5 Awesome Fortnite Maps You Should Be Playing
Everyone loves Fortnite. Battle Royale is probably the most popular multiplayer mode in modern gaming. It’s addicting, terrifying and just plain balls to the wall fun. But these days there’s more to Fortnite than Battle Royale, or Clash Royale, or even Lego Fortnite (article coming soon, don’t worry). In 2024, Fortnite is more than just a game, it’s a hub for games. You can play every type of game imaginable within Fortnite. It’s awesome and I should’ve gotten back into it sooner. Here are five of my favorite multiplayer Fortnite maps that aren’t Fortnite proper.
Deserted: Domination by EpicLabs
Deserted: Domination is a pretty simple concept. It’s “Capture The Flag” in a map that looks straight out of Battlefield 4, or any of the nameless COD games. A simple desert refinery, with a good mix of open spaces and cramped quarters. It’s also a pretty small map so the action is hectic and hard to avoid. It’s got a little bit of everything.
The classes are pretty good and they each have their purpose. The LMG class is useful in the open field, but can be overwhelmed or dropped pretty easily by snipers. Snipers are vulnerable because the small map size means they can really only kill someone once without giving away their location and their’s only two tall locations to snipe from. The shotgunner class has…a shotgun, so that’s definitely a draw for many.
The flags are all in close quarters spaces separated by several yards of wide open desert field so there’s some variety. The middle flag is a huge chokepoints, as it should be. This is a very well designed map. The games are all relatively quick. Though each round requires 500 kills/points, holding flags rewards you generously and it is easy to get into the flow of the game. Awesome map, give it a try.
Galactic Assault by lanzeh
Remember Star Wars Battlefront? Maybe not. Was before your time. How about Star Wars Battlefront 2? Now imagine putting that classic Tatooine map in Fortnite. This is Galactic Assault. It’s not without its flaws. The games are way too long. Like, I can get behind a 30 minute game, but I’ve played matches of this that went on for an hour. It’s three rounds and if you lose the first two, You still have to play the last round. It’s unholy. But the gameplay is really fun at least.
Everyone gets a jet pack (except for the Jedi-type class) and you pretty much fly around guns blazing. It’s a big map (almost too big), lots of sniping spots, and it’s chaotic as hell. People are just throwing grenades and storm clouds willy nilly. The main chokepoint is right in front of the big temple, which is the singular objective teams are supposed to try and hold. There’s usually a conflagration of bodies there and it’s hard to hold the position for more than 2-3 minutes.
The weapons and classes you have access to are super cool. A chain gun with infinite ammo, dual pistols, the rail gun…I could go on and on. And you get like 3-4 so each class offers a lot of variety. It makes choosing a class feel more like picking a character or playstyle, with each one offering different solutions and approaches to how you want to play. Potshots? Use the semi-automatic sniper rifle. See someone who doesn’t see you and want to maximize your damage? Time for that rail gun. Galactic Assault is legit and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a dose of Star Wars in their shooters.
Conscripted: D-Day by atum_games
D-Day is one of the great historical battles that really translates well to online multiplayer. Guys get off boat and rush towards something while a bunch of other guys shoot at them. This map works about how you expect. It’s sort of a mix of the old Battlefield mode “Rush” and “Capture the Flag.” You bum rush the enemy, who is entrenched behind fortifications and gets access to things like turrets and barbed wire and you have to break through and capture these flags. Oh, and occasionally the team on defense can call in an airstrike. Fun.
But no seriously this is fun. The load outs are awesome and it really does feel like a the creators (atum_games) made some good design and balance choices when making the starting classes. I loved being able to wield WWII era weapons in Fortnite, from the garbage M1 rifle, to the Tommy gun, the classic LMG….it’s a blast from the past, both in its locale and in its various homages to older FPS games.
I appreciated the attention to detail. This looks like an actual WWII game, with the weapons and art style of those mid to late 2000s. Obviously it’s Fortnite, so it’s not an exact replica, but I was very impressed with how they much they were able to make me able forget it was Fortnite. I swear Flags C and D’s map design were straight out of an old Battlefield Bad Company 2 map I played as a child, with the chokepoints being in these like, 8 foot high concrete rooms where every bullet is gonna hit something. It’s also not an overbearingly long game mode. Once again, if you like classic COD or old Battlefield, give it a spin. I bet you’ll like it.
Heist City by coolisushi
Ok, so confession time: I have not played much Heist City. But, in some ways, that makes this endorsement mean even more. Because in my limited time with it, I can already tell I’m gonna spend a lot of time here. This map is like what Republicans think Chicago is. Gun battles in the streets, ATMs getting cashed out randomly, bank robberies, random armed men showing up in force. Stealing cars, planes and helicopters is a must. It’s actually insane. And it’s awesome.
The gameplay loop is simple, but hard to break into because everyone is going to be killing you with ease at first. Basically, you have to get money. You can small, small amounts from ATMS. Or you can attack camps, which are more heavily defended depending on their level. A Level 3 camp as a Level 1 is going to be tough, but with a few tries, your ability to respawn will wear down the bullet sponge AI. And you can always just do a few suicide runs for some quick cash. This lets you buy better weapons, which do more damage to players and AI alike, which puts you in better positions to make more money and buy better weapons. And so the cycle continues.
I like how the city incorporates so many of the great parts of Fortnite gameplay (sans building). The smooth driving, the precise shooting, the fun weapons, planes, helicopters…it’s all here, in a hectic sandbox you can play in. The more I play, the greater my appreciation for this map grows. I expected a GTA clone, but it’s got more to it than that concept alone. It really does draw the best aspects of Fortnite out into a wild and wacky experience that has something for everyone. It’s rough going at first, but once you figure out how it works, it’s a genuinely rewarding slice of gaming.
Outlaws: New Vegas by roakiee
This is a case of saving the best for last. If you told me three months ago this was a thing, I would’ve been here three months ago. But as usual, I’m unfashionably late. This map, mode, whatever you call it…it’s cool as hell. The textures and map design clearly draw heavily from Red Dead Redemption but there’s also some wackiness more akin to Fallout (as suggested by the title) in here too.
For example, when you shoot at an AI, it makes the Fallout V.A.T noise. That’s just a great Easter Egg right there. And there’s wild beasts you have to fight, such as dinosaurs and wild hogs, which can be legitimate hazards. I’ve spend actual minutes of my time killing a single velociraptor with a sword. The AI are about you would expect- cowboy models mostly, some hostile, some not. And there’s a bounty system, a store, tons of weapons to find. There’s a lot to do. There’s different biomes with various towns and so forth.
Similar to Heist City, what makes Outlaws: New Vegas cool is how it blends Fortnite with it’s influences, in this case Red Dead Redemption and Fallout, in a way that brings out unique aspects of each game. The atmosphere and setting of RDR, the unpredictability and anachronicity of Fallout and the buttery smooth gameplay of Fortnite all blend together to make this map a relaxing and engaging time. I loved how I could explore, hang out, hunt people down…etc. Hell, sometimes I’d walk up to people and we wouldn’t even fight. Other times, I'd find myself drawn into map wide battles with other individual players. Sometimes we’d all just gang up and kill the dinosaurs. It really shows the range and ability of Fortnite to package different concepts around it’s great and iconic gameplay.
