Fortnite always has problems. Whether it’s the overall stability of the game or the constant missteps with buffs and nerfs, it’s a far cry from the polished alternative to PUBG that so many flocked to when its Battle Royale first landed. Epic’s monolith is currently going through one of its stickiest patches with fans split on the direction the game is going.
A direction that the Compact SMG — the new weapon introduced with v5.10 — is recklessly steering the game towards with the abandon of Hunter S. Thompson on a regular Tuesday afternoon. To say that the Compact SMG is overpowered would be like saying that the sky is blue. It’s so dominating compared to practically every other weapon in the game that it feels as if Epic are ringing in their first birthday with a belated April Fool’s joke.
Available in Epic and Legendary forms, the Compact SMG takes after the P90: a Belgian oddity useful at close range with an utterly oppressive rate of fire. Anyone who’s ever played an FPS will no doubt have encountered a version of the P90 before, whether it’s in Counter-Strike, TimeSplitters, or something more modern. In all of those games, however, the P90 has its drawbacks, which include unwieldy recoil and a scattered fire.
In Fortnite, however, there are none whatsoever. You point at the things you want to die, hold down fire, and picture the opposing player punching through their monitor in frustration as their Rust Lord’s shields and health dissolve in barely even a second. There’s no rhyme or reason; just spray and pray.
It’s a wonder how the Compact SMG made its way through the design phases, such is its power. It’s so overwhelming for opposing players that you may as well do away with your shotgun and rifle and roll with just the SMG. The range on it is decent and dependable (you’d have to be trying really hard to miss thanks to ridiculous its rate of fire) and it’s able to stop anyone in their tracks at close range.
You may think this is coming from a place of bitterness, but I have won four matches since the gun was introduced, each one capped off with fifty caps directed towards hopeless opposition. There’s no skill and therefore no enjoyment to be had from pulling off a kill with it. It feels like roamoing around the Fortnite map with a cheat code in your hands.
The current meta is constantly hotly debated among Fortnite players — the Compact SMG is only exacerbating things. Some feel that the over-reliance on SMGs is killing the building side of the game, something which I’ve already covered. By nerfing shotguns, Epic have now opened up an even more exploitable avenue, one in which the skill ceiling has been lowered dramatically. Building is everything in Fortnite, but the SMGs shred through builds in seconds, meaning the only truly skilful thing about the game has devolved into praying that you don’t instantly get shot down after building a single ramp and that it doesn’t descend into a hop-off with SMGs.
I love Fortnite. But what is this?….
— , (@HighDistortion) July 24, 2018
Some players think they know why this is. Epic seem to be chasing the casual players, those that don’t necessarily have the time to build a labyrinthine mess of builds and then shotgun someone in the face. The buffs to C4 and the Minigun seem to support this, both capable of bringing an opponent crashing back down to earth without much thought required. The popularity of Fortnite will plateau, as all things in the zeitgeist do, but if Epic want to keep riding this money train for as long as possible, this is not the way.
New to Fortite and can’t tell your wood from your brick? We have you covered with our very simple and very excellent beginner’s tips. Once you can play without embarrassing your family, we also have some building tips to help take you up a gear or two.
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