At first glance, Fortnite and Resident Evil couldn’t be more different. Sure, Epic Games and Capcom teamed up for a official collaboration before Halloween last year, which brought Resi-themed character models, ornaments, and pickaxes to the island, but visually, tonally, thematically, and conceptually, both games are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Right? Officially yes. Unofficially, a fan-driven project has closed the gap considerably.
I consider myself a pretty accomplished Resident Evil player. I spent the summer of 1996 running scared around Spencer Manor before graduating from RPD HQ a couple of years later. The mere thought of running from Nemesis kept me up at night at the turn of the millennium, and I’ve reveled in every wild tale the series has told since, from Leon S. Kennedy’s excursion to rural Spain, to the by Ethan Winters. ill-fated escape to Eastern Europe. And yet, I discovered that one of my favorite Resident Evil experiences of all time recently exists in Fortnite Creative: xVonKlutch’s Resident Evil Spencer Mansion Project, a meticulous recreation of the setting and narrative of the first game within the confines of the standalone Battle Royale sandbox gameplay. “Playing Resident Evil when I was younger was a family event,” says creator xVonKlutch. “The similarities, the Easter eggs, the map itself – all of these things are ingrained in my brain, so it was a case of taking all of this and putting it into Fortnite.”
similar dead
As you may have recently read, I have become hooked on weird Fortnite RPG servers. From Squid Game to Cyberpunk 2077 to Home Alone, the variety of player-made creations now available is vast, and while the quality of what’s on offer is equally variable, the best and most ambitious projects are nothing short of brilliant. xVonKlutch’s Resident Evil Spencer Mansion is well placed among the latter as a nearly 1:1 recreation of the 1996 survival horror classic. You see the blue, jewel-encrusted statue above the dining room, meet your first undead, and run. that the zombie dog hallway and discovering the poor animal keeper’s ‘spicy and tasty’ diary – it’s all there, recreated in Fortnite to excellent effect.
After diving into so many creative Fortnite projects over the past few weeks, I almost expected to spend 10 or so minutes wandering around xVonKlutch’s Resident Evil Spencer Mansion, getting the gist of what was on offer, then logging out and moving on to the next one. But it’s all so well done that I instead found myself fumbling around with the puzzle of him and distancing him from his Hunters (represented on the map by Fortnite’s dinosaur-like Klombo character models) some three hours later. This attention to detail, xVonKlutch tells me, is something the creator strives for in everything he does.
“I’m a ’90s kid, so when we played as a family, my dad would often be in control, and then my mom and I would say things like, ‘Oh look, there’s a shiny object! ‘ Playing Resident Evil when When I was a kid it was one of those things that stuck with me,” explains xVonKlutch. “My Fortnite creation follows the exact same map as the original game: pulled from memory and watching hours of YouTubers, clips, and long gameplay.”
“I’m one of those people who likes to have a very firm idea in my head. I hate being in the middle of a project and not getting it done, so I work on something for days and days. While I was working on this, I had a laptop on my right side, and my Nan kept asking about the overly exaggerated footstep noise, you know, a signature from those early Resi games, I’d be tapping all the time.”
spicy, tasty
“You just know a die-hard Resi fan when you see one, they get all the inside jokes, the nods and the gaming winks.”
From start to finish, xVonKlutch’s Fortnite Resident Evil Spencer Mansion project took around three weeks to complete, which is quite remarkable given how closely it reflects its source material. I now played Jill Valentine’s scenario from start to finish, and found myself scratching my head at the very moments that stopped my progress in the first game (again, testament to how well researched xVonKlutch’s work is), jumping for joy after getting through the same boss battles (I’m looking at you giant attic-dwelling snake) and running for your life at the same times when my health was low and no green herbs in sight (basically every time the zombie dogs invaded my screen). xVonKlutch has also created a separate scenario starring Chris Redfield which, like the original game, overlaps and builds around Jill’s adventure.
xVonKlutch says that the Fortnite creative scene has been on the rise since its introduction in 2018, but that the last 12 months or so has seen a boom in activity and creativity. The creator takes his hat off to fellow Resi fan and Fortnite creator Bryansummers, whose Resident Evil 0 adventure recreates the horror prequel and requires two players to team up. Elsewhere, xVonClutch has created equally impressive Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid projects, but as a diehard Resident Evil fan, he has plans to expand further into Capcom’s zombie-infested universe.
“The feedback has been fantastic. You can always tell people that you love the Resident Evil franchise and are familiar with it. You just know a die-hard Resi fan when you see one, they get all the inside jokes, nods and winks at the games, the ‘spicy, savory’ moments and stuff like that,” xVonKlutch continues. “Ultimately, I want to give people the feeling that I get when I play these games, and to be able to recreate that in Fortnite is a great feeling as well. One of the best feelings is people engaging with your work and just get that.
“In terms of what’s next, I want to continue to support this and my other projects, of course. As for continuing Resident Evil… I have a lot of plans, let’s just say that.”
For my part, I’m hoping xVonKlutch plans to have a Fortnite-flavored version of the Racoon Police Department, but I guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes fixed on their canals. In the meantime, you should take a look at their Fortnite Resident Evil Spencer Mansion Map, especially if you like horror games and surviving the walking dead. Really spicy, tasty.
For more scares, check out the best horror games over there now.