Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 2, aka Lawless season, starts on Friday, and it’s bringing us an early dose of something we thought we’d have to wait until at least the fall for: a new Grand Theft Auto. Not literally, of course. Epic is not collaborating with Rockstar Games here–they’re just adding a new urban location on the map called Crime City, and we’ll be spending much of our time this season stealing stuff from vaults, armored cars, and the train, and each other. Yep, sounds like GTA to me.
It’s amusing timing, given that the very long awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 looks like it might actually come out this year, a decade and two console generations since GTA 5 launched back in 2013. But even with a proper new GTA title finally peeking its head above the horizon, Epic beat them to the punch with Lawless season.
Not convinced by the comparison? Let’s take a look at the season trailer.
The cinematic part at the beginning puts a heavy emphasis on breaking into vaults and stealing stuff, but it’s a little different than it was in past heist seasons–in addition to the vaults that are in buildings, we’ve got armored security vans, and even the train will now be a moving vault you have to blow open and which is defended by turrets. In other words: we’ll have some GTA Online-style missions to do in the middle of our battle royale matches.
But the big tell, for the purposes of the GTA comparison here, is the tone. While Fortnite loves its heist seasons, they’ve usually been a bit classier about it with more of an Ocean’s 11 feel–whereas Lawless season is more grungy and down in the dirt the way GTA has always been. And because it’s Fortnite, it doesn’t have any problem matching GTA’s irreverence–these two brands have a similar lack of respect for everything.
After last summer’s controversial Wrecked season, the thought of another vehicle-focused season might be a little scary for some. But this appears to be a middle ground, meaning there appears to be a more measured increase in emphasis on vehicles this time–there’s no sign of upgrades or mounted weapons for the vehicles, for one thing, so you’ll have to stick your head out the window and shoot your guns as usual. That said, I actually thought Wrecked season was delightful, so you wouldn’t hear me complain about a potential new focus on cars anyway.
Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 2 kicks off on Friday, February 21, and we’ve got a rundown of everything we know so far about the new season right here.