“Fortnite” is a multiplayer third-person shooter game produced by Epic Games in 2017. The game was originally released as a campaign mode, titled “Fortnite: Save the World.” Later that year, the Battle Royale game mode was released. This eventually became the more popular of the two, and today still receives more updates than “Save the World.”
On Oct. 26, 2017, “Fortnite” began structuring periods of time into different “seasons,” beginning with season one. With each new season of “Fortnite” comes new content. In season two, came the addition of the Battle Pass, a tiered cosmetic reward system that provides incentives to play the game.
A total of 10 seasons passed before an in-game live event which occurred on Dec. 4, 2021 concluded chapter one of “Fortnite.” In chapter two, the game received a significant overhaul with a brand new map and loot pool. “Fortnite” is now in its fifth chapter. The “Fortnite” community commonly refers to players who played during chapter one as “OG” (a colloquial abbreviation meaning Original Gangster).
On Nov. 3, 2023, “Fortnite” released “Chapter four: Season OG”, where, for less than one month, players could experience the original map and loot from chapter one. I have played “Fortnite” since season two, so this was an exciting opportunity.
This season’s battle pass was the first thing to catch my eye. Most if not all of the cosmetic items featured in the battle pass were variations on cosmetics introduced in the first chapter. My personal favorite was the Spectra Knight outfit. This was by far the most customizable out of each cosmetic, allowing for the player to choose from several styles for different parts of the outfit and paying homage to other past knight outfits. Overall, this season’s battle pass didn’t let me down.
In the first week of the season, players were taken back to season five. This brought back classic locations such as “Lazy Links” and “Paradise Palms.” The latter was always one of my favorite locations, and seeing it again brought me that childlike sense of joy I felt playing “Fortnite” when I was younger. Also brought back were the golf carts added in season five, which was the first drivable vehicle in Fortnite. It was fun to be able to go back and drive a simpler vehicle than the cars and motorcycles we see in “Fortnite” today.
The second week brought items and map changes from season six. The most notable of these changes was the upheaval of the center island from Loot Lake. This created more possible chest spawn locations and made Loot Lake a viable location to land. This was the most mundane of each of the seasons, but it was still awesome to see it make a comeback.
Week three was a combination of seasons seven and eight. This brought the snow biome to the map but with some locations missing. These locations were “Polar Peak” and “Happy Hamlet.” With this, “Sunny Steps,” “Lazy Lagoon,” and the volcano, all added in season 8, were missing. This was disappointing since those were locations I was fond of. This did have a lore reason, though, as this season was a different reality than “Fortnite: Chapter One.” However, this week brought with it the combat shotgun, which is my all-time favorite weapon in “Fortnite.” Originally, this was added in season nine, but Epic Games decided to bring it early.
The final week brought changes from seasons nine and 10. I was also slightly disappointed with this week, since “Neo Tiled” and “Mega Mall” were not on the map, as well as the air tubes that were originally seen in season nine. However, this week added the “hot drop” feature, where three random locations on the map would spawn supply drones. This was one of my favorite features of season nine, and its comeback made up for the lack of map changes.
On Dec. 3, at the end of the final week, the “Big Bang” event occurred. Unfortunately, the live event was an almost exact repeat of the ending event of chapter one. The only difference this time was the rocket which crashed into the zero point, transforming into different things such as a shark and Santa’s sleigh.
Also different with this event was that it teased three new game modes coming in the current season. These are the collaboration with Lego for “LEGO Fortnite,” the collaboration with the popular game “Rocket League” for “Rocket Racing,” and “Fortnite Festival,” which is a music-based gamemode. I just felt there could have been more originality in this event
In all, “Fortnite: Season OG” was a refreshing blast of nostalgia that brought me back to my early childhood living room where I’d play for hours. Even though there was some left to be desired with the map changes and live event, I was glad to be able to revisit the map I grew up with.
