LEGO Fortnite is startlingly detailed, acting as a game within a game for Epic’s massively popular free-to-play videogame. While Rocket Racing is a basic but compelling competitive mode, and Fortnite Festival is a great opportunity to relive the nostalgia of titles like Guitar Hero or rock out with friends, LEGO Fortnite has been a huge draw. Players must avoid becoming too hot or cold, construct structures to prevent harmful weather, and combat adversaries on a regular basis. As with many survival games, LEGO Fortnite will require players to engage with non-threatening creatures in order to obtain resources. However, unlike those other games, violence is not required.
To be clear, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with hunting mechanics in video games, as they can enhance the immersion of titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2. Some gamers, however, are uneasy about killing a huge cat for a resource bag in Far Cry, butchering an animal farm in Minecraft, or hearing wolves and dogs howl when assaulted in a variety of games. Fortunately for people who have this problem, LEGO Fortnite does not require players to murder non-hostile animals for resources, which is a strategy that other games should adopt.
The Way LEGO Fortnite Handles Animals Is Incredible
While players can kill friendly animals such as cows, chickens, and sheep for extra meat to keep their LEGO Fortnite Minifigure fed and invigorated, they are not required to do so. There are not only additional meat sources, such as the fearsome wolf creatures and crabs, but other resources can be gained simply by stroking the animals. The Cows in LEGO Fortnite are adorable, thus caressing them for milk is a smart way to obtain that resource. Similarly, rather than scaring or killing a Chicken, players can simply pet it for wool. The same is true for sheep, as their wool is obtained through pets rather than killing or sheers as in Minecraft.
Given that LEGO Fortnite is a survival game for people of all ages, the petting mechanic was most likely added to assist the game maintain its E10+ certification. It does, however, have the extra benefit of allowing players to avoid harming harmless animals by allowing them to experience everything in the game without killing any Chickens, Cows, or Sheep. With no crafting recipes requiring the deaths of these three animal varieties, players have no need to kill them if they do not like to. Given how effectively the petting mechanic works, other games, particularly those with realistic art styles or titles aimed at a comparable young audience, might consider taking inspiration from it.
