloted by The Paradigm: a member of The Seven. Following a cute little anime split-screen montage of everyone readying for battle, the mech thrusted its way out of space and into the Fortnite map.
It was here that the gunner training came in handy, and players were able to swap between a machinegun, laser, and missile weapon set as they took down more meteors on the way to re-entry: and enemy tanks/bases/mechs/missiles, like we were taking down a series of RTS setups in a rail shooter.
As usual, there’s a few scripted moments of dramatic flair, and no real danger, but it was really fun to blast everything away in the same mech as other people. There’s even several moments where everyone is encouraged to “mash the [A] button” to power up the mech.
After nearly taking out The Collider, the mech falls into a pit and is taken out of commission: forcing everyone to continue on foot.
It’s here that the Foundation (voiced by The Rock) takes over, and all four party members take on IO foot soldiers on their way to stop Doctor Slone: a major story character that had an evil heel turn in a Batman crossover comic of all places (man Fortnite is wild now: I even played Collision with Doctor Strange).
After a brief series of firefights, Slone has everyone cornered.
At the end of it all, Slone was crushed by a last-second mech fist (as The Paradigm brought it back online), The Foundation and Jonesy (another common thread character for the Fortnite universe) went off on another mission, and players were greeted by a classic “To Be Continued…” screen (with mad Zangarmarsh from World of Warcraft vibes) as the game went offline and Epic starts to make preparations for the next season. Expect the game to go back online sometime in the next day or so (June 5 is confirmed for the start of Chapter 3 Season 3).
Rumors point to a Darth Vader and Indiana Jones-headlined season pass, but nothing has been confirmed yet (besides a brief tease of Vader through a portal in the Collision event itself).
As usual, a lot of folks probably won’t care about what Fortnite is doing at any current moment. But I’ve come to look forward to playing these 20-ish minute cinematic fests at the end of each season with friends and family.
According to Epic, the post “to be continued” screen/stream below is procedurally generated in-game: “These beats are procedurally generated through ‘Quartz,’ an Unreal Engine sub-system. No need to worry about claims or strikes.”
[Update: And the new season started on June 5. The season pass ends with Darth Vader, with Indiana Jones as the guest character that will unlock later on (similar to Prowler in the last season pass).]
Let the good vibes roll ✨
Hop on the Screwballer coaster, chill out under the Reality Tree, and maybe embrace a bit of the Dark Side. #FortniteVibin starts now! pic.twitter.com/H5aQUF2IF9
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) June 5, 2022
