After some minor leakage, Fortnite’s long-awaited and much-hyped first FPS 5v5 mode is coming in hot next week – and it sounds like Epic Games‘ own take on Counter-Strike’s tug-of-war matches.
Epic Games has just unveiled Fortnite Ballistic, a 5v5 competitive mode played entirely in first-person for the first time in the battle royale’s seven year history, dropping in an ‘early access’ state on December 11. In this case, early access just means that Ballistic will have one map at launch and a more limited set of weapons and items to play with, though as expected, the developers plan to “make adjustments based on player feedback and add new maps, weapons, and features” over time.
The rest of the mode seems to be modelled after Counter Strike’s classic Terrorists vs. Counter-Terrorists push-and-pull, although this time the two sides are simply called attackers and defenders – probably to fend off controversy from the parents of the 7-year-olds who play Fortnite – and instead of planting a bomb, attackers are fighting to set up something called a Rift Point Device. You can plant the, err, device at one of two locations, and a round finishes when it either explodes or when a team gets fully wiped since there aren’t any respawns here. After six rounds, the two teams will switch sides. And whoever wins seven rounds first is crowned the overall victor.
Despite launching in an early access state, Fortnite Ballistic will still offer both Ranked and Unranked modes for those who don’t want to get too sweaty. “Unranked play offers a more casual Ballistic experience and has backfill for players who drop from matches,” a press release explains. “Ranked play is for those who want to test their talents against other players in a more competitive environment – the winning team gains rank and the losing team loses rank.” You can read all about the mode and its rules over on Epic Games’ official blog.