Fortnite: Save the World, the single-player/co-op counterpart to Fortnite: Battle Royale, won't be launching into its full, free-to-play form this year after all. Developer Epic Games had its big changeover from premium-only access to free-to-play for all pegged for 2018 for quite a while, until today's official news post announced the delay. But if you're too antsy to wait any longer, this will still be a good time to jump in: Epic's having a 50-percent-off sale on Founder's Packs (which get you into the game and come with some extra goodies) for a limited time starting this week.
Drawing lines between Fortnite Battle Royale's ambitious update schedule (not to mention its explosive success) and a series of delays for Fortnite: Save the World is not difficult. Especially given that Save the World is much closer to the original vision of the game that was first teased way back in 2011. But Epic's still committed to expanding and refining Save the World mode, and the developer outlined two such big changes coming soon-ish.
Fortnite: Save the World's Hero System brings more to the fight
What's better than three Heroes? Six, duh. Epic is reworking Save the World's Hero System to add three additional support slots. You'll still only pick one character to play as out in the world, but now you'll have five spots on your little post-apocalyptic team to bring in extra traits and perks. This will give you a quite a bit more flexibility in the kind of loadout you can create. Individual Heroes are going to see some changes to make sure their support contributions work in the new system as well, and you can expect more details on all of that as the revamped Hero System gets closer to launch.
Fortnite: Save the World's front end gets more personal
You spend a surprising amount of time fiddling with loot and cards in Fortnite: Save the World compared to actually saving the world, so it's good to see that the entire front end is getting an overhaul. Your chosen character will be front and center in the new version, flanked by reorganized menu options and tabs to make it easier to find whatever you're looking for. The ultimate goal is to help you get through the meta-game stuff faster so you can spend more time building structures and battling hordes. Look for the new interface to roll out sometime in the next few months.
Until then, the Halloween Fortnitemares event is live again now with the return of the Vlad Moon Rising Questline for Save the World, which is as good a reason as any to snag one of those discounted Founder's Packs.
You'll have to keep waiting for Fortnite: Save the World to go free-to-play, but you can try anything from our list of the 25 best free games right now.
