Much to the dismay of the community.
Epic Games has responded to criticism of the B.R.U.T.E., the enormous mech in Fortnite: Battle Royale that players can hop into and rain down havoc on their foes, stating that it isn’t going to remove it from the game. The machine, which can be piloted by two teammates, is able to deal massive damage to whole squads, insta-killing them if they’re in its line of fire.
Professional streamers and notable Fortnite personalities like timthetatman and Ninja have both voiced their disdain for the B.R.U.T.E.’s overwhelming power, which duly received a series of nerfs in the v10.10 patch. It seems that even this isn’t enough though, as people have been campaigning to get the mech removed from the game completely.
Fortnite Philosophy Update.Read Here: https://t.co/cfYThy1An4
Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 15, 2019
Epic’s response explains that the B.R.U.T.E. was designed to close the skill gap that’s continued to widen in the course of the game’s lifespan. Being a complex game to master, dedicated players can improve much faster than casual ones. According to the blog post, mechs give less experienced players a greater chance of achieving a Victory Royale.
After reducing the late game spawn rate of mechs in Arena, Epic decided that this was enough to balance their power level out, citing the average number of B.R.U.T.E. eliminations per game at around 6. Prominent community members are less than impressed with Epic’s response to criticism of the mechs, claiming that the number of kills is less important than the cheap nature of the kills in question.
I don’t think the amount of kills they are getting is the issue, it’s HOW they get them. There is no way to play against one that fires ten missiles at you over and over again. The first 5 destroy the builds, the next 5 destroy the player.
DanTDM (@dantdm) August 15, 2019
Essentially, it doesn’t feel good to play against mechs for a lot of people, as there’s very little in the way of counterplay. They shred through builds, so you can’t bunker down, and are extremely difficult to approach given their ability to pepper entire areas with missiles.
HORRIBLE GRAPH.Why dont you show us the % builds broken// Material wasted // Damage dealt to players when used per BRUTE?
FNATIC MOTOR (@FNATIC_MOTOR) August 15, 2019
Of course, it is vital to make your game more enjoyable for new and less experienced players, but Epic would prefer to do so without irritating their most diehard fans. The B.R.U.T.E. is here to stay for the moment though, and we’ll see how that impacts the game in the longer term.
