I spectate the rest of my assassin’s game.
FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE DOWNLOAD MAC MAC
The Authority is still on the Mac map Barry Collins/Epic Games Man against machine I dodge and jump around as best I can, but the player takes me down - probably convinced he’s eliminated another useless bot. I’m so excited at the prospect of seeing another human player, and so helpless with the keyboard controls, that by the time I manage to shoot back I’m on my last legs, a bullet away from dying. The kind of erratic but well-aimed fire that bots simply don’t deliver.
I instinctively reach for the build tools, before realizing I don’t know what the keyboard controls are, and now I’m being peppered by assault rifle fire. I’m focused on staying dry when a bullet whistles past my ear lobe. I’ve taken my eye off the storm circle and now I’ve got to sprint to safety towards Frenzy Farm. But they can’t be bothered with me and fly off into the distance. I hop up and down, firing pointless rounds at their windscreen, in the sheer hope of engaging with another human player. That must be a human player, the bots rarely bother with the choppers. Suddenly, there’s an unfamiliar clattering from above and someone’s swooping over in a helicopter - a vehicle long since removed from Fortnite. Yet, even with these unfamiliar controls, I’ve smashed my way past three bots and I’m down to the final 20, without encountering another human soul. I usually play with a controller, but my Mac has decided that’s no longer welcome here, and so I’m forced to play with keyboard and mouse - which feels much like writing with the wrong hand. Bots that land in random locations (hence the quiet of Lazy lake), bots that largely avoid confrontation, bots that are about as much fun to play with as a pencil sharpener. It soon becomes clear that most of my fellow players aren’t players at all, but bots. And yet the counter says there are more than 90 other players still alive. The sound of someone swinging a pickaxe at something, but that’s it. A named location early on the Battle Bus journey would normally be echoing with gunshots as players scramble for the best weapons, but there’s near silence. I drop down in Lazy Lake - which is one of the first stops directly on the Battle Bus route - and it’s eerily quiet, as if the game has crashed.