Many millenials can recall when The Hunger Games movie first came out in 2012. This famous dystopian trilogy pit 24 teenagers against each other in a fight to the death. The movie was used as an analogy the first time the video game Fortnite was explained to me.

The game is being developed by two studios: Epic Games, previously known for the Gears of War video game series along with People Can Fly, a previous subdivision of Epic Games stationed in Poland. Their game, Fortnite, is set to release, in full, sometime in 2018 as a free-to-play title. Because of Fortnite’s unique art style which makes it look like a cartoon and dials down the graphic effect of violence, the games is just as accessible to players that are college age as it is for children.

The most popular part of this game, which causes it to resemble The Hunger Games, is the “”Battle Royale”” mode. The “Battle Royale” mode is a game mode that includes 100 different players in the same map, running around, trying to gather materials or build structures, as well as eliminate each other, all the while the map is increasingly getting smaller due to a storm. “Battle Royale” can either be played as a free for all game or can place players in squads of four. Although the full release of the game is slated for later this year, a free-to-play version of the “Battle Royale” mode was released for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC in September of last year.

Ever since it was first mentioned to me, I have noticed the phenomenon this game has truly become; seeing it as the focus of various internet memes on Instagram and Twitter as well a being posted on friends’ Snapchat stories displaying that they were “Number 1” is the “Battle Royale” mode, meaning they were the last one alive out the the 100 that started. This game quickly became popular by totaling 30 million downloads in the span of three months after it being released, and over 40 million downloads as of January 2018.

Although the “Battle Royale” mode of Fortnite may be its most popular mode, it hardly scratches the surface of what the game has to offer. While “Battle Royale” is PvP (Player vs Player) oriented game, Fortnite also offers a PvE (Player vs Environment) mode called “Save the World” mode. This mode encomposses a bit of story where the players must survive in a world where 98 percent of the population is wiped out by a storm. The players must survive against hordes of zombie-like creatures as well as making use of the game’s foraging and building mechanics in order to aide in their survival. A beta version of this mode was released on July 25, 2017; however, this early access had to be paid for.

With Fortnite, Epic Games have made an undeniable success. With the early release of the “Save the World” and the free-to-play “”Battle Royale”” mode, Epic Games helped promote the game with the millions of downloads it gained in a matter of months. With this amount of publicity Fortnite has gotten, the game is now slated to have a successful release when the full version comes out later this year.