One of the ways in which Fortnite is celebrating Might the Fourth, Star Wars Day, in 2026 is by unleashing a pile of latest user-created modes and ushering within the Star Wars period for the Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Forward of the launch of those maps, Epic Video games gave us hands-on time with a number of of them, together with a fairly compelling-looking Battlefront-style mode, a survival-horror mode through which you are hunted by Darth Vader, and a droid-themed tycoon map.
Epic Video games has been step by step including gadgets and belongings from numerous franchises, together with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Squid Sport, and The Strolling Useless, to be used in customized Fortnite islands for a few years now. Star Wars, nonetheless, is the most important and most well-known property to affix the get together to this point. Creators have had entry to those Star Wars belongings for a short while, they usually’ll be capable to unleash their creations beginning Might 1. It’s best to anticipate a flood of Star Wars-themed modes proper from the beginning–Epic says there will probably be tons of.
We can’t presume to guess what all is in retailer for us from UEFN’s many builders, since there’s prone to be loads of surprises on the best way. However we’ll take you thru what we have already performed, which ought to provide you with a fairly good thought of the sorts of islands that Epic believes will do effectively. We’ll begin with the one we’re most enthusiastic about.
Galactic Siege
This mode is basically a Star Wars Battlefront-esque deathmatch with seize factors, and it is most likely the closest any Fortnite Artistic or UEFN mode has come to being its personal full recreation. Galactic Siege has two maps at launch, with one other coming in a couple of weeks–which units it aside from the same old Fortnite deathmatch islands in an enormous approach, since deathmatch islands with a number of maps are just about exceptional.
In Galactic Siege, capturing management factors in your crew and defeating enemies will allow you to unlock power-ups, like airstrikes, hordes of NPC helpers, or a lightsaber and Drive powers. It is also a uncommon mode through which your character is only a soldier–either a Insurgent Trooper or an Imperial Stormtrooper–instead of carrying your outfitted Fortnite pores and skin. Whereas that may frustrate some of us, its creators mentioned the restriction is a crucial thing– the mode would not actually really feel like Star Wars with Peely and Drift operating round.
“We simply got here to a call that to essentially really feel immersed within the Star Wars universe, it is exhausting to do this when it isn’t a Star Wars pores and skin, proper?” mentioned Chad Mustard, COO of Jogo, the studio that made Galactic Siege, in a chat with GameSpot. “I believe gamers will not thoughts that in any respect, as a result of they’re in a Star Wars expertise, they usually wish to really feel immersed in that with the music and the visuals.”
However do not suppose meaning Galactic Siege opts out of the cosmetics recreation completely. Like in Battlefront, you may seemingly be capable to unlock character skins via the mode-specific Beskar forex, which you may earn as you play–but these cosmetics will solely work on this one mode, and it won’t promote these skins for V-Bucks.
Our demo was fairly laggy, which I used to be advised was the results of the builders growing the participant and NPC limits for our preview. Assuming the launch model is extra steady, Galactic Siege has the potential to be an enormous hit–especially if Jogo Studios is ready to hold including new maps for it. However that is not one thing they will be capable to do indefinitely, since Artistic and UEFN maps have reminiscence limits, which means that an island can solely have so many issues loaded on the identical time, in addition to an general measurement restrict of simply 2 gigabytes.
“It is not an unreasonable quantity,” lead recreation designer Jeremy Pedron advised me after I requested if the reminiscence restrict has prompted any issues. “Whenever you cope with a bunch of creatives that wish to attempt to tackle as a lot as they presumably can, it’s a must to discover some type of boundary, and that is a very good technical objective for us to type of, like, be certain it is effectively beneath [the memory limit].”
Whereas Galactic Siege is not a real successor to Star Wars Battlefront simply but, it may turn into one over time. However its ceiling will depend upon how Fortnite’s metaverse ecosystem continues to evolve, and none of us is aware of how that may go over the following yr, a lot much less the following decade.
Escape Vader
Escape Vader is a survival horror expertise through which 4 gamers, as Insurgent scavengers, should sneak round a derelict Star Destroyer and escape with some gear, all whereas being stalked by Darth Vader himself. Whilst you can sluggish Vader down by blowing up pipes, and distract him by taking pictures at him, you possibly can’t kill him. So it is primarily a recreation about strolling round dramatically.
And as you may anticipate from that description, this mode feels a bit of half-baked. It has no actual sneaking mechanics, you possibly can’t dash, and you’ll respawn a vast variety of occasions after Vader will get you. The mode is an amusing diversion, however not one that may probably have a lot endurance with out extra work. For now, it feels extra like a demo than a full expertise.
Droid Tycoon
A “tycoon” recreation means one thing very particular inside Fortnite. It is a style of aggressive Cookie Clicker-type video games through which a bunch of gamers race to make their numbers go up the quickest. The self-esteem with this one is that you just’re constructing a manufacturing facility, and also you want droids for labor to make cash so you possibly can construct extra stuff, purchase extra droids, and make more cash.
These modes are usually in style with youngsters and people for whom Fortnite and/or Roblox are their primary gaming platforms, before everything, since these modes are as a lot social experiences as they’re video games. See, for instance, Steal the Brainrot, which isn’t a balanced or notably attention-grabbing recreation, however it may be a enjoyable factor to do when you hang around on-line together with your friends when you grind out battle go XP.
You possibly can check out these maps and plenty of, many others in Fortnite beginning Might 1.