Enter Fortnite (from Epic Games), a game that totally isn’t another generic zombie shooter game. In a culture so saturated in the undead, Fortnite is nothing wholly innovative or new. But, it’s tremendously fun. It takes aspects of Minecraft, tower defense games, and Team Fortress and mashes them together into a sort of funhouse, shoot’ em’ up, survival game. What more could you ask for?

Fortnite begins with most of the world’s population vanishing without a trace. Strange storms start brewing and odd, shambling creatures show up. Their sole purpose is to destroy what’s left of mankind. Even if it is a slow, steady shuffle. Enter you; the new leader of the free people, responsible for protecting the helpless and saving the world. Oh yeah, and building forts.

Pickaxe your way through trees, rocks, and cars to obtain wood, brick, and metal. Since you need these materials for your fort, nearly everything is destructible. A school bus will yield metal girders, springs, and mechanical parts. Rocks and statues give you brick, ore, and crafting powder. It’s best not to think too hard about it while you’re mining a park bench. In addition to building walls, floors, and stairs from the variety of materials, you can also craft weapons and traps.

What Fortnite gives you that other zombie survival games do not is an online platform to play with friends and strangers. It also offers four unique character classes to choose from. Feel like diving into hordes of enemies with a  crushing blow? Then the ninja is a perfect choice. Enjoy building forts and electrifying walls? Pick a constructor! Feeling greedy and want to hunt for buried treasure? Meet the Outlander class. Or, is tossing grenades and firing assault rifles more your speed? Pick a soldier!

Since each mission type has a different objective, it’s ill advised to only play one class. In fact, Fortnite offers an incentive to play all of the classes. Each day brings new side quests to accomplish while you’re completing the main storyline. A Tuesday might offer you the challenge of killing 500 enemies with a soldier. A Saturday could bring you building a radar tower with a constructor. They do their best to force you to test every single character. Of which there are a lot of. Fortnite makes you change the way you play each mission depending on your daily quests and challenges.

All of the missions are repeatable but, the way you approach them will change each time. The first time you play a mission, the defense point might be in a valley surrounded by enemies. The next it will be on a plateau with only one entrance. What material you build in is going to depend on what type of environment the mission takes place. Sometimes you’ll be smack dab in the middle of an industrial zone and have unlimited access to metal and stone. Other times you’ll be stuck in the middle of the wilderness with only trees to harvest.

With so many different ways to play, it’s easy to get sucked into the game. In the past seven days, I have put more than thirty hours into Fortnite. While it’s rather embarrassing to admit, it’s a testament to how entertaining it can be. Fortnite is a highly addictive game with an extensive list of things to do. There’s a collection book to put all your extra guns, survivors, traps, etc. You can send your extra heroes out on expeditions to gather extra materials. There’s skill trees, research trees, and survivor squads. The possibilities of what you can do in Fortnite are nearly limitless. But, don’t take my word for it. Use your hard earned cash to buy the game for the low price of $39.99.

Until next time, see you space cowboy.