I did eventually have fun with this when the later season weapons and vehicles started getting added in, but frankly as a whole I'm glad it's over with. If this was as long as a regular season was I would have been a lot more upset but as a one-off single month special I guess it's nice for the incessantly loud crowd of those nostalgic for the original map? The problem is I never had nostalgia for Fortnite back then and while an element of that at the time was because Fortnite was the fun thing to kinda hate on, actually re-experiencing it again with more actual playtime as well as knowing how the modern current version of the game is compared to back then also definitively confirms to me that I wasn't wrong to dislike the game back then.
The OG map is just far too empty and overly spacious with next to nothing to distract or entice you with. The initial two weeks when the game was stuck with the original item spawns also meant that matches would filter out players incredibly quickly not only if you didn't land at a landmark location, but also finding gear and actually surviving that first minute. Being a Zero Build main was thoroughly punished at the start of this season because nothing about the OG map was rebalanced for that particular mode, and while that issue got fixed over time with the addition of later seasonal weapons and the inclusion of more vehicles to get around, the issue for Zero Build was then endgame fights turning into whoever could out-snipe the last players in wide open spaces, or whoever had a vehicle to survive more hits longer. I gave Build mode a try initially just to see how it fared considering the OG map was entirely made around it and while it was kind of fun initially with the people I was matched up with early on, the sweatfest began to show itself pretty quickly afterwards and that was the point I just stopped caring.
I don't care how much that nostalgic group of players seem to keep crying about how things aren't the same as back then and how this was apparently "just the way things should be!", because I stopped finding this season fun very quickly and I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment. If you joined into Fortnite's fray with the more recent seasons and grew used to a gameplay loop that at least gave you multiple goals to go after and a more expansive map that worked for more playstyles, the OG season took away the game you were having fun with for a month. Playercounts were absurdly high at the start of the season but those numbers very quickly dwindled down after the first two weeks, alongside yet another mediocre battle pass and a bafflingly limited item shop that was only fixed towards the end of the season.
I'm not even going to talk about the asinine age restrictions that Epic threw in before very quickly undoing after they realized what a massive shitstorm they were about to unleash when people rightfully called them out on taking away cosmetics that costed real world money to use in a game that might as well be designed around its cosmetics market. Actual brain damage going on over there.
There's very clear design lessons that Epic learned from over the years that the game has been active for and I just thoroughly do not understand what nostalgic fans see in this experience that's so compelling after how many hours of playing the same thing over and over again. I didn't fully hate this season and unlike the last two I did at least complete the pass this time around, but playing the game at this time just kinda felt like mindless brainfood more than usual.
The OG map is just far too empty and overly spacious with next to nothing to distract or entice you with. The initial two weeks when the game was stuck with the original item spawns also meant that matches would filter out players incredibly quickly not only if you didn't land at a landmark location, but also finding gear and actually surviving that first minute. Being a Zero Build main was thoroughly punished at the start of this season because nothing about the OG map was rebalanced for that particular mode, and while that issue got fixed over time with the addition of later seasonal weapons and the inclusion of more vehicles to get around, the issue for Zero Build was then endgame fights turning into whoever could out-snipe the last players in wide open spaces, or whoever had a vehicle to survive more hits longer. I gave Build mode a try initially just to see how it fared considering the OG map was entirely made around it and while it was kind of fun initially with the people I was matched up with early on, the sweatfest began to show itself pretty quickly afterwards and that was the point I just stopped caring.
I don't care how much that nostalgic group of players seem to keep crying about how things aren't the same as back then and how this was apparently "just the way things should be!", because I stopped finding this season fun very quickly and I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment. If you joined into Fortnite's fray with the more recent seasons and grew used to a gameplay loop that at least gave you multiple goals to go after and a more expansive map that worked for more playstyles, the OG season took away the game you were having fun with for a month. Playercounts were absurdly high at the start of the season but those numbers very quickly dwindled down after the first two weeks, alongside yet another mediocre battle pass and a bafflingly limited item shop that was only fixed towards the end of the season.
I'm not even going to talk about the asinine age restrictions that Epic threw in before very quickly undoing after they realized what a massive shitstorm they were about to unleash when people rightfully called them out on taking away cosmetics that costed real world money to use in a game that might as well be designed around its cosmetics market. Actual brain damage going on over there.
There's very clear design lessons that Epic learned from over the years that the game has been active for and I just thoroughly do not understand what nostalgic fans see in this experience that's so compelling after how many hours of playing the same thing over and over again. I didn't fully hate this season and unlike the last two I did at least complete the pass this time around, but playing the game at this time just kinda felt like mindless brainfood more than usual.