Fortnite has a lot of customizable elements, but locking certain features to certain skins is one of the most disappointing moves that the game has made. Every time this happens, it leads to a frustrating scenario as the new feature effectively isn't even a customization option. When a feature is only available for a certain skin, it makes it seem like a waste of space in the player's locker, since it will rarely be used unless the player only plays that specific character, which is a tall order considering how many skins are in Fortnite.
One of the most appealing aspects of Fortnite, helped by its many crossovers, is the wide variety of ways that the player can customize their character. They choose a character skin to play as, and outfit them with a melee weapon, glider, and back accessory. Players even have the option of customizing the looks of their character's weapons and vehicles, as well as the trail they leave while falling from the sky at the start of a match. Fortnite is constantly adding new features that are unlockable through battle passes, in-game events, and the shop. Thanks to these updates, Fortnite's options for customization are virtually endless.
Fortnite's Character-Locked Cosmetics Are Not A Good Mechanic
The most disappointing part of customizing characters in the constantly evolving world of Fortnite comes when a cosmetic is exclusive to one specific character. For example, when a set of items starring Ash Williams from Evil Dead was released for Halloween 2022, the Chainsaw Hand melee weapon was only usable by Ash himself. Likewise, when Thor was added to the game, the ability to glide with Mjolnir and equip it as a melee weapon was exclusive to him. This often happens with licensed characters, but not always. Bytes' The Nothing's Gift and the Cube Queen's Queen's Procession are two examples of original characters having cosmetics unusable by anyone else.
In a similar fashion to how Fortnite's Bytes quests suffered from being character-restricted, locking cosmetics to certain skins only makes them less desirable. Adding to this disparity is the fact that not all licensed cosmetics are exclusive. The biggest example may be Spider-Man's Web-Chute, which can be used by anyone despite the animation using Spider-Man's web powers. If that iconic ability can be made available to anyone through cosmetics, then other power-related cosmetics don't have an excuse to be locked. Players should be able to let any character use Storm's weather powers or Venom's symbiote scythe.
The only truly good example of locked cosmetics in Fortnite is the built-in emotes that some skins have, a trait that future DC characters crossing over to Fortnite could imitate. These often show off a trait that is unique to the character in question. For example, Twyn can use their visor to transition between two distinct designs, and Kit can momentarily climb out of his mech suit to strike a pose. These are good examples of unique cosmetics, because they add to the skin in question rather than taking something away from the others. If these emotes were the only locked-in cosmetics, there would be no issue.
Customizing a character in Fortnite is fun, and players should have the freedom to do so as much as they want. Fortnite confirming the return of augments shows that Epic Games is willing to make changes for the good of the game, and hopefully locked cosmetics can be addressed in similar fashion. Locking cosmetics to certain skins accomplishes nothing but turning potentially fun additions to what is essentially an on/off switch for certain skins. In the future, making cosmetics -- even licensed ones -- available to the whole cast would be a beneficial move. Adding cool cosmetics to Fortnite is better when their use isn't restricted.
Fortnite is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.