Yes we DID need Fortnite on mobile

Earlier in the week I wrote a brief early impressions piece for FortCraft, a barely disguised copy of Epic Games's console and PC Battle Royale extravaganza Fortnite.

As its beta launched ahead of Fortnite mobile itself, and turned out to be a pretty fun approximation, I rather cheekily led by questioning whether we actually needed Fortnite mobile.

Well, the early access invites have started pouring out, and yes. It turns out we really did need Fortnite mobile.

Here are some early observations.

When PUBG mobile launched in China, people were impressed that it offered such a close approximation of the main PUBG experience. Fortnite mobile goes one giant step further.

We were promised a full version of Fortnite prior to launch, and by golly we actually got it.

Playing such a thing is a real 'isn't 2018 brilliant?' moment.

This is the full fat experience, with the exact same pre-game area, map, play count, weapons... it's the whole kaboodle, and it's all built on the same engine as the main game.

It's worth expanding on the building side of things, because that's the distinguishing mark of Fortnite. Further to the last point, you can do all the same building stuff here as you could in the original.

This was one of the areas where FortCraft dares to stray away from the formula, making a building system that's much easier than its inspiration. While this makes it more accessible, though, it also serves to take much of the skill and strategy out of building a defensive fort.

Not so in Fortnite mobile, where you'll need to master erecting four walls and a ramp while under fire from a golden SCAR rifle.

In truth, it remains to be seen how intuitive this process can become. At present it feels more than a little unwieldy - but then I still suck at building in Fortnite on PS4, and everyone's seen how good it's possible to get with that.

In other mobile Battle Royale games to date you essentially have to choose between aiming and shooting or moving and shooting.

It's incredibly tricky to adjust that shot when strafing in close quarters combat.

Epic has come up with a partial solution in Fortnite mobile, and while it isn't perfect, it does allow you to get closer to the PC and console way of doing things.

Here you can shoot by tapping on the area of screen you use to aim. This means that if you're quick, you can line up a headshot and quickly shoot without having to reach for a separate button.

There's an awful lot of running across vast stretches of ground in Battle Royale games, so they all benefit from an autorun system.

Those other mobile Battle Royale games we mentioned before - including both flavours of PUBG - have auto-run systems that involve pushing forward and holding.

It works, but it can be a bit finicky.

Fortnite mobile makes it a little easier for my money - just double-tap the virtual control stick to set off running straight ahead.

Of course, this is an early test build of Fortnite on mobile, so inevitably there are some issues that need addressing.

Tapping directly on chests, weapons, items and doors to interact with them feels like a fairly intuitive system - until you have to stretch your thumb across half the screen to do so. I approve of cutting down on virtual buttons, but perhaps not at the expense of comfort.

I've also noticed a bunch of sound glitches. These range from a periodic 'thunk' - like the sound made when you tap a microphone - to what sounds like a full on war of the robots whilst observing a late-game fort-vs-fort firefight from afar (as pictured above).

Oh, and there doesn't appear to be a free-look function, which badly hampers those stealthy hide-in-a-bush moments.