Fortnite’s Chapter 5 Update Breaks Things That Didn’t Need Fixing

With its frequent changes and updates, Fortnite has managed to retain a decent audience of fans. This is despite the fact that its Battle Royale mode is more than 6 years old at this point. This is a fact that’s even further emphasized by the recent Fortnite OG mode that Epic brought back. During that time, the developers have had a tough job at keeping the game fresh.

That sounds easier said than done. Especially when you realize that new items and guns can only take you so far before they feel like rehashes of something players have already geared up with. However, the fact that gamers still flock to Fortnite, highlights Epic’s ability to keep things interesting. That said, in their attempts to make changes, mostly for the sake of it, it looks like they’ve managed to stumble with their Chapter 5 update.

Chapter 5 Season 1 brings a bunch of unique additions to the game, most notably, Peter Griffin. But the season also brings tons of changes to the core systems of Fortnite, especially its movement and user interface. And a close inspection of these new additions makes it clear that these so-called new and improved systems, are really just worse off in a number of ways. Here’s how.

Sluggish Movement In A Fast-Paced Game

If you’ve seen a 14-year-old play this game, you’ll know that their actions per minute transcend into a completely different dimension. Fortnite is a fast-paced game, and for most of its life, Epic has been ensuring that the game’s movement is fastened up too, to reflect this. With additions like the tactical sprint or the slide, it felt like Fortnite was taking the best lessons from its competitors and making them its own.

New vs. Old Crouching Speed: Side by side. ~43% slower!
byu/phr00t_ inFortNiteBR

However, Chapter 5 goes a ton of steps in the other direction. And despite promising to provide players with an “overhaul” of the game’s movement system, has mostly just slowed things down. Consider the new crouching speed. Players on Reddit have highlighted how it’s a massive 43% slower now. This makes crouching almost entirely unusable. You’re almost always going to be a sitting duck if you decide to crouch with enemies nearby.

But it’s not just the speed that’s the problem. Players are also reporting that the new animations feel off. Overall, it leads to the game feeling sluggish and slow. And that’s a huge problem considering you’re always on the move in Fortnite, as you try to outrun the storm or chase after enemies. Players have even gone as far as to send threats to the developer who worked on these new animations. Which, admittedly, is like 10 steps too far. 

Running Feels Off Too

The recent changes to Fortnite’s movement go beyond just crouching. Almost every aspect of the game’s movement animations and speeds has been altered. And for most players, these new changes simply feel worse. Even in the cases where the change might be subtle, longtime players of Fortnite will almost immediately recognize the difference.

This highlight video posted by a fan on YouTube accurately shows the difference in the movement before and after Chapter 5. Animations of the characters are simply not as fluid as they used to be. As a result, even if the overall change in speed might not be as large, players still feel as if their character is moving much too slowly. This is thanks to the shoddy animations.  

Again, the biggest offender is the crouching speed, which has genuinely been shrunk to a mere fraction of its former glory. While the developers haven’t exactly clarified why they felt the need to make this change, players seemingly don’t care. Because to a lot of them, these changes are actively ruining a season that is otherwise fantastic. 

The User Interface Changed For The Worse As Well

With Chapter 5’s release, Epic also changed how certain elements of the user interface look. The player locker, where all of one’s precious skins are stored got a revamped look. And as you’d expect, people are not happy about it. Beyond the complaining about anything that’s new, there are some genuine issues that folks have, which actually make total sense. 

Removing the special backgrounds for the special rarity skins should be a crime. They need revert the locker changes, this is garbage.
byu/PlushtrapMyBeloved inFortNiteBR

Like the fact that Epic has removed the special backgrounds that exist behind special rarity skins. While it might not feel like a big change, it takes away some important information from players, which previously could’ve come in handy. Either simply for enjoying your large array of rare skins or for more easily locating one of a higher rarity, these backgrounds really didn’t need to be removed. 

Yet, Epic has gone ahead and axed them all the same. The FortniteBR subreddit is currently filled with multiple posts about people complaining about this exact issue. And coupled with the movement and animations fiasco, it’s clear that Chapter 5’s launch, despite its shiny new additions, has mostly been a letdown for people who care about the wider details of the game. 

Currently, folks are trying to convince Epic to revert these changes. And who knows, with enough posts being made about it, the message might just make its way to the developers. However, with how they branded the new changes as an overhaul of the game, it seems unlikely they’d be willing to simply step back and revert everything because the fans didn’t like it in its current iteration. That said, this has revealed a big issue to the playerbase.

Epic Has A “Fix It, Even If It Isn’t Broke” Policy

With the latest round of changes made to the game’s movement and UI, players are recognizing how Epic seemingly makes changes just for the sake of it. Chapter 5 started off with a bunch of unnecessary changes, that the game would’ve been better off without. And according to some, the problem goes beyond the things I’ve talked about so far.

Fortnite is the Definition of ‘If It Ain’t Broke, Fix It Anyway’
byu/40percentdave inFortNiteBR

Folks feel this season is a huge far cry from the Fortnite OG season that just ended. And in a way, it’s making it clear how far the game has fallen. The intuitive and simple design of Fortnite OG might feel repetitive to some, but players feel it’s better than loading into a game where there are 5 different gimmicks happening at the same time. One player even put it quite appropriately:

I mean going from a map that really just needed more cover in ZB to boss medallions, the train, augments soon, weapon mods, bosses at half the POIs, NPCs again, etc. It just seemed like they learned nothing from OG, despite it being their most successful month in years.”

That said, not everyone shares this sentiment. It’s clear that despite Fortnite OG’s popularity, there are tons of players who prefer the new gameplay style. However, for returning players, especially ones who came specifically for Fortnite OG, the change is rather dramatic. In a way, it has led to the creation of two separate factions among the Fortnite community.

On one hand, you’ve got folks who are fine with the modern game, and accept the need to make changes for it. But on the other, there are players who feel that OG is the more superior version, and are demanding it to be brought back. Considering how wildly successful Fortnite OG was for Epic, there’s no doubt it’ll be returning in the near future.

Way to start things off with a big bang 💥

We're blown away by the response to #FortniteOG. Yesterday was the biggest day in Fortnite’s history with over 44.7 MILLION players jumping in and 102 MILLION hours of play.

To all Fortnite players, OG and new, THANK YOU!

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) November 5, 2023

However, whether or not it’s turned into a permanent mode remains to be seen. Either way, it’s clear that Epic needs to find a middle ground between the new and the old. And learn to not make changes that do nothing more than break the systems that their playerbase is already used to. Hopefully, this means they’ll address the movement and UI issues so many players are currently facing.